Time For Me To “Step It Up”

For the last few months, I have been working with a trainer to help me get back on track with my diet and exercise. As a part of my rehab, I am in a texting group with two other women and the trainer. We check in with each other daily and report if we have stayed within our caloric limit and if we hit our exercise goals.

Last month, the group decided to add a challenge into our routine to help motivate us. We connected on the same app and tracked each other’s progress each day. It went fairly well and bragging rights sufficed as a reward. Congratulations go to my group member who had more minutes of activity than our trainer did!  

Feeling the success of competition, we agreed to do another one in March. This month, we are competing to see which one of us can meet their daily step goal of 10,000 steps the most times. 

For this event, we decided to up the ante and have a reward for the winner.  Initially I suggested that we all pitch in $20 and the winner would receive a gift card to Hello Fresh or Misfit Market.  

Then, one member (who will forever remain nameless) suggested that we all go out for ice cream and the loser would pay.  Ice cream or veggies?  It was a no brainer. The three of us agreed to compete for the ice cream prize… 

Until our trainer nixed our reward.  I proudly shared that we would only get a child’s sized, so she need not worry.  Still no.  She suggested that we work towards a personal reward that did not involve food and graciously offered up skin care products to the winner. Of course we all agreed, knowing down deep that she was right.  Why is she always right?

So now we are a few days into our challenge. It has been hard to hit the 10,000 step mark each day, especially given the fact that I am sitting far more at my job than ever. In order to meet the goal and try my best to win the prize, I have resorted to running around the kitchen island several times at the end of the day. I am not sure if I will win or not, but I am definitely going to “step it up.”

Sometimes in life, we just need someone there to support us and hold us accountable for our goals. We may also need some motivation to get there too, whether it is bragging rights or a child-sized dish of mocha chip ice cream.  I mean skin care products.

What personal goals are you working on right now?  Do you do better when someone holds you accountable?  Would you have said “yes” to the ice cream reward?

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