Tag: walking

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Mind the Gap

I was walking and listening to my current favorite podcast, Earth Tribe Radio. Fiona and Jill are wonderfully wacky ladies who make my walks terribly interesting. I started listening to them because they had an episode about how cats are psychic. You know that got my attention!

The particular episode that inspired today’s post was about meditation and mindfulness. They often bring up an idea that sparks something for me to mull over while I walk and, in this episode, it was when Fiona suggested that another word to use when considering this concept is “awareness.” They expanded on that thought, talking about finding little moments throughout the day to be mindful rather than having dogmatic expectations about when and how someone should meditate.

Fiona presented her technique of “stop, drop, and go” that involves just taking a moment to appreciate what is going on around you and then continuing with what you are doing.  Jill shared a similar technique where you exhale and then intentionally pause for a moment before inhaling.  While she was describing this, the term that sprang to my mind was “mind the gap.”

I know that is not what the original “mind the gap” is about, but I think this is an effective appropriation of familiar aphorism. Why not use “mind the gap” as a mindfulness prompt? Don’t you think that it would make a great slogan for a t-shirt or a wrist tattoo? 

Minding the gap is using that pause as a moment of awareness.  I like the idea of using moments of interest throughout your day to be present.  I mean, I can’t be completely tuned in to everything all day long, I’d never get anything done!  Being open to taking moments to notice wonderful, little things here and there though can be enough to create a sense of calmness, of centeredness, of connectedness.

As I was contemplating “mind the gap” as an awareness practice, I noticed this very interesting rock and had to stop.

My initial reaction was that I wanted to grab it.  But why did I feel the need to possess this interesting rock?  I mean, I like a magic rock as much as the next girl, but I also try to respect the sovereignty of objects out in the world.  When I notice a beautiful flower, I take a photo rather than picking it.  Why shouldn’t I show this rock the same respect?  I refrained from picking up the rock but did stop and take a photo of it.

And then I was on my way.  I had minded the gap, given this rock some attention, and returned to my business.

We don’t have to change our path or our intention every time something catches our attention.  We also don’t have to go through our lives with blinders on to all the fascinating things around us. If we mind the gap, we can enjoy those small moments of appreciation without getting sidetracked.

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Pinnacle Peak

Remember how I’ve been working on my walking?  Not walking, but getting my steps in.  Well, it’s a good thing! I was just in Arizona to visit my beautiful and talented friend K who recently relocated there.  Among the many fun shenanigans that we got up to, she took me for a hike at Pinnacle Peak Park in Scottsdale.  Since I’m barely a walker, you can imagine that I’m not much of a hiker at all.

Of course, K happens to be an elite marathoner, so walking (even up and down hills on a rocky trail) is a piece of cake for her.  Let’s just say that it’s a good thing that she is so kind and sweet-hearted because I was certainly not anywhere near being able to keep up with her natural pace.  My accomplishment was that I didn’t hold her back too much for at least part of the trek.

It was an incredible experience.  Shortly after we began our hike, we saw a couple of Blue Angels fly overhead.  Since it was a cool day the beauty of the dessert landscape was easier for me to appreciate.  The trail had great signage identifying the different plants along it.  We took a break to admire this in-between things tree.  It was certainly thriving in the gaps.

There were also fantastic views of gigantic Scottsdale golf course homes.  This one has a bridge to the guest home!  A guest home that is probably at least twice, probably three times the size of my little bungalow.

Once I got home, I looked up Pinnacle Peak Park. I was guessing that we hiked around three miles.  The trail is 1 ¾ miles one way (so 3 ½ miles round trip) which is a do-able walk.  It was all of the up and down hills that got me, especially the last third of the trail (where the “strenuous past this point” sign was) which became a long, steep uphill coming back.  Turns out that the 1,300 feet of elevation change is something that I don’t get in my ambles around town.

It was such a fun excursion.  Even though it was strenuous and pretty challenging for me, I can’t wait to try it again.  We’re already planning my next visit and that will give me a training goal to make sure that at a minimum, I’m getting my steps in every day.

Are you a hiker?  Where do you like to go?

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Step It Up

Ok, let’s face it, walking really is that good for you.  It’s easy, you don’t need any special equipment, and it is super effective.

Some of the benefits of walking (according to me):

  • Slimming for your thighs
  • Toning for your calves
  • Strengthening for your back/core
  • Good for your posture
  • Easy on your joints
  • Fat-burning cardio – moderately elevated heartrate
  • Fresh air is good for your mood
  • If you can find a walking buddy, it’s a great time to catch up

It’s a no brainer, right? But somehow, I manage to not get enough steps in anyway.  What is enough step and how do I know?  Well, I use an app on my phone of course!  My app tells me that my target should be 6,000 steps or 60 minutes per day.  That is way less than that 10k number that everyone tries to hit so it shouldn’t be that hard, right?  And yet, I still manage to not make my target most days.

Caveat: I don’t count my gym workouts as part of my step goal.

Plus-or-minus a few minutes depending on how fast/slow I’m going 6,000 steps is right around one hour of walking.  How hard would it be for me to just get up and go for a one-hour walk?  Just bang it all out at once and not have to worry about trying to count trips out back to the laundry room or whatever other puttering around the house I’m doing.  The answer is not very hard.  But somehow it can turn into a mental hurdle really easily.

I’ve tried breaking my walking up into quick 10-minute laps around the block.  I don’t bother with sneakers, I just head out in my flip flops. It becomes a little treat – finish one hour of writing and then I get a break. I can sometimes swing two or three mini walks.  This tactic is not going to get me to 6,000 steps on its own.

Some days I walk to the gym which is right around 20 minutes each way.  It’s a good warm-up for Mondays with Adam and the walk home helps everything from tightening up.  Even on those days I still can manage to not hit my target if I don’t pay attention.

Sure, I could invest in a Fitbit (the new Versa is pretty cute) or some other wearable that would track ALL my steps without my having to worry about carrying my phone around everywhere.  If I did that, I feel like I would have no excuse not to set a 10k target. Since I know that I’m not getting enough steps as it is, counting all the little bits of walking (back and forth from the couch to the refrigerator) doesn’t seem like a real solution.  I need to create some sort of gimmick for myself to make my step target a natural part of my day.  I’m not sure what that is…

Last week I managed to hit my step goal on four days (I missed one day by under 100 steps!).  This week I will shoot for five days and see if I can’t work my way up to seven days and maintain it until the end of the year.  Its probably do-able, don’t you think?

So, my questions for you are:

  • What is your daily step goal?
  • What tricks or tips do you use to help you get your steps in every day?