How to Stay Motivated with Your Walking Journey

Any time you start something new, it can be easy to motivated in the beginning, but that might soon fade. If you know you want to keep walking on a regular basis to improve your health, here are some tips to help you stay motivated.

Create a Challenge or Goal

If you just start walking without a clear goal, it is going to be very difficult to keep it up. Try starting a walking challenge, or just set a goal where you want to walk a certain number of steps or a specific number of days during the week.

This doesn’t have to be a big challenge or a goal that will be really difficult to complete. You still want to start your journey slow and steady, even for just walking every day. Maybe think of a goal that will keep you motivated but is a little more than you are walking now.

If you wear your fitness tracker for a few days and find that on average, you walk about 4,500 steps a day, then try to set a goal of walking 6,000 steps a day. It gets you moving more and keeps you motivated but isn’t so crazy that you feel burnt out.

Find a Friend to Walk With

Walking can be boring for some people, even when you do have music or podcasts to listen to. If this is something you personally struggle with, don’t walk alone! Find a friend or relative who might want to join you.

Do you do your walking on your lunch break? This is the perfect time to grab a co-worker to walk with you. Maybe you want to walk in the evening after dinner and bring your spouse, roommates, or kids along with you, or you find a neighbour who also wants to talk early in the morning.

Understand Your Motivations 

What is the reason you want to start a new walking routine? Be really clear on your motivations. If you are doing it just because you read a short article about the benefits, that isn’t going to help keep you motivated long-term. You need clear reasons about why walking is for you. Write them down and keep them somewhere you can reference them whenever you need to.

Get New Fitness Gear You Love

 Believe it or not, just having new gear to use or workout clothing to wear can be really motivating to walk more. Who doesn’t want to wear new fitness clothing they just bought? It’s just like when you buy any other new clothes – you can’t wait to wear them.

See if buying new fitness gear fits into your current budget, and you will suddenly love going on your daily walk just so you can wear it. In addition to clothing, some other gear that you can get includes:

Arm strap for your phone

Fitness tracker or pedometer

New walking shoes

Ear buds to listen to music or podcasts

New water bottle

Turn it into Your Self-Care Routine

 Don’t treat walking just like a way to get in more fitness, as that motivation can wane pretty fast. Instead, think of it as a way to get more self-care in for yourself. You are doing this as a way to treat yourself well and take a break from the rest of your life. It is good for your mental and physical health and fits perfectly in with your self-care routine.

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