Entry 6: Walking as a Transportation
Introduction
Whenever the days get busy, especially during the school days, I feel that I am not getting enough exercise; The main and only daily exercise I get is walking when commuting. Due to the difficulty in forcing myself to do sporting events or go to the gym, increasing the number of steps I walk each day may be a possible way to get more exercise. According to Medical News Today, it is recommended to aim for 10,000 steps a day, which is approximately 8 km.
During this week, I will try to develop the habit of walking as a main method of commute; instead of taking the bus, I will walk to school and walk back home.
Statistics Collected
To demonstrate the changes to the steps walked per day, the data from two weeks before developing the habit, from the 10th to the 23rd of October, would also be analyzed.
The table below shows the daily target completion of the three weeks:
The figures in highlighted cells are those that have exceeded the goal of 10,000 steps.
| Week 1: 10th-16th |
4028 |
9420 |
657 |
4767 |
5796 |
7707 |
815 |
| Week 2: 17th-23rd |
7435 |
4246 |
2265 |
10489 |
3520 |
570 |
3795 |
| Week 3: 24th-30th |
11262 |
7522 |
711 |
10829 |
10393 |
630 |
7354 |
To better look at the figures for each of the weekdays, the bar chart below was made:
The habit of walking only applies to days when I go out, on Thursdays, the only weekday that I don’t have any classes, I stayed at home for the whole day, so the figure for all three weeks’ Thursday doesn’t have much difference. Same for the weekends, the number of steps that I walked highly depended on whether I went out or stayed at home.
Factors that may affect steps walked per day:
- Weather
- Time of day
- Purpose of going out
- Shoes I was wearing
- Entertainment devices(?) e.g. did I bring my headphone
Reflection
During this week, I have walked 48,701 steps in total, which is roughly 16,000 more steps than the two previous weeks. On average, I walked 6957 steps per day, which is still far away from the goal of 10,000 steps a day, but I am quite satisfied with the improvement made.
At the start of the week, it was difficult to force myself to walk to school, especially when the weather wasn’t good. I have to leave home a bit earlier and wake up from bed earlier when I have morning lessons. Overall, I think this a habit that I could maintain, at least till the weather becomes too cold.
