New Challenge

I have started my new challenge this week prior to the New Year.
I decided to get a head start as my body was demanding a lifestyle change.
Rather than my prior goals of avoiding alcohol, increasing exercise and eating well for a month or 60-days, this time I have set a goal of a minimum of 400,000 steps (200-miles) of walking/running before I consume alcohol. I hope to continue the proper eating beyond the challenge period.

I am off to slow start of 6,421 steps on the first day. I have already surpassed 11,700 today and still have to go to the local grocery store to stock up on healthy foods. So I have only completed about 4% of my goal.

To give some perspective on how far 400,000 steps will be, consider that ideally you want to complete 10,000 steps a day. So in a month 300,000 steps would be a reasonable goal. Most people average considerably less than 10,000 a day. In the past during a challenge I have averaged aprox. 13,000 steps a day.  At that pace it will take 31 days to complete the challenge. It is a challenge to average 91,000 steps a week but well worth the effort. In a good week I can exceed 100,000 steps.
By avoiding alcohol I am able to average over 25,000 steps on a weekend rather than less than 10,000 when I'm drinking.

As added incentive I have my annual physical on Feb. 5th. I have to admit I am presenting my doctor with my best foot forward and maybe not representative of my average fitness level. But one of these years I am going to stay the course and keep the weight off. Two years ago I was good for about 6-months.

*20,867 steps