I would walk 400 miles…

858,619… no, that’s not my income (though that would be nice!), it’s the number of steps I took in March

If I’d known at the end of February that I was going to walk or run over 400 miles in March, I’d have been surprised. At the time I was recovering from a flu-like condition that had wiped me out. I’d had a week of barely moving as a result, like the plug had been pulled from my energy source.

But I’d signed up to a steps challenge and I was going to do my best. You see, my son had asked me and my daughters if we’d join him on this challenge. He is 26, works permanent night shifts and is fond of a takeaway. He wanted to get fitter again and as he explained;

“I need a challenge to get me going. If I’m in a competition I work harder. So how about you and the girls do a step challenge against me and Libby (his girlfriend)?”

Now, my daughters and I tend to do more sedentary work. When I’m with a client I am sat still and fully focused on them. I get paid to be still. My son and his girlfriend both do active jobs and can more easily rack up steps, so 3 against 2 seemed fair enough.

The challenge began on the first of March and we were all straight into it. I know I did well over 20,000 steps that day. In fact, on two occasions I walked around 17,000 but every other day I did at least 20k, with two days reaching over 50k.

In the end, I had walked over 850,000 steps, which meant an average of 26,000+ per day.

So what did I learn about myself? Here are my ups and downs:

I am capable of way more than I think I am. On the days that I reached 50,000 steps I just kept going until I hit the goal I’d set myself. If I’d set a lower goal, I’d have stopped sooner.
Moving more did make me fitter, but didn’t change my body size. I don’t weigh myself but I’m pretty sure I didn’t lose any weight. I certainly didn’t change dress size, waist size or hip size. However, I did get an improved VO2 Max score, which indicated that I was getting fitter. I also felt fitter.
I had aches and pains along the way, but the more I carried on, the less they occurred. I remember one day, about ten days in, I was marching away in my kitchen, chatting to my girls. I was saying that my hips were aching and that I was feeling a bit dizzy (all while still taking steps) and my daughter said ‘Aren’t you doing a bit too much?! I probably was, but by the end of the month I didn’t have the aches or dizziness anymore. Yoga helped me to stretch out my hips, and drinking more water cleared the dizziness. Which leads me to my next point.
Moving more means you need to hydrate more and eat really well. In the past I have justified over-eating or eating junk food because I have earned it through exercise. But in this challenge I found that if I ate badly, the next day was so much harder! I treated myself to a hot chocolate with all the toppings one day, and the next day I was much lower in my step count. On days where I ate healthy food and drank lots of water, I was able to sustain high step levels.
I became a bit steps obsessed. It was great to do all of the steps, but I found I was regularly adding up scores to see which team was winning, and getting a bit too obsessed with getting steps in. I found it funny, and I knew it was temporary, but I think anything that is extreme is probably not healthy in the long term… even exercise. I am enjoying being less steps focused so far this April.
Enjoying the journey is important in any challenge. My youngest daughter got very fed up in the middle of the month. She felt like all she was doing was walking and that no matter what she did, it wasn’t enough (she was at the bottom of our league table at the time). We talked about how she could make it better for herself, which included not checking the league table and finding ways to make taking steps more fun. I don’t think I’d want to take on any challenge that isn’t fun in some way. For me it was, but for my youngest, it wasn’t so much.
Sleeping. I noticed that when I was averaging around 20k to 30k steps per day, I slept really well pretty much every night. I’m perimenopausal, so sleep can be an issue for me. At first sleep was massively improving compared to previous months, but on the two days I did 50k steps I slept badly. I think I had over-done it and my body couldn’t wind down well enough. I think if I did this challenge again, I’d aim to hit my targets earlier in the day to allow for more winding down before bed.
Mental Fitness. I know that physical fitness hugely supports mental fitness, so it didn’t surprise me to find that my thoughts were way more positive and that I felt much more proactive during the challenge month. I also found that I was super productive while using my walking pad when working and that going for walks/runs before, during and after work definitely recharged me so I got more done at work, not less. I am so pleased that this was my outcome!
I’m ok with not winning. Throughout this challenge I discovered that while I definitely have a competitive streak that I didn’t realise I had, I am much more of a fan of collaboration. I was always peaceful about not winning this challenge. In the end, that served me well because my team lost. My son and his girlfriend racked up over 2.1 million steps between the two of them, which is an incredible achievement. He lost over 11kg in weight and feels so much fitter.

All in all, I loved doing this challenge and feel really proud of everyone who took part. We all achieved more than we thought we would and that feels great! If you’re thinking about any kind of challenge, make sure you set one that will work for you.