Sometimes despite our best intentions, we find that we have lost our motivation to walk.  It honestly happens to everyone.  We have to stop for a week when we go on vacation or someone has fallen sick. We have visitors who have come from out of town  or there is too much work to do. The list is endless as to why we suddenly don’t have the time to walk. Once we stop walking,  it like our engine has been turned off.  No matter how many times we turn the key, and start a walk, it just doesn’t seem to ignite our walking engine.  We might do one walk here or there, but we can’t seem to get ourselves moving on a regular basis.  Then the guilt starts and every single day that we see others walking we think about why we aren’t walking.

If you are like me and feeling the guilt pile up day after day, take a deep breath.  The first thought might be to just give up.  After all it is easy for all of us to just drop out of the club, since we don’t pay any monthly membership dues.  But would that stop the guilt?  Would that actually help your health? The obvious answer is no.  So the next question to ask yourself is how to pull yourself out of the walking slump.

The answer is the Happy Feet game of tag! One of the unique things that has started in our club recently is our tagging system.  By tagging people to just walk only 200 steps or 10 minutes, the time and dedication needed for a longer walk is alleviated.  Everyone can participate.  If someone tags you, don’t ignore it.  Don’t put it off until “later”, because if you are in a slump then “later” never happens! 200 steps takes as little as 5 minutes depending on how fast you walk.  Even if you are on a conference call or making dinner, you can walk 200 steps easily.

The second step to becoming motivated is going to the Saturday walks.  These walks are an essential part of our club.  They give us all a chance to not just walk but to become re-energized by our friends. Let your fellow club members give you the motivation to start walking again.  Make a Happy Feet Friend close to your neighborhood and set a specific time that you will meet for a weekly walk.  Start with just one walk a week and build up from there.

The next steps is collages.  You might feel that the collages are a waste of time, but think of it as record of your effort, your time, and meeting your own goals.  There are of course weekly challenges to help make the collages even more interesting, but the core of the collage is saying that YOU are important enough to set aside time for YOURSELF.   We often hesitate to take a selfie – but why should we? It doesn’t matter how you look or what you wear, YOU are beautiful !

So the next time you find yourself in a walking slump, follow these steps and I promise that you will be back to walking everyday and feeling great. Remember your Happy Feet Friends will be happy to help you every “step” of the way!