Feeling a little guilty, due to thinking I haven't been exercising enough since my body pleaded with me to let Taekwon Do go early this year, I was pleasantly surprised this week!
I found an old Fitbit I once wore, tucked away in my drawer, while searching for an odd sock the other day. For those of you who aren't familiar with Fitbits, they're a wireless, wearable device that measure data, such as the number of daily steps you take, your heart rate, quality of sleep etc. Having not worn this gadget since residing on our farm, I gave it renewed life by replacing the battery and decided, out of curiosity, I would wear it the following day.
So as planned, in the morning, I picked up the 'smiling' (yes it was smiling at me!), blue, intriguing, little motivator and clipped it to my bra, out of the way of my hands, pockets and my intended farm work....... and literally forgot all about it!
I spent the day outside, focussing on and completing all sorts of various farm jobs, which included a fair bit of walking back and forth, as well as some quite strenuous physical activities. It was perfect working weather, blue sky and mildly warm and I attempted to try and tick off most of the tasks on my to-do-list before new challenges revealed themselves, as they always did. Happily, I was able to accomplish all that I had set out to do and at the end of the day I ventured inside our home contently tired and hungry, not to mention somewhat smelly and dirty, as to be expected.
Preparing for a much needed shower, I discovered and remembered I was wearing the Fitbit. I tapped the front of it (tapping is how you are shown the data) and there was that smile again, except it had grown wider since this morning (I realised in hindsight it was silently congratulating me for my effort). I tapped it again and couldn't believe my eyes. It revealed to me I had walked 18,188 steps, which when I tapped again, showed I had walked 13.7 kilometres, and I hadn't even begun my pending inside chores yet! 'How remarkable', I thought, 'Fancy walking that much and not being at all conscious of the exercise, with all its benefits, I had under taken'. I was completely focussed on my jobs at hand and did not give one thought to how much ground I was covering.
Walking is such a fantastic, easy and cheap exercise, and can be done almost anywhere. Steps accumulate so quickly, without you even realising, and it just goes to show it's worth taking the stairs when you can, or walking to your nearby shops, or picking up your children from school etc.
I am in awe of my 'work focussed workout' and through the Fitbit, I have become aware of my 'unintentional' exercise accomplishments and am now even more enthusiastic to try and reach a higher number of daily steps.
By the time I had completed my home chores that evening and was preparing for bed, I unclipped the Fitbit, which showed me I had walked 20,000 steps in total that day. I found it bizarre that it was exactly 20,000 and not 20,002 or 19,996! I put my old, new friend to bed, snuggled underneath our doona next to my husband and contently drifted off to sleep feeling quite happy with myself and motivated to do even better the next day...
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