I love to walk, which is unusual since I love to bicycle as well. However, due to my permanently perpetual medical malady, bicycling has been eliminated from exercising repertoire to issues of remaining upright for a consistent period of time. Therefore, walking has been my default choice of exercise for both losing weight and maintaining the status quo with my legs.
You might be wondering why I'm talking about walking. Well, about this time last year, I finally broke down and bought a smartphone. Long story short, it opened up a fascinating world of all kinds of audio for me partake in, in which the audio world of podcasts became my main companion on my daily walks, morning and evening commute and everything else in between.
By late summer 2018, I starting getting curious about the amount of mileage/distance I was walking, so in the last week of September 2018, I downloaded a pedometer/step-counter app. Among the modest goals/achievements I could meet was distance. Ya know, walk "x" amount of miles, accomplish the equivalent of this.
So in the span of about 9 months, I managed to accomplish the following goals:
1} 3 miles, which is the equivalent of a short hike;
2} 6 miles, which is the equivalent of a Roman Holiday (whatever that may be);
3} 12 miles, which is the equivalent of hike up Mt. Olympus;
4} 26 miles, which is the equivalent of a marathon;
5} 60 miles, which is the equivalent of 100 kilometers;
6} 135 miles, which is the equivalent of going to Paris from London.
7) 280 miles, which is the equivalent of going to Philadelphia from Boston.
This is what I've been able to accomplish with 9 months of walking on average 31 1/2 miles per month. Consistency has been the key for me in accomplishing this particular goal. Basically, with the issue was/is being overweight and having severe muscle weakness/neuropathy in my legs, there was an urgent need of my part to do something about it.
I actually have three remaining walking goals left with this particular app, of which two will be achievable. 8} 500 miles; 9}1200 miles, which is the equivalent of the Sahara desert; and 10} 3,950 miles, which is the distance to the Earth's core.
This my friends, is how I relax while I'm out and about on the weekends as well as during my lunch break at work. I walk and listen to podcasts. For those who are wondering if I know how many hours that I've spent listening to podcasts, I do to a certain degree. I switched over to the Stitcher podcast app from the crappy TuneIn radio app on 10/5/2018. Since then, I've logged in 460 hours and 1 minute of listening time.
So yeah, I do love listening to audio equivalent of wandering the library stacks looking for interesting genres to peruse. Don't you?
{c} 2019 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved
That's great you are getting out there and walking. It is a great way to lose weight.
ReplyDeleteI have a Fitbit. In two and a half years, I've gone seven thousand miles. Yes, I am an overachiever.
One could definitely say that. I have a co-worker who is the same way. She has a goal of 10k steps per day, no matter what. Even if she had to stop the car while on a trip, get out, and walk around the car a few times to get the steps in.
DeleteFor me, my goal is 7k (about 3 1/2 miles) steps per journey, but in reality, I only hit that on the weekends, when I have more time to play with. Otherwise, my goal through the week is between 1/2 and 1 mile at lunch.
Walking is an excellent form of exercise. Kudos to you! I try for 10K steps a day but often fall short, depending what's going on, and am not that disciplined about it. Listening to podcasts would make it less boring, for sure. For me, a change of scenery helps to break the monotony.I often drive to different parks or trails and walk from there.
ReplyDeleteI might start doing parks and the like once summer starts to seriously kick in, just to add a few more miles and hit that magic 14k steps.
DeleteI love walking too and I too am hooked on a few podcasts. I have no idea how many steps I've taken but I'm pretty sure I've technically walked coast to coast. Maybe. :)
ReplyDeleteWalking the equivalent of Boston to Philadelphia was pretty amazing to me, but all those little walks during the week really added up.
DeleteWalking is the best way I’ve found to justify my existence. It “grounds” me. I wish I had a good bike �� but they are a death sentence around here. I wish you luck in reaching the earth’s core!
ReplyDeleteDue to my severe muscle weakness and neuropathy, my balance is roughly like a one year old sometimes, so biking is sadly out of the question. A shame too, since I used to do 10-20 mile jaunts every Saturday and Sunday.
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