'Gentle' June Step Challenge

Wysewoman53
Wysewoman53 Posts: 582 Member
I have been on two different step challenges that have both been 10,000 steps challenges. Everyone starts out all gung-ho...got a gazillion steps in today or this week...and then, they are gone! I don't know if members just lost interest or the 10,000 steps were just too much for someone just starting something like this.

What I would like to start is something more realistic for people who work in offices or are just starting out as far as walking is concerned.

There would be no limit...top or bottom...just recording steps taken in a day. The goal would be your own and, I think, would be a little easier to maintain if the only person in competition with you would be YOU. This would just be a place to record what a person is doing and maybe help with motivation to keep moving forward.

How this would work is for each person to record how many steps taken in a day...or a week...or how ever you would want to do this. Record it even if you only took 100 steps or 30,000 or anywhere in between. With this gentle challenge, there would be no failure, no judgement. As I said, the goal is your own. Summer is pretty much here so we are probably going to be outside more, walking more, just plain doing more and this challenge would just be a little incentive to keep us all moving.

Anyone want in? I will be here all month.

«1345

Replies

  • Wysewoman53
    Wysewoman53 Posts: 582 Member
    tamracgoff wrote: »
    I'd like in.
    My fitbit goal is set at 5,000 right now. I want to try to add 1000 each week.

    Welcome!
  • Txgal555
    Txgal555 Posts: 76 Member
    My Fitbit goal is set to 10000 aday. Iam in
  • Lasmartchika
    Lasmartchika Posts: 3,440 Member
    Ok, I'll try. I can't do 10,000 steps. :neutral:
  • bhaney10
    bhaney10 Posts: 12 Member
    edited June 2016
    I've been really busy at work and home life. But I like this challenge! I'm in :) I wish I had a fit bit. But I do have a lg phone that tracks my phone...I currently have 2375 steps in (not super accurate). But I'd like to challenge myself and double that! I need the motivation though!
  • Wysewoman53
    Wysewoman53 Posts: 582 Member
    Txgal555 wrote: »
    My Fitbit goal is set to 10000 aday. Iam in
    bhaney10 wrote: »
    I've been really busy at work and home life. But I like this challenge! I'm in :) I wish I had a fit bit. But I do have a lg phone that tracks my phone...I currently have 2375 steps in (not super accurate). But I'd like to challenge myself and double that! I need the motivation though!

    Welcome!
  • Wysewoman53
    Wysewoman53 Posts: 582 Member
    Ok, I'll try. I can't do 10,000 steps. :neutral:

    That's what's great about this 'challenge'. You don't have to do 10,000 steps...there is no requirement for how many steps you do a day or a week or however you want to log your steps in. This is about motivation and support to get us up and moving. If you take any steps at all in a day, and I'm pretty sure everyone does unless unable to walk for medical reasons, then why not record it?

    Welcome!
  • terrig713
    terrig713 Posts: 4 Member
    I'm in, using the Garmin Vivofit. Goal today is 8975
  • joslynp
    joslynp Posts: 1 Member
    I'd like to join. My fitbit goal is 10k daily
  • Wysewoman53
    Wysewoman53 Posts: 582 Member
    terrig713 wrote: »
    I'm in, using the Garmin Vivofit. Goal today is 8975
    joslynp wrote: »
    I'd like to join. My fitbit goal is 10k daily

    Welcome!
  • Wysewoman53
    Wysewoman53 Posts: 582 Member
    I also use a Garmin Vivofit. What I usually do is put in my steps the next day. For instance, I will put my steps in tomorrow morning for June 1st which is why I will have a date on my entries.
  • Wysewoman53
    Wysewoman53 Posts: 582 Member
    June 1st

    19,605 steps
  • sherbearp0123
    sherbearp0123 Posts: 111 Member
    I'm in! My Fitbit goal is 8k but on Sunday's it will be 5k. It is realistic for me and yet some days a challenge for sure! Thank you Wysewoman53!
  • sherbearp0123
    sherbearp0123 Posts: 111 Member
    (Goal: Mon-Sat 8K & Sun- 5K)
    6/1/16: 8606
  • Wysewoman53
    Wysewoman53 Posts: 582 Member
    I'm in! My Fitbit goal is 8k but on Sunday's it will be 5k. It is realistic for me and yet some days a challenge for sure! Thank you Wysewoman53!

    Welcome, @sherbearp0123! I, too, take it easy on the weekends. Some Saturdays, I'm lucky to get in 5,000 steps! I had a PT, who is an extreme runner (30 miles at a time is nothing for him!) tell me that we need to rest a couple of days a week to allow our bodies to 'catch up' to new activity. It sets us up for the next round all renewed and fresh.
  • tomteboda
    tomteboda Posts: 2,171 Member
    Challenges are not my thing, but supporting my friends is. So I'm in for you! I am happy for everyone who succeeds in maintaining or increasing activity as I watch my mom get walker and weaker.

    When I started my weight loss in November 2014 I was getting fewer than 3.5k steps a day. I had pericarditis and moving was exceptionally difficult.

    I started reading steps daily on my phone in late May 2015. The first month I averaged 7200 steps, which was a big improvement.

    Yesterday, June 1 I walked 15,008 steps.
  • Wysewoman53
    Wysewoman53 Posts: 582 Member
    Thank you, @tomteboda! Your support means more to me than you know. I didn't really know what to call this other than a challenge altho' challenge isn't exactly the word I was looking to use. Maybe 'Gentle June Step Support' would have been a better choice.
  • tomteboda
    tomteboda Posts: 2,171 Member
    June 2: Not exactly sure. In excess of 16K. I had to take my phone off and charge it twice today and I was pretty active while it was charging, but I logged 15,923 with it on. I was not TRYING to get a lot of steps, I've just been insanely busy lately.
  • Wysewoman53
    Wysewoman53 Posts: 582 Member
    tomteboda wrote: »
    June 2: Not exactly sure. In excess of 16K. I had to take my phone off and charge it twice today and I was pretty active while it was charging, but I logged 15,923 with it on. I was not TRYING to get a lot of steps, I've just been insanely busy lately.

    I know what you mean about being busy. It's the end of the school year and we are busier than ever with all the extra activities going on. Plus it has been so nice the last week, have been spending a lot of time outside which adds up steps without even realizing it.

    June 2nd

    17,154 steps
  • drcrisos
    drcrisos Posts: 68 Member
    I'm in! I have a fitbit Alta and I do try to get 10k a day. Not always successful, just trying to keep moving. Somedays I get 2.5k. I have been told that my body is "riddled with arthritis" and I have some autoimmune thing going on. Some days i feel half way decent, other days every joint in my body hurts. I am 50 years old and when i get up from sitting i look like i'm 95 years old. I need the motivation and I am always here to lend support.
  • Txgal555
    Txgal555 Posts: 76 Member
    For those of you who are new to this walking thing, please don't let the amount of steps I take in a day be daunting. I really meant what I said about this not being a competition!

    Some things you might want to know about me. I am 62, a wife, a mother and a grandmother, if I have to be labeled as something other than a woman or human being. In 1988, we were in a pretty horrible motorcycle accident during which my husband broke his leg in 5 places from his hip to his knee and each break was shattered. I walked away with a little road rash and pretty much unscathed...or so we thought. He had surgery and everything worked out okay for him and he has no problems associated with that accident to this day. I, on the other hand, had more problems than we realized at the time.

    About 2000-2001, I started having a little pain in my hip and started walking with a slight limp to accommodate for that pain and kept on truckin'. The limp was getting worse but when I could no longer lift my leg up or bend over to tie my own shoes, I went to the doctor. I was told that because of the accident, I was developing arthritis and nothing could be done about it...my first round of pain pills began. It's just what happens as we get 'older', he said. SMH!

    This went on for years and I kept going back to doctor after doctor because even tho' I was no expert, I had a feeling this was more than arthritis but what did I know? I wasn't a doctor after all. More rounds of pain pills AND now Celebrex was added to the mix. It wasn't helping. During one of these 'visits', one of the doctors 'prescribed' a cane to help me walk. So, here I am, barely able to walk at all even with a cane and just getting out the front door to my car in the driveway was pretty much a miracle for me because my hip and back hurt so much (even with pain killers!), I pretty much gave up walking at all unless absolutely necessary. I walked with that cane for almost a decade!

    As mentioned, I had been going to doctors for years and finally I just got mad...I mean really angry!! Getting dressed by myself had become so painful and hard, I was starting to need help with all aspects of it. I have a very loving, supportive husband who would do anything for me but he wasn't the problem...my inability to do anything on my own was the problem. So, I was angry after one more doctor tried to give me more pills to compensate for the pain I was feeling when I knew it wouldn't do any more good just as all the others had done no good. She seemed as tho' I was old anyway and with age comes aches and pains...something I would just have to learn to deal with as part of the aging process. I told her all I had ever wanted was an x-ray to see what was wrong inside and not one doctor would order one for me all these years. Smug as ever, she said "Fine. Let's check your range of motion in that leg" and I know she was trying to prove to me I couldn't possibly know more about my own body than a DOCTOR! Lo and behold! I had no range of motion and she immediately ordered an x-ray. Come to find out, my hip had deteriorated to the point of having almost no bone left! The miracle was that I was able to walk at all!

    In October of 2014, I was blessed with a hip replacement. Normally, someone as 'young' as I was...see that stupid age thing again...would not be eligible because 'they' like to wait until someone is in his/her 70's before doing that but my hip was so far gone, my quality of life was effected so I qualified. It took me 14 months after the replacement to start walking again. Not because I couldn't but because I was so used to not walking, I didn't even know how to start. I still relied on my cane because now I was terrified I would fall and break my hip! All kinds of crazy scenarios would play out in my head as my anxiety got worse and worse. Basically, I was like a toddler, learning to walk all over again.

    For Christmas, 2015, I got the activity tracker I had asked for from my wonderful husband and realized I was walking less than 1000 steps a day. I wasn't working anymore because I didn't feel like I could walk well enough to keep up with what was necessary for my job after this miracle operation...all mental-ality stuff only in my own head! I quit using my cane and started walking back and forth in my living room...a 'lap' consists of 14 steps but I was walking. I was ecstatic when I finally hit the 3,000 mark...for an entire day! It was not easy by any means but I just kept walking.

    Now, I walk more than that first 3,000 step goal but I want all to know, I understand how hard it really is to get steps in everyday. I can really empathize with the struggles each and every person has with motivation and support to get up and moving...Hence, this 'Gentle' challenge. Some of us will take a whole bunch of steps in a day, some of us will take fewer steps a day but just remember, every step each one of us takes is a Victory!

    The more I know you the more you impress me. Iam really happy you are doing well now.
  • Txgal555
    Txgal555 Posts: 76 Member
    So iam new on challenges on MFP. Do we post everyday how many steps are done daily ?
  • Wysewoman53
    Wysewoman53 Posts: 582 Member
    Txgal555 wrote: »
    So iam new on challenges on MFP. Do we post everyday how many steps are done daily ?

    That's the way I do it but you can do it anyway you like. Some people post everyday and some wait until the end of the week to post steps taken daily. It all depends on you and what fits best with your daily schedule.

    And thanks...you made me blush for real! ;)
  • Wysewoman53
    Wysewoman53 Posts: 582 Member
    drcrisos wrote: »
    I'm in! I have a fitbit Alta and I do try to get 10k a day. Not always successful, just trying to keep moving. Somedays I get 2.5k. I have been told that my body is "riddled with arthritis" and I have some autoimmune thing going on. Some days i feel half way decent, other days every joint in my body hurts. I am 50 years old and when i get up from sitting i look like i'm 95 years old. I need the motivation and I am always here to lend support.

    Welcome, @drcrisos!
  • tomteboda
    tomteboda Posts: 2,171 Member
    @drcisos some days just getting a shower and eating are victories.
  • vanessa40
    vanessa40 Posts: 328 Member
    Hi everyone
    I will not get my Fitbit until Wednesday. I have a Garmin Vivoactive but the band gives my wrist a rash and it's kind of bulky so i am getting the Alta. I would love to join your challenge then...
  • Wysewoman53
    Wysewoman53 Posts: 582 Member
    edited June 2016
    vanessa40 wrote: »
    Hi everyone
    I will not get my Fitbit until Wednesday. I have a Garmin Vivoactive but the band gives my wrist a rash and it's kind of bulky so i am getting the Alta. I would love to join your challenge then...

    Looking forward to you joining us!
  • tomteboda
    tomteboda Posts: 2,171 Member
    June 2: somewhere around 12,000. I spent a full 4 hours conducting tonight. It's like dancing, but in a small place.
  • sandi_s
    sandi_s Posts: 46 Member
    I am in, some days make 10,000 others days I don't.