Upward Trend

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I started wearing an old Garmin watch (courtesy of my wife), which tracks exercise and connects to my phone. I was having trouble remembering to start and stop the exercise tracking, so I was pleased to find out that it also tracks steps automatically.

There was a 10,000 steps-a-day health trend some years back. I didn’t get into that, although writing this I do remember my company giving us plastic pedometers for a wellness initiative.

Back to the present. I set a goal on my watch, which is some odd number – 8985 steps, so maybe I told the watch to determine it based on my demographic data.

In any case, I’ve done my steps most days over the past two weeks. That’s been encouraging! For now, it still takes some planning to make sure I get 100%. I’m not sure if it will ever be automatic. Some days I just loiter around the apartment all day.

I did walk 11,100 steps yesterday, but it was quite a busy day. I was also walking around with a small backpack and water and by the end of the day my back was aching. I have bad posture which I am trying to improve. I can still hear my mom reminding me to sit up straight throughout my childhood and teen years. And beyond. 😁 Improved posture should go on my goals list! That should help.

I have no idea what a day on the Caminho will require. There are plenty of blogs and books that talk about it, so I will hit those up eventually. For now, I am enjoying just the joy of being able to walk, feel safe, and not get a heat and dehydration-related migraine.

The safety and lower temperature are based on living in Porto. But a lot of it is about attitude adjustment. Being okay with being a little uncomfortable, whether it is my feet or back or just being tired. Often, I know I could hop on a bus or metro to get me home more quickly, but walking past the metro stop gives me a little boost of confidence.

I was glad to make the adjustment from car culture in the US to the city of Porto, which has a good public transportation system and is walkable. For the first 9 months or so we did walk some, but mostly took the metro. Having walking as the default instead of the metro has been really helpful to my mood and physical condition.