Dear Kayla,
Hi! When you walked a lot in your house, did you wear walking shoes? Or bare feet? We have cold winters in Canada so I will walk a lot inside.
-Bev
Dear Bev,
Thanks for the question. My preferred way to walk, inside or outside, is barefoot. Since childhood, I have preferred going without shoes when possible. This preference ended up being beneficial. Walking barefoot inside my house greased the skids and helped me to become consistent with my step goal.
What I’ve found is that any habit, no matter how much you enjoy it, or how much you want to do it, is difficult to implement. Our human tendency is to conserve energy and go along the path of least resistance. Even something as small as needing to put your shoes, can be a stumbling block.
Walking inside my house barefoot meant that I didn’t need to do anything to get started. All I had to do was stand up and put one foot in front of another. Even that step was a challenge. To this day, I still have to figure out how to convince myself to stand up. I give myself a pep talk. “Okay, Kayla, let’s get those steps in. Yes, the couch is comfortable. Yes, the book is good. But while you’re walking, you can listen to that podcast episode you thought would be interesting.” That usually gets me started.
The only time I don’t enjoy going barefoot is when the floor is cold. When we were traveling full-time several years ago, I found my feet hurt if I tried to walk barefoot inside the RV when the temperatures dropped. I found it amusing how much the simple task of putting on shoes added to the difficulty of getting up and doing the steps.
These days, I get about half of my steps outside, and the other half inside, though this varies from day to day. Florida asphalt is too hot to walk barefoot on, so if I’m on a walk outside, I’m in shoes. Unless I’m walking laps in my backyard. Then I’m usually barefoot. Inside, 9 times out of 10, I’m barefoot.
Sincerely,
Kayla
PS: My love of walking barefoot is why I put those footprints in my Six Miles to Supper logo.