Motivation Idea for Walking

 

My exercise of choice is walking outdoors.  But sometimes it is hard to get myself out the door.  It is always good to have a walking buddy but sometimes work schedules change and it becomes hard to get together with people who I have walked with in the past.  When I had a Fitbit I used to do virtual walking contests with my sister in law who lives about an hour away.  And while my Apple Watch does a lot of things my fit bit does not, walking contests is not something I have found on it.  So I asked my aunt who lives about a days drive away if she wanted to make up a virtual walking contest.  She was agreeable so we did.  The first thing we did was find how many steps were in several trails.  I found a link that had that information online.  Click HERE to read that information.  The first trail that we competed for I won by one day.  She was right on my tail.  We read about the trail online and we watched videos of what the scenery looked like.  It was in England and was called Hadrian's Wall Path.  It was 168,000 steps long.  Hadrian was a Roman Emperor and the wall was built at the northern most part of the Roman Empire.  You can read about it HERE.  And watch the following video of this young man walking the first part of it.  

The second contest my aunt beat me.  She finished a day before me but I was right on her tail.  It was called the West Highland Way Trail and was in Scotland.  It was 190,000 steps.  You can read about this trail HERE.  The scenery was amazing and you can watch these three young men walking most of the trail in the following video. 

My aunt and I had so much fun with our first two contests that when my TOPS group was discussing their next contest I suggested we do one of walking to Bethlehem since Christmas was approaching. Rather than count steps we chose to keep track of  minutes of whatever purposeful movement we wanted and did the math of how much time it would take to walk from Nazareth to Bethlehem.  It has been a fun contest.  

My aunt and I decided to wait till after the holidays to do our next contest and we will pick some shorter trails to get us through till spring.  

What do you do to motivate yourself to exercise?

The Weaver's Legacy by Olive Collins

 

The Weaver's Legacy

by

Olive Collins

Several evenings ago I finished listening to The Weaver's Legacy on Audible. It is written by Olive Collins.  I can't say enough about how much I enjoyed this book.  It is about Irish immigrants traveling to the west and setting up sheep farming.  The main character learns to weave from a Native American woman.  The story deals with how the Native Americans were treated and that they lost their lands in the Black Hills.  It switches back and forth between the mid 1800s to early 1900s and then to the 1930s.  Three generations of people are involved in the story line. The story twists and turns and has a surprise ending that I had figured out already but really liked.  I am enjoying this trilogy very much and am looking forward to the third book.  I recommend the series to any one interested in family history or anyone that enjoys historical novels.  Please click on the book title and author's name above to follow the links to more information.   Enjoy the following video.