And the Winner Is...

Remember how I mentioned that I took part in the Race Around Oz virtual walk for my workplace well-being programme? I got the funky free pedometer and all? Well, I did my duty and recorded my steps every day. I got really sick of wearing the pedometer, so I did the sensible thing - I wore it for the first few days to get an baseline number of steps for normal work day, normal weekend day, etc. Then I just wore it when I was doing anything different or unusual e.g. exercising, going to the shops, looking at houses, etc. I just added the extra number of steps I did on to the average. I was really careful not to plump up the numbers, in fact I even subtracted a couple of hundred steps here and there so it wouldn't seem like I was cheating.

We all have the best of intentions, but in the end I only did proper cardio exercise 2 or 3 times during the month. We got a sheet which explained how to convert other types of exercise into steps (e.g. swimming, weights, etc.) so I dutifully used it to convert the 2 short toning sessions I did.

Well, guess what?? I was astounded to find at the end that I'd walked over 190kms in the course of the (almost a) month! I couldn't believe it! I mean, I did go for just a couple of walks, and I did go on a couple of mammoth 2-3 hour shopping trips to the local mega-centre, but ... wow!

And not only that but ... I won the competition! I was gobsmacked!
I logged on to the website every couple of days to enter in my details and every single time I was at the top of the leaderboard. I thought, oh yeah, everyone else probably has their stats written down somewhere and is going to enter them in at some point. But even on the last day I was still at the top! I beat the regular walkers, the gym junkies, everyone!

I'm 100% sure that I didn't actually walk/exercise more than anyone else who entered. Don't get me wrong, I'm not putting myself down, I'm just being realistic. I don't go to the gym, I don't work out regularly. I spend the weekends at home on the internet. I heard a few of the others mentioned that they got sick of wearing the pedometer and gave up. So I feel like I won on false pretenses. I'm glad there was no official announcement or handover or anything, because I would have been highly embarrassed.

Negative Nancy says:
the fattest person in the whole place, winning an exercise competition?? She must have cheated!!

Either that, or everyone else exercises even less than I do! (And those that exercise more didn't have the time or diligence to do the competition properly.)

In truth, I put my win entirely down to good record-keeping, and an ingrained impulse to do what other people expect of me. Nevertheless, I won this prize, which is actually pretty sweet:



It's a waterbottle ; microfibre towel ; hand sanitiser ; healthy eating cookbook ; and nude food mover lunchbox. It's a much better prize than I expected. I will try to accept it with grace.

Meanwhile ...

Last night I found this website called The Purpose Fairy. It has posts like:
15 Things You Should Give Up To Be Happy
Give Up Your Self-Defeating Self-Talk
3 Golden Rules For A Better Life
Maybe I was feeling a bit hippie last night, but there were a few bits that I found quite inspiring.
I've started to collect quite a few inspiring links. I'm thinking of putting them together on a special page.

Cheerio!