One of my goals for a while now has been to get a bit fitter and healthier, and right now feels like the best time to finally make a proper effort. I recently started a new job and moved to Salisbury, where there are so many nice places to walk – so that leads me onto the challenge I’m going to be doing for the next 3 months…
The One Million Step Challenge
From the beginning of July until the end of September, I’m going to be trying to walk 1 million steps as part of the One Million Step Challenge to raise money for Diabetes UK. Someone is diagnosed with diabetes every two minutes, and as many as 4.8 million people are living with diabetes in the UK right now.
One million steps in 92 days works out at around 10,800 each day. As someone who has worked from home for 4 years and barely left the house because I adapted to being a hermit, this is going to be a challenge!
I thought, to keep me accountable and to share my progress, I’m going to write a blog post every so often to share how many steps I’ve done and some photos from my adventures. It’s almost the summer holidays and I work in a school now, so in two weeks I’ll have five weeks off – so it’s the perfect time to explore and get in some steps!
First 10 Days: the Stats
At the time of writing, it’s 11th July which means the first 10 days of the challenge are over. I’m a bit behind on where I need to be if I want to stay ahead of the target, but that’s okay considering it’s still early days.
Here are my steps for the first 10 days:
| Day | Date | Steps |
|---|---|---|
| Thursday | 1st July | 10,537 |
| Friday | 2nd July | 10,373 |
| Saturday | 3rd July | 11,947 |
| Sunday | 4th July | 2,068 |
| Monday | 5th July | 10,012 |
| Tuesday | 6th July | 6,245 |
| Wednesday | 7th July | 11,610 |
| Thursday | 8th July | 4,335 |
| Friday | 9th July | 11,697 |
| Saturday | 10th July | 9,831 |
| TOTAL: 88,478 |
Someone made this spreadsheet of where you should aim to be each day if you want to complete the challenge (I’m not sure who made this, otherwise I’d credit them!):
As you can see, as of day 10 I’m currently around 20k below the target, which is quite a lot – but if you look at my steps above, there have been a couple of days where I only got a couple of thousand. I’m realising that I can quite easily build up steps during the week, but weekends are more of a challenge, especially Sundays when I want a lazy rest day. But as I mentioned, it’s the summer holidays soon so I’m hopefully planning on doing some longer walks to build up lots of steps in one go.
First 10 Days: Walking Journal
Thursday 1st July
Steps: 10,537
On the first day of the challenge, I was Fitbit-bound and raring to go. I hosted the book launch for Grow by Luke Palmer in the evening, but I still pushed myself to go for a walk after it finished! I left the house at 8:30pm and it was a nice sunny day, so the temperature at this time was perfect.
I walked 2.3 miles and followed a route on a walking app I found. It took me through stunning farmlands, narrow paths alongside railway tracks, and across rivers. And it started 2 minutes away from my front door, so it made me realise how much is right on my doorstep!
Saturday 3rd July
Steps: 11,947
I spent the first Saturday of the challenge walking around Salisbury and properly exploring the town centre. Saturday is market day, so I bought a load of fresh fruit, potatoes, bread, and I got a hot sausage roll and some millionaire’s shortbread for lunch. I ate my lunch on a bench in the park and then carried on walking through the park, before heading back to town to go to the cinema.
The weather was a bit miserable and it rained on and off, but it was still a really nice day exploring the centre of Salisbury! I even sat outside a cafe along the river with a glass of fresh orange juice, and despite the rain, it still felt like summer.
Monday 5th July
Steps: 10,012
Now that I’m doing this challenge, I’m going to go for a walk in my lunch break at work as often as I can. On this day, I went for my first lunchtime walk and found a route I hadn’t really noticed before! There’s path that goes between Laverstock, where I work, and Bishopdown. I didn’t walk very far because I only had a short lunch break, but it gave me a place to walk in the future.
I then also went to the big Sainsbury’s after work and thought I’d get a bunch of steps by walking up and down every single aisle, but I realised halfway round that I only had 600 steps because my Fitbit didn’t pick up steps while I was pushing a trolley… so that was fun. I also had to walk from Sainsbury’s to the bus stop in the pouring rain without a coat. So that was successful!
Wednesday 7th July
Steps: 11,610
Another lunchtime walk, but this time I continued past the point where I turned around last time and discovered a whole nature reserve that I didn’t know was there, even though it was just around the corner! It’s called Laverstock Water-meadows and it’s currently an area of conservation. You can walk through the woodland and see all sorts of butterflies, birds and marine wildlife. I couldn’t go very far because it was a bit marshy and muddy thanks to the miserable weather, but I can’t wait to venture further down when it’s dry!
Friday 9th July
Steps: 11,697
Susie, one of the women in my office at work, knows Laverstock really well so she went on a walk with me. It ended up being the longest walk I’ve done so far, and I discovered yet another pretty nature trail that I didn’t know existed! There’s a path that takes you away from the main road and you get to a boardwalk along the side of the river. We then walked through the hills and came down through the school field and back to work. It was a good couple of miles and it was so hot that I was grateful I had my mask to cover my red face. It got me a decent number of steps though!
Saturday 10th July
Steps: 9,831
The final day of this update and it was so much fun! I got the bus to West Lavington where my uncle lives with his partner and their kids, and I spent the weekend with them. I stayed with them for a month when I started my new job (before I moved to Salisbury) so it was nice to go and catch up with them again. In the evening, we went to see a live band in a pub garden and we spent 2 hours dancing to classics like Mr Brightside. I loved it! (However, I was frustrated to look at my step count after midnight and I was less than 200 steps away from 10k!)
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I’d Love Your Support!
I’m determined to do as well as I can with this challenge! I’m happy with how it’s going so far and I’m excited to see where I can explore over the summer.
If you’d like to support me and my One Million Step Challenge, I would appreciate you forever if you can donate to the cause. You can keep up to date with my progress and donate here. I’ll also be posting more updates on the blog over the next couple of months too!
