Let’s talk about the benefits to counting your steps…

My year-long mile-a-day walking challenge has brought up so many aha’s and thoughts and many I want to share with you today. These mini personal challenges I set up for myself ALWAYS do SO MUCH more for me than what I “think”.

First of all, I want to start by sharing the WHY behind this mile-a-day walking challenge.

The Why?

Every year, especially around my birthday, I take time to reflect on my journey and tap into my victories (wins) and the areas that may need a bit more of my attention. I realized that when I am not swimming, I am running. NOT walking but running. Why? Somehow I have convinced myself that walking isn’t “enough”. In order to be up to par with my cardio goals, I needed the intensity from a run vs walk.

I realized this was a mindset pattern that I needed to break. I know this NOT to be true however, I was telling myself a false story and believing it. Especially as I am “getting older” and longevity is my goal and running is not the answer.

When I was competing and prepping for top-level stages, all I was doing was walking on an incline.

STRICTLY STEADY STATE CARDIO FOR CARDIO

If it worked then, why wouldn’t it work now?! I had let my mind get in my way and so I did what Gina does… Take back control and break this thought pattern. The way to break any pattern is to change your actions. In order to get a different result, you have to think new thoughts, do things differently and disrupt the way you have been thinking. You cannot expect different results by doing the same thing over and over or thinking the same way right? Isn’t that the definition of insanity and I will NOT be identified as insane.

And so… this is how my year-long mile-a-day WALKING challenge was born. The benefits of walking are incredible and I will be sharing more in upcoming blogs.

Now that I am getting in my steps, so much has been going on in my mind and in the G-Fit Connect …

The biggest takeaway after only one week has been all about numbers and counting. Should you count your steps? Is it beneficial or not?

You know me, I am not a numbers person. You do not see calories or numbers in any of my plans because it is NOT the focus of the G-Fit lifestyle.  That being said, I wanted to share why you should count your steps but also why counting shouldn’t be your main FOCUS.

Let’s dive in…

3 Benefits To Counting Your Steps and reasons why you SHOULD: 

1. Increases Physical Activity: Tracking steps encourage you to move more. Setting a daily goal can motivate you to walk more than you sit.  If staying active improves our long-term health, this is a great way to be sure we are moving without the impact from running or higher-intensity activity.
2. Sets Achievable Goals: Step counting allows you to set and achieve daily goals. For most it is 10,000 steps but for some it could be increased by 1000 as a fun way to get in more movement throughout the day. This can be motivating and help you make better choices- like taking the farthest open parking space in the lot.
3. Awareness of your current step count: Checking in on your step count provides truth about your daily activity levels. You may think you are getting in your steps, later to find you are not moving as much as you thought. Awareness Moment! 🚨 I had NO idea how low my daily step count was! Bringing awareness to the amount of steps you are taking (or NOT taking) is important to ensure you are moving more than you are sitting.

2 Reasons Why counting SHOULD NOT be your main FOCUS:

1. The benefits of counting your steps doesn’t tell you the QUALITY of your steps: Reaching your step count gives you a quantifiable number and gives you data but doesn’t tell you the quality of your steps. While you may hit your goal, your goal number tells you nothing about how intentional you were stepping or how present you were during the stepping process. The same goes for counting calories or macros. It is easy for someone to be so focused on hitting certain calorie goals that they totally lose sight of the quality of those calories or macros being consumed. What about counting your weight loss and using the scale to track your “success”… Your weight-loss is data and tells you how much weight has been lost or gained but nothing about the quality of weight. The focus should always be on the quality of weight, ensuring the loss is coming from body fat while holding onto that high-quality lean muscle.
2. Destination Driven over Journey Driven: Counting can cause a destination mindset where rather than focusing on the journey, the focus becomes the end goal of reaching the step-count. If we are so focused on when we get there, when I reach my goal weight, when I finish this challenge, we lose sight of the steps it takes to get there… Rather than aiming to get “there” ASAP (as soon as possible) shift that to APAP (as present as possible) and see where that journey takes you.

The real WIN is NOT in the WHEN but IN the steps along the way…

In Summary, the benefits to counting your steps, comes to awareness, motivation or goal setting but it does NOT give you all the information.  In all that you do, remember quality is the number one goal.

You’ve got this and I am so proud of you for continuing to step and enjoy the journey along the way towards the best version of you!