It’s been 21 days since I started out on a fitness challenge aimed at boosting individual health and overall well-being. For those who know me in the recent years, rarely will I be caught in stuff like this. Not because I don’t enjoy sports or keeping fit or staying healthy for that matter – let’s say it’s a combination of laziness, purported business, and lame excuses. Interestingly, I have managed to keep fit for a couple of years now. I don’t know how – but I have done it without trying too hard.
When an opportunity to take part in this new fitness challenge presented itself, I was like – it’s about time I did something to keep fit. I wanted to see whether I will have the tenacity to sustain the momentum required to sail to the very end, learn along the way and be healthy while at it. And folks it has been a cocktail of experiences and trials. There are days when I have literally felt like I am too busy to spend time trying to wreck in points off a challenge. Or days when I want to tell myself that I am too tired and will catch up the day after. In such moments, it hits me that my lack of achievement of the daily target would affect my team’s score. Much as the whole purpose of the challenge is to keep fit and healthy, we are in a competition, one where you must push yourself to come first.
I had hoped to do this write-up 7-days into the challenge just to give an initial experience of the process. But time has not been my best friend! Or it could be a good thing that I delayed sharing my experience – as I think (from a research perspective) that the more input data there is, the likely better and useful the outcome of an analysis. Hence, as days pass by, I collect more training data to feed into the analysis tool.
Here are a few things I have learnt during my ongoing ‘walkathon’ challenge:
- Every step counts in one way or the other. If you are just getting started on a new challenge, it could be work related or other, you have got to give yourself time to adjust to the new routine. Don’t push yourself too hard. But once you get the gist of it, please challenge yourself to outdo yourself – go beyond the target!
- Have an accountability partner. At least once accountability partner is good especially if challenging yourself to something you have not done before, or if you know that you are the kind to easily give up along the way. Just like work or other everyday life goals that we embark on, accountability partners come in handy to help you avoid the embarrassment of having to face people to whom you committed to do something, only for you to decide to develop cold feet later and back out. If you are in a team out to win, chances are high your team members aren’t going to be too happy to see you dragging them down when the ball’s in your court – that alone should be motivation to outdo yourself!
- A win for yourself is a win for the team. That’s right. If you happen to be in a team environment or engaged in a challenge that boils down to combined teamwork output, then there is always one way to make sure your team stays on top of things – do your part as an individual. Like in a relay championship, each sprinter in the team has to play his/her part – it’s not a one man’s show, so don’t try to peg your hopes of winning in the fact that another team member will outdo themself to keep you on the top board. Outdo you to enable the team to outdo itself.
- What’s the point of a challenge if there is no fun doing it? Crazy, uh? Like how do you run a tough marathon and have fun while at it? Or how do you keep smiling while enduring a tough climb up Mt Kilimanjaro? For people who are not sporty, for example, sacrificing your time to engage in a fitness activity is more than a sacrifice. Its one of those things you probably do because your doctor says it is good for your health, or you want to attain a certain physical look. The reasons why people enrol for fitness programs are many and diverse – I can only speak for myself. One of the things I have enjoyed seeing over the past 21 days is how various teams are striving to wreck in their points while having a good time. Afterall, wouldn’t it be the memories that live to see a new day when all is done and dusted, challenge comes to an end and the winning team walks away happy? What will you as an individual remember if not the experiences during the challenge? Hopefully it will be something about the fun moments.
- Multi-tasking is a great way to keep going. One of the challenges I faced at the beginning of was the urge to skip some days because I felt I was too busy doing other things and didn’t have time to walk everyday– at least 2-hours to keep fit was just too much to ask. Then one day it hit me that I could still do my fitness walks while up and about doing things I consider part of my routine. This includes activities like online reading, watching, washing dishes etc. In short, I could still maintain my usual routine while stepping up to keep fit. When engaged in activity indoors where I am standing (including catching up with updates on social media handles), I might as well make the time spent count by step dancing while at it. The secret is being the stepping doesn’t have to be something too vigorous to prevent you from concentrating on the main task at hand.
Although not yet half-way through with my walkathon challenge, the kind of discipline invoked to keep pushing gives me hope to stand through to the last day. Until the next update, here is to keeping fit because over and above everything else, health is wealth.
