I knew it was close, but no app presented me a special badge or flashed any award. It was rather anticlimactic when, adjusting a formula on an Excel spreadsheet, the resulting number displayed 731.
Oh.
I intended to write about hitting two years of consecutive 10,000 plus steps on the actual day I hit the milestone, but I missed it. And that’s okay – after two years my daily routine includes 10,000 steps in the same way I manage to get dressed and feed myself. It’s inevitable. It’s going to happen. It’s habitual.
That doesn’t mean it’s easy. Or unremarkable.
It just means I don’t dwell on it on a daily basis.
Part of that is because when I do dwell on it, when I stop and think about this accomplishment it really messes with my head – I did that? No… that’s not something I’m capable of. Not Jordy…
I switched from a FitBit to an Apple Watch a little more than a month ago and if I had stuck with the FitBit it probably would have celebrated my step-iversary. But as I alluded to at the top, I keep my numbers in a spreadsheet. Which allows me to drop some astounding numbers:
- 731: Number of days with at least 10,000 consecutive steps
- 9,645,850: Number of steps during this streak.
- 4,508: Miles walked since the streak started.
I went back and read what I wrote last year on the first year of 10,000 consecutive steps. The number totals have changed (obviously), and a lot of the sentiments there are very similar to what I started to say here. In fact, there I listed the most steps I’ve taken in a day (41,180) which I haven’t beaten since then, nor have I really lost any more weight than I mentioned there, either.
So, on paper—rather, on spreadsheet, by the numbers, this last year of consecutive 10,000 steps seems quite workmanlike. Routine. Expected.
Except this year has been anything but routine, and putting those numbers in context is important for me to recognize it. I got married (and managed 13,476 steps that day)! I went on a cruise for the first time this year and while Akilah and the rest of her family was getting sick from a particularly rough patch of sea on the way up to Alaska, I was on the treadmill in the gym in the bow of the ship (14,515 steps and no seasickness!). I lost a toenail at the end of that trip and still kept the streak going. On road trips with Akilah, I walked around rest stops to manage to get my steps on long days in the car.
So, to the ever-present doubting voices in my head, yes, Jordy, you did this. You’ve fought for this, and you should be proud of yourself. And I am.
But, if you’ll excuse me, I need to take Allie out for a walk – I still have 1,500 steps tonight to get day 732…
