The Steps of Life

I signed up for ShapeUpRI. For $20 I got a pedometer, and for 12 weeks I will track my daily steps. As an added perk, I will be able to try out some different workout classes all over the state. Plus, I am on a team, competing with other teams all over the state. I like competition. It motivates me. I wore the pedometer for the first time on Tuesday. We had a huge snow storm and the aerobics class I have been going to on Tuesdays and Thursdays was cancelled. I was appalled at how few steps I took on a day that I did not workout. It is so important for me to workout, especially since I work from home and cannot possibly get enough movement in our 888 sq. ft. apartment each day (unless I scrub from floor to ceiling everyday!). They say that you should strive for 10,000 steps each day. Naturally, I will strive for 14,000, just to be different.
When I was a junior in college, I fell down the stairs. Well, it was more like stumbling down concrete porch steps, not snowballing down a lot of carpeted indoor stairs. I hit my foot just the right way on the stone step to break a bone. I spent four months on crutches. The leg on my broken foot atrophy-ed after 6 weeks in a cast, and I gained weight in weird places from inactivity. I learned a lot about myself (and other people) that year...but that is for another time. Once I was off crutches and started working my debunk leg back to normal, I swore to to myself that I would always stay active and workout regularly. It's funny how the definition of regularly can change so often!
I have done a lot of different things to help me keep this goal. For about 6 months before our wedding, I had a personal trainer at 24hr Fitness, but they are expensive, and I told myself that I would learn a lot that I could then do on my own. Last year I trained to walk 60 miles in 3 days and clocked over 550 miles in the course of 6 months. It is only recently that I have decided that I need a competition and/or a short term goal where I am accountable to someone else in order to stay motivated, and the competition/goal has to change constantly. I also need someone else to do the thinking for me. If I do the thinking for myself, it is too easy for me to weasel out of pushing myself like I need to be pushed. In short, I will always be on the lookout for something new and exciting (especially in the land of snow)! It also helps if I pay money in advance for something...then I won't want to waste my hard earned cash!