Getting in the groove of personal challenges

Last fall I participated in a work place challenge with a team. I had a lot of fun and I wrote about it here.

Over the holidays, I thought about the things I wanted to do this year from a fitness POV. Coincidentally, I saw a post about from blog co founder SamB talking about being part of the 219 workouts in 2019 group.

Hmm, I said to myself, that sounds like fun. So I joined the group for 2020 and the goal is to make 220 workouts this year.

I’m at 20 which averages 10 a month for me to date (and February is not over yet!). There are lots of people in the group who have double, triple and even quadruple that number, but it doesn’t bother me. Maybe it’s because there are others like me, just finding ways to keep moving, especially during the dreary days of winter.

What I love about this activity, and I’m not much of a tracker, is that it’s a gentle nudge to keep moving because daily I see all the fun things people are doing to move.

There’s been walking, skiing, biking, yoga, skating, hiking, swimming, running, cross fit, weightlifting, zumba – the usual. But there’s also been playing with toddlers, wandering in the woods with dogs, laundry, housecleaning, bellydancing, shoveling, stretching, aerial hooping, tennis, roller derby practice, and a whole variety of movement classes and personal routines with handweights.

I had long understood housecleaning as exercise because there is lots of movement, but how much movement? Could I quantify it in some way?

The next time I set to do the laundry – the sorting, the washing, the hanging up, the folding, the putting away – I tracked my steps. In the first hour, I logged more than 3000 steps and I realized that in spite of momentary pauses when setting the washer or dryer, I was non-stop. I was up and downstairs, I was lifting and setting down baskets, I was bending, stretching, walking, and in some cases jogging from one place to another.

Laundry won’t replace my yoga, swimming and lifting sessions but I am more conscious about how often I sit in the run of a day and how often ordinary activities related to daily living can add movement.

I’ve also been inspired to see what else is available in my community. I may not try aerial hooping, but there may be a whole bunch of other things I can try. I won’t know unless I look.

What about you, our readers? What things have you tried that bring fun and movement to your life every day?

— MarthaFitat55 lives in St. John’s.