The last time I wrote, I shared my fitness goals for January and February. Now that the end of January has arrived I wanted to share my progress in hopes you can learn from my experience. Not very many involved in this hashtag are beginning their fitness challenges in their sixties, but this is the point in life when I have found I am motivated and have the time to start. If not now …. when? “Exercise buys you three to seven additional years of life. It is an anti-depressant, it improves cognitive function and there is now evidence that it may retard the onset of dementia.” https://www.theguardian.com/ society/2015/aug/30/brisk-daily-walks-reduce-ageing-increase-life-span-research.

As with so many things in life, challenges arise that can steer us away from staying focused on our goals. During the month of January, my husband had a heart attack; he is doing well now, and will soon begin cardiac rehab. To celebrate, we took a week’s vacation to Key West for his 70th birthday. I share these details as I believe each of us have life events that can cause temporary set backs but the trick is to quickly return to our goals. Here are my goals:

My goal:

By January 31, 2017 – walk 4 miles, five days a week at an average pace of 17.00 minutes a mile.

By February 28, 2017 – walk 5 miles, five days a week at an average pace of 16.75 minutes a mile.

            BEGINNING OF JANUARY                               END OF JANUARY

       

Yippie! I had achieved my monthly goal of an average pace of a 17 minute mile but was not able to increase my walking to four miles a day. Actually, I thought increasing to walking four miles a day would be the easiest aspect, but it didn’t prove to be that way by the end of the month. When I began using @MapMyWalk I didn’t have any idea what my average pace should be so, like so many other things in life, I researched it. Here is a chart I located. I thought you might want to check out what it would be for your age range. The article that explains it is cited just at the bottom of the chart. I was able to set this goal in the @MapMyWalk app which was very helpful.

http://www.sparkpeople.com/resource/fitness_articles.asp?id=1496

My revised goal:

By February 28, 2017 – walk 4 miles, five days a week at an average pace of 16.75.

What I have learned this month that may be helpful for others:

I have become addicted to using @MapMyWalk (her voice chirping in my ears is VERY motivating), my @Bose headset with Spotify music playing for enthusiasm/walking to a faster beat is necessary and carrying a bottle of water half-full as it is lighter and I would never drink the whole thing during my walk are all very helpful. There actually IS music for 60 somethings to exercise by – just use the search term in Spotify. Also, walking first thing in the morning is suggested by many to burn more body fat.

Sure, just like anyone, I can come up with hundreds of excuses each day why I don’t have time to walk … but … truth is … they are just excuses. Best of luck to everyone! You too can do it!

 

 

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My goal:

By January 31, 2017 – walk 4 miles, five days a week at an average pace of 17.00.

By February 28, 2017 – walk 5 miles, five days a week at an average pace of 16.75.

On June 15, 2017 I began walking as I wanted to become healthier. It started with walking about a mile in 20 minutes. It took until November 24, 2017 to consistently get in a rhythm of walking. I think it is important to reflect on our starting points, so we can celebrate our success as we reach toward our goals. I had just retired from working 40 years in the field of education. I was overweight and 61 years old. I mention this as I believe we can begin at any age and set goals that work for ourselves.

I absolutely adore @MapMyWalk. I works for me in so many ways. Here is a sample of last week’s data. I walked four out of seven days, three miles each day, total distance of twelve miles weekly, burned 1792 calories, for a total of three and a half hours total. When I magnify and examine each day’s data, I can see that I walked an average pace of 17:32 min/mile and burned 449 calories. It also details my pace for each mile/split pace. Since 11-15-17 I have lost 15 pounds.

What I love about @MapMyWalk is competing against myself. Each time I get home I check over my data and look for improvements from the day or week before. I wear my new @Bose headphones (I detest earbuds – I am NOT from that generation and will never get use to wearing them) and can hear the voice of the @MapMyWalk lady chirping in my ear “speed up – you’re behind” or “you’re doing great – slow down.” I search @Spotify for great exercise music to stream through my headphones from my iphone as I quickly walk along. I also use @GoogleAssitant to quickly change the song on my headphones as I walk along. Of course, I always have a bottle of water at my side as I cruise through the streets walking as quickly as I can.

During this last week in December I have hurt the upper part of my left foot while walking. I sure didn’t want this to slow me down so I went to the doctor. He suggested new shoes – I visited the @Asics store the next day – and realized I would need to rest it for a couple of weeks. This does NOT make me happy at ALL! I mention this because I think we all have set backs from time to time in our goals but, if we stay determined, we overcome them in time. “This too shall pass!”

My goal:

By January 31, 2017 – walk 4 miles, five days a week at an average pace of 17.00.

By February 28, 2017 – walk 5 miles, five days a week at an average pace of 16.75.

My #oneword2018 is ‘READ’. I reflected for over a week on which word would best match my positive leadership and, as Jon Gordon defined it, “a different word that would have a profound impact on people’s lives and, as we called it, a Life Word.” He also mentioned that it would be something that would leave a legacy during your life. After all of these years in education, I have an emotional pull within myself to leave such a legacy and inspire others to continue learning. I believe that reading can be that motivational instrument.

Together with Teresa Gross, (@teresagross625) who co-moderates #BookCampPD with me each Saturday morning, at 9:00 AM EST, on Twitter, we have a goal of sharing with other educators newly released educational books and their content. Hopefully, through this ongoing learning and development of a strong professional learning network (PLN) we all learn together.

I spent 40 years in education. Just imagine for a minute how many meetings I sat in, how many in-service presentations there were, how many conferences I attended, and how many times I presented to others. The following graphic speaks volumes about the method of learning new ideas that worked best for me – books and stellar educators. I ask you to lean back in your chair and honestly reflect about what has formed the educator you have become today.

Many thanks to Bethany Hill (@BethHill2829) #joyfulleaders and her new #oneword2018 ‘incessant’ – for it is her unending, positive energy that continues, year after year, in motivating so many to put pen to paper and create their own word and then live by it, month after month. Thank you, Bethany!