Images of Summer.
Pick a series of photos from your collection that symbolizes summer to you. Write a reflection on the summer photo choices.
My sister Christy posted and reflected on our sibling outings as her images of summer here, and brother Bill posted and reflected on the images of his summer travels here.
The images I am going to share are about being active, and walking enough steps each day to make my goal of 10,000 daily steps. That is what a big part of my summer was about this year.
Let me give you a little background of how this goal came to be. My friend Nikki and I have been walking partners for about nine years. We have been fairly consistent over the years to walk about 2 miles in the morning during the work week.
For some reason, this past year we weren't as consistent. Especially December ended up being very sketchy for walking together. (And we couldn't blame the weather. It was a very mild winter.) I got very sedentary during the month of December, especially around Christmas. It got to the point that I would sit down, and my knees had gotten so weak that it was hard to stand back up again.
We got back to walking a little bit better in January and February, but then Mom had her fall the beginning of March, and I was unable to walk again for the next few months.
In June, Nikki and I resolved to get back on track. And there were a few things that helped me make this a bigger priority in my life. The first was Nikki getting a Fitbit for her birthday, which made me get my Fitbit out of hibernation. We both decided to set a goal of 10,000 steps each day, and help push one another to meet our goal.
Another event happened that helped me resolve to meet this daily goal as well. My sister-in-law Laurie shared a post on Facebook sometime last spring about her friend Amy. If I remember correctly, Amy had walked at least 10,000 steps every day for the last five years, (maybe it wasn't that long, but it seemed like it was quite a long time), but she had been in an accident and was unable to walk, so people were helping her out. I can't remember the whole story, but the thing that stuck with me was her ability to meet the 10,000 step goal in a very long extended period of time. So I thought to myself, I can to that, too. That is a reasonable goal.
Then I went and had my yearly physical, and was told some things that made me realize I needed to get back to making my daily walks a very high priority in my life.
So, on June 9th I started having the goal of getting to 10,000 steps a day. I started to wear my Fitbit, and Nikki and I started meeting regularly every morning for our 40 minute walk. (And we have met faithfully since June 9th. The only time we haven't walked together is if one of us is out of town.)
The following week, I went to Moscow and spent a week at the Gear Up Youth Summit, and had some women who also wanted to walk each morning, and many of the day's activities during the summit required a lot of walking, and made me realize I can walk close to 30,000 steps if needed.
Here are some images from the University of Idaho.
In July, I took a trip to San Francisco with my husband Paul and daughter Coco. Each day of the trip, the focus was getting in the 10,000 or more steps. On July 17, we walked through Golden Gate Park, and I got over 33,000 steps that day.
Before my brother left for his home back in Maryland, we spent a day in Spokane, and part of that day was spend walking in Manito Park, another way to get my steps.
We also hiked up Coal Creek, which got me to over 20,000 that day. The Coal Creek Trail is located up the North Fork of the Coeur d'Alene River. Paul, Molly and I went on this hike with our great friends April and Eric Lee, and their two sons Alexander and Nicholas.
On our recent trip to Oregon, hiking was a large part of the events of the trip. Not only do you see beautiful scenery, but you get some good exercise in as well.
Here we are stopping about an hour outside of Portland at the Eagle Creek Trail.
Here are some photos from our hike to the Blue Pool.
The next day we again hiked along the McKenzie River and saw some beautiful water falls.
While at the ocean, a couple walks along the beach in the sand helped get in the 10,000 steps.
I also got a nice workout kayaking in Nehalem Bay and along the Nehalem River.
This summer, my perspective has changed. One way or another I will walk until I get to my 10,000 steps or more each day. Often I will get the last couple thousand of steps walking around our backyard. Sometimes Paul and I will take an evening walk around town to get those final steps in to meet the goal.
From June 9, 2015 to August 18, 2015 here is what I have accomplished, according to my Fitbit stats:
985,370 steps
411.63 miles
197,326 calories burned
I can tell after only two months I am stronger and in better shape. I do know it will become more challenging to meet the daily goal once I get back to work at Kellogg High School.
But I am up for the challenge!!
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