Accountability: Mrs. 1500’s Experience with Responsibility

Hi there, Mrs. 1500 today.

My friend, Miss Mazuma, texted me a few weeks before 2019 started, asking if I’d like to part of a step challenge.

Sure, I answered. Because I DO want to get 10,000 steps every day, but it’s SO EASY not to get them in. (As I sit here, at 7:35 in the evening, I have 5,270 steps.)

I work. By choice, but I’m still sitting at a desk 5 days a week. Some days, I leave the office with 1,300 steps. Last year, I stopped wearing my FitBit because it’s kind of depressing to keep seeing 2,000 or 3,000 steps total for the day, every day for 6 months.

Miss Mazuma wrote in her blog post announcing the contest/accountability group, that we were looking for people to join us who struggle to reach 10,000 steps every day. Mrs. WoW from Waffles on Wednesday quickly joined us.

Frankly, I’m surprised that both of these ladies struggle. They’re both fit, while I still have 30 pounds of baby weight to lose. (No, you didn’t miss a memo, the baby is 9 years old.) But it’s also encouraging to know that I’m not alone. The accountability group has helped me see that I’m not alone.

Josh from JoshOvermyer.com lives on the east coast (whereas I’m in Colorado) so he already has a lot of steps in before I even wake up! He’s also in my same boat, struggling to hit 10k every day, walking laps around the house to go over the line.

Miss Mindful Cents is another who struggles, but always gets her steps in. She’s also super encouraging of those of us who haven’t hit 10k yet that day.

We’re up to 13 people in our group, and another has started with 5.

There is something about having to tell other people about your progress (or lack thereof) that makes you want to do the work, accomplish the goal. While my favorite quote is “I don’t care what you think about me, I don’t think about you at all” from the Sassy Coco Chanel, I DO want people to think I’m a woman of my word.

On days that I don’t hit my total in the course of the day, I walk laps around the kitchen island until I do hit my 10k. I’m not knocking it out of the park, though. I routinely hit 10,223 or 10,128. REALLY productive days are 11,201.

Because of this group, I’ve only missed my daily step goal once. (The contest is for 70k a week, so technically I could wait and bang it all out in one day, but that’s not going to happen.) And yeah, I know it’s only January 23, but in the month of December, I hit 10,000 steps zero times. (Same for November. Can anyone guess my highest step total in October? Not 10,000.)

September was a bit different, as I attended FinCon in a hotel that is enormous. The convention center was technically attached to the hotel, but located about 2 miles away from the actual hotel. I really enjoyed forgetting something in the room… I think I hit 19,000 on two separate days.

But I digress. Other members have also commented that this is a very motivating group. We’ve got a twitter chat group where we constantly encourage each other, show off our steps, create tiny challenges throughout the day like get to the next 1,000 steps before the top of the hour, etc. It’s SO HELPFUL to have people that are in this with me, who struggle just as I do, and who truly want me to meet my goal.

This is my first encounter with Accountabilibuddies, and I’m loving it. Mr. 1500 is great, but he’s routinely getting 25,000 steps every day. While I know he wants to encourage me (and he does) it’s not the same as finally making it to 10,000 by 8:45, marching in place or circling the island, while reading about an accountabilibuddy who is doing the same thing.

I have discovered through this challenge that I am more competitive than I thought I was. I pretty much suck at team sports, so I never thought of myself as competitive. But seeing these numbers add up (and being in the middle of the pack the first week, but coming in lower the second and third) makes me want to do better. (Not today, obviously, with that blistering 6,209 I’ve got currently – been doing laps around the island between paragraphs.)

Weekends are easier for me to get more steps in. But what keeps me coming back every single day, are my accountabilibuddies. I can’t let them down!