How To Get Into The Walking Habit
When I first started getting into the walking habit, I was obese and sedentary. Walking across the parking lot to get to my car was taxing. But over time I got into the habit of walking each day, and for years now I’ve walked 6 miles 6 to 7 days a week. If you want to get in the walking habit, but you feel unsure about how to do it, here are some tips based on my own experience:
Tip #1: Think baby steps.
If you are currently sedentary, you have a well-ingrained habit of being inactive. Changing your behavior is difficult. The temptation will be to set a huge step goal. This will disrupt your life, and odds are it won’t be sustainable. Instead, start with a small step goal, say 1,000 steps more than what you normally get. Put another way, just take a 10 minute walk each day. Get consistent with that first. After you have practiced it consistently, increase your step goal by another 1,000 steps (or 500 if 1,000 seems too daunting). Slowly increase your step goal until you find the goal that feels right for your life. 14,000 was the one that worked for me.
Tip #2: Keep your word to yourself.
If you say you’re going to take a walk, take a walk. Only make the promises you’re going to keep. It’s better to make a promise to take a ten minute walk once a week and keep that promise, than it is to promise yourself you’ll walk five miles every day and break that promise to yourself repeatedly. Focus on following through. I found house walking to be the key to keeping this promise to myself.
Tip #3: Track your steps.
I personally got a lot of motivation from my Fitbit. For some reason, getting awarded badges based on personal bests kept me consistently walking and improving. I also found it motivating to see how the miles were adding up over time. You do not have to buy a Fitbit to get in the walking habit. Every smartphone can function as a pedometer. Simply use your phone’s pre-installed health app, or download a pedometer app from the app store. (When I was between Fitbits, I used Noom Walk.)
Tip #4: Make it fun.
Walking seems boring at first, but I found there were lots of ways I could make it fun. Listening to good music, stand up comedy (Jim Gaffigan and Brian Regan are two of my favorites), or podcasts helped the miles go by. Sometimes I watched movies or binged on tv shows on Netflix. I also used this time to reconnect with friends and family via texts, video chats, or traditional phone calls. Doing these things helped me to look forward to my walk, which kept me coming back for more. Experiment until you find the things that make walking enjoyable for you.
Tip #5: Take frequent breaks.
When you’re tired, sit down and take a break. When you’re rested, get up and get some more steps in. I found it useful to take breaks at every thousand steps in the early days. Chunk up your steps throughout the day if getting them all at once just doesn’t work for you. Nowadays I tend to walk my entire six miles all at once, but I have no qualms about sitting down to rest if I would like to. Remember, this is about making walking doable and enjoyable.
Tip #6: Don’t worry about pace.
I love a good, slow walk. Trying to walk fast makes walking miserable for me. With that in mind, I don’t set pace goals. I focus on enjoying the walk. Getting into a habit of walking at a normal pace also helped me to start taking the rest of my life at a normal pace too. It helped me to avoid rushing in daily tasks, which has made my entire life much more enjoyable. It also helped me to resist the urge to hasten my weight loss by doing unsustainable things.
Tip #7: Occasionally challenge yourself.
I found it helpful to have a goal each month to set a personal best for steps. This served two functions. For one, it gave me a victory and showed me that I was improving. Second, it made my daily step goal feel much easier. 14,000 steps feels like nothing once you’ve done 28,000. Likewise, 28,000 feels like nothing once you’ve done 100,000.
Tip #8: Notice how you feel after your walk.
Above all else, the thing that has kept me in the walking habit for all these years is the positive difference in how I feel after I go for a walk. I have found it’s almost impossible to be in a bad mood after walking 6 miles. Walking has helped me to avoid stress eating, it has given me the stamina I need to be able to keep up with my family, and it’s helped me to think through problems that were troubling me, which again, prevented me from stress eating. Noticing that this was happening helped me to consistently get my steps in, which in turn helped me to lose the weight and keep it off.