Sometimes it’s hard to get motivated to go walk. I know this all too well. Here, you can see some of the first two months that I had my Apple Watch — call it my baseline. It’s admittedly erratic, at best.

I started my Walk to Mordor group mid-September 2015. I was already beginning to step up my walking, but really made no special effort to get up and move.

A few days after the new year (so cliché, I know), I decided to step up my game. (Get used to those kinds of puns, by the way; I am full of them.)

I decided that I would work on getting a “perfect target” – a certain number of calories burned (outer ring), 30 minutes of exercise (middle ring), and stand for at least one minute per hour over 12 hours (inner ring). I discovered it was not so tricky to hit the target that first day, so I kept it going. 5000 steps — half the “recommended” daily amount — seemed to be ample to satisfy that 30 minute goal.

One day turned to seven, which turned into multiple weeks…

 

I have completed fifteen weeks of hitting my daily goals. I’ve doubled my exercise goals more times than I can count (even tripled a few times!) and my calorie burns dozens of times.

I’ve reached the 600 mile mark in my Walk to Mordor, too, and am now over 33% of the way to my final goal. I’ve walked more than 412 miles of those 600 since I started walked to hit my “target.” More than half of that — 229 miles — has been since I decided to hike Te Araroa.

While I still have motivation issues, they are far more slight than they used to be. Te Araroa is a mighty goal with mighty needs to get there.