10K steps a day – walking the talk

It has been 14 days since the Sihat Itu Saya challenge started. I am in a group made up of 20 participants. On most days, I can contribute one star for the team with a minimum of 10K steps a day. Since my job is sedentary, my phone could only pick up fewer than 1K steps for the whole day. Sometimes it is as few as 500 steps. This means that I’ll need to do my own walking at home till I complete my target.

While on the walking pad, it had me thinking. Would 10K steps from physical activity be as beneficial as putting 10K on a focused brisk walking session?

Since my side quest of losing weight is ongoing, obviously, I’d want to indulge in activities that would keep my heart rate up. The plan was to ensure that I get a complete 10K on my walking pad regardless of how much I got while working. However, I realised that time is an important factor to consider. Will explain more on that later. So the plan now is just to top up my steps till 10K. The most I managed so far is up to 11K.

The top performers in my team were getting more than 20K per day. They jog, play badminton and are known to be very active physically. They are the biggest contributors to our ranks. Any steps above 10K are rewarded one star. However, it is the average step of each team that determines the ranking. Thus, getting ‘gold’ is possible, but for the top ranks, all team members need to be active. At the moment, we are still in the ranks of 130 to 150.

S.i.S

The brisk walking challenge has started. I joined for two reasons.

  • To support my colleague. The ‘champion’ of this programme.
  • I thought it would be a great opportunity to start getting active again. I have been on a very long hiatus since my umrah last year. Prior to umrah, I was on a roll, walking a few thousand steps per day. After umrah, I got a bit lazy. So this would hopefully be a great adjunct to my meal plan in the hopes of (again) losing weight. minciBMI25 is still a goal.

I did not manage to get even 5K steps today. I had less than 3K, but it is OK. I will build the momentum daily and see how it ends in 3 months. On the other hand, my husband has been very enthusiastic about this challenge that he is hoarding the treadmill in the early hours of the morning and night. It’s a good excuse for me to get a walking pad and put it in my study. At least I can watch Netflix or enjoy a YouTube video on my PC while walking. I am still waiting for it to arrive. After that, I can create another piggy bank to save up for one of those fancy watches that count steps.