7 Day walking habit stack challenge
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What if you could boost your health and your productivity at the same time, right? Without adding anything complicating to your already busy schedule, Today I'm sharing the seven day walking habit stacking challenge. Say that 10 times fast,
I know how hard it is to create a new habit out of nothing,
We're transitioning from late summer into fall, which brings on this itch of wanting to always kind of add these subtle improvements.
And if you're anything like me, there's this knowing. That, you know, the days are gonna get shorter and it's gonna be darker outside, and it's gonna be harder to get motivated to go outside, right? So this is a really great time to build a habit. When everything is still pleasant so that when it's not so pleasant, the habit is already [00:01:00] there.
I've discovered some simple ways just to make walking automatic, and that's what we're gonna talk about today on the Creative Life In Motion Podcast, episode number 65.
If you're new here, welcome.
My name is Karen, and if you're returning welcome back friend. On this show, we don't wait until we reach our goals to be happy. We fall in love with who we are being on the way. So one of those ways to get to our goals, especially is to stay vibrant, right? To keep that light shining, stay healthy, because when we get to that.
Goal, especially if it's a productivity goal, a business goal, a life goal. You wanna be at your ultimate, healthiest self, am I right? Because it's no fun to get there and feel like you have no energy to celebrate. So we're celebrating who we are being every single day [00:02:00] when we honor what it takes to keep our body happy.
Today I'm sharing the seven day walking habit stacking challenge. It's a way to build a walking habit. Linking the things that you already do one step at a time, and that's so pun intended.
I'm gonna walk you through each day and I'll share some practical tips about how to get going, how to stay going, and how to really evaluate what is your super stack.
I'm gonna link up to a blog post where it has everything written out. Super easy. You can bookmark it, it even has a picture with a calendar on there, and you can just go to town.
If you're really short on time or if you just don't like walking, but know that it's something that you wanna start doing because hello, it's the easiest fitness method to stick to of all time. You can dress it up, you can dress it down, you can go [00:03:00] faster, you can go slower, you can go harder, you can wear more weight, you can go uphill, you can go downhill.
You can. You can do it anywhere. You can do it outside, you can do it inside. You can do it in place. Um, you can do it in the trails, you can do it in the water, you can do it everywhere. If I miss something, let me know which one I missed. I let's, let's get into it. Habit Stacking works, so this is why we're doing it this way.
So habit stacking is about attaching something new into something you already do. So if you think about, you know, when you get up in the morning, um, maybe the first thing you do is if you go to the bathroom, right? And maybe the next thing you do is you have a glass of water and maybe the next thing you do is you brush your teeth and that is a stack that you already do.
So this is a moment to. Take note [00:04:00] of what is it that I do automatically when I wake up every single day? No judgment. Now, if. You pick up your phone. I'm not judging. I'm not judging. I pick up my phone every single day to look at the stats of my aura ring, right? Because I wanna know how I slept. It's not like I can like ask myself, how'd you sleep, Karen?
Oh, I slept great. No, I have to ask the app and look and see how I slept. And that's just what I do. Okay? I do that while I'm drinking my water.
One of the keys when you're habit stacking is to not multitask. So you're thinking about one thing at a time. Right? It's another challenge within a challenge, isn't it? For all my multitaskers out there, you know what I'm saying?
How this is gonna work is you're gonna go through seven days, six days in a row. You're gonna be doing a [00:05:00] habit stack at a different time of the day.
It doesn't mean that you throw out your regular habit, okay? So for example, I go for my morning walk. I'm not gonna stop my morning walk. I am adding a new habit stack. Okay? On the seventh day, I decide which outta the six was the best add-on for me. I find that when I'm working with people one-to-one, when they're working on a new habit might, it might be something for, you know, an overall health overhaul. It might be something that, you know, they're writing their first nonfiction memoir. It might be something that they're learning how to story tell for the first time their personal stories and all of these things take.
Deep work and when we're doing deep work. Even going for a walk can sometimes be deep work when we're doing something that we're not naturally doing. It's [00:06:00] always hard at first, and so our brain is going to keep us safe by telling us and giving us all kinds of different excuses not to do it. So you could use this formula.
Today we're talking about walking, but I'm going to give you, you know, a little bit of a bonus tip is you could use this formula for anything that you want to start that, that you've had a hard time starting at. I've used this formula before to write books, to write one woman shows, to practice my storytelling, to do the rehearsals.
It's meant to do the hard things and get it into a habit, so it's no longer a hard thing for you. And it works. It produces, so that's why we're doing it with the walking challenge and we're gonna, we're, it's gonna be fun. Okay, so here's what you're gonna do. Day one is an after breakfast walk. It's pretty easy. Like you're, you're [00:07:00] stacking it with something that you already do. You got to eat Now if you're eating, if you're, uh, faster and you're breaking your fast at noon, it's after that, right? And that's all, that's all you gotta do.
It's pretty easy. Go for a five to 10 minute walk. Don't overthink it. So these additions, or if you're starting out, don't tell yourself you gotta go for a half hour walk. It's five to 10 minutes. That's a walk around the block. It's a walk around, you know, your house. Depending on how big your property is, it could be a walk around your lawn.
Keep it simple. Keep it short. That's the whole idea on creating a habit. Day two, you're gonna do it after your coffee. Breakfast and coffee. You might have them at the same time, so day, day two, if you have your breakfast and then you have your coffee, do the same thing, [00:08:00] right?
Day one. If you're like, I'm not going until I have my breakfast and my coffee. Remember you're creating a walking plan that works for you. Have your breakfast and your coffee have just coffee and go for a walk. If your body allows it, that's not for everyone. Okay? Probably a disclaimer is good here. Notice how you move differently after you've had your favorite drink. Like, I know this for me after I've had a little kick of caffeine in me. I'll walk faster and I'll feel more energized, and so that might be something that you enjoy.
Write down your experiences every day, or you might forget them, right? Day three, we're going for an after lunch walk. Again, five, 15 minutes tops. This is like a midday reset, so anything that you've done in the [00:09:00] morning is gonna get washed away and. It might be a time of day that you can't do in the summer because it's just so ripping hot.
But it also might be a time of day where in the winter it becomes your favorite time of day because that's when the sun is high, it's warm. You get the vitamin D, you get that optimal daylight. So that's why it's super important to explore this part of day for getting outside.
Day four, you're gonna do it after a journaling transition. So I, I like to call it a journaling transition. If you're not a writer, just a simple journal entry will do. Write in your journal anything. If you're looking for some interesting things to write about, you can just like look around your space and say, um, your coffee mug. [00:10:00] So pick up your coffee mug and say. Uh, write a story about where it was made and who made it, and who might have put all of their love and effort and desire into it.
You don't have to write profound journal entries every time you write. What this does is it just gets, you know, a different part of the brain going and then you go for your walk and it turns into. Magic. It turns into this creative because you've activated the creative before you've gone for a walk. And so when you go for this specific walk, five to 15 minutes.
Make sure that you take like your phone with you not to look at it, not to listen to anything. So that you can be in tune with wherever those intuitions come from. And they're gonna drop in, um, randomly. And surprise you and delight [00:11:00] you, and you'll wanna record it.
So what I do is I voice record or I turn on the camera and I, and I talk to myself and just. Drop that thought in there because by the time you get home or back to your workplace, it might be lost. So that's a really, IM important piece of that one. That's, that's what I like to call, um, part of Creative Life in Motion.
It's the creative activation zone. Pairing creativity with walking.
Day five is the after work Wind down. The after work. Wind down is something that I. I think we all need, right back in the day when I worked away from home, it was the commute. So if you're no longer working outta the house or if you're, you know, if you're able to do your job remotely, the commute is not long enough to shake [00:12:00] off the day.
The commute, um, from your office down the hall to the kitchen, uh, does nothing about separating yourself from work. So if you do have the luxury of a commute, uh, then you know. Exit your workspace, , just go for a 10 minute walk right after. And it transitions your thoughts from work to home and it really, really sets the stage for that, um, for you to activate yourself, your being, uh, rather than your work mode being.
Day number six is a post dinner digestive walk. Now this has been like a super duper trend on TikTok. Same with the silent walking lately, and it's like, oh my gosh. Like all of these are natural things, but what they're calling it on TikTok, it's like TikTok gets to make these new trends.
They're calling it a. Fart walk. [00:13:00] Basically, there was this author that wrote a book and she's talked about going for fart walks because after like an hour after you've eaten your food and you go for a walk, your belly gets to digest and you're releasing all the gas, and it's like, man, that's a little TMI.
But honestly, it does a lot more than just that. Like it also, um. It actually helps to regulate, uh, your insulin. It will help to actually lessen your chances of getting type two diabetes. I know lots of people that go for a 5, 10, 15 minute walk after dinner, including my husband and I.
On day seven, you are going to choose your stack. So this, this is where you get to. Reflect, maybe you'll do it at the end of day six and say, man, I think, you know, Thursday [00:14:00] when I did the journaling, I, it was just such a great day and I want to. Make sure that I incorporate that.
I'd like to give it a seven day whirl just with that one. And if you're like, like I said before, like if you already have a different part of the day where you do do your workout or you do do your walk, I'm not saying leave that behind for a 10 or 15 minute walk. I'm saying yes and, and if you're a beginner, let this be your ramp pad to actually deciding.
That this is your life. This is what your lifestyle looks like now,
you are not doing it for weight loss, and it's okay if you are okay. There's no shame in wanting to improve your body and also loving it at the same time. But it can't just be for that. What walking does for your brain and your confidence and everything [00:15:00] else, especially when you're able to like, just leave the technology at home except for emergency SOS in your pocket and just allow yourself to be with yourself.
And then the speed can come, the intervals can come and it will become your no excuses fitness in your pocket that is gonna allow you to be the best version of yourself. It's like for our future self, it's so that that older version of ourselves can look back and said, Hey kid, you made the right choice. You know, thank you for doing that because you're doing that, we're enjoying this, and that's something to be celebrated.
I know life gets busy, right? We can get on track and get off track. So keep it simple. Don't try to do too much all at once. You know, you can start with five minutes.
You do you, it depends on what your daily lifestyle is.
You wanna also prepare ahead, so whatever that means for you. [00:16:00] That might mean putting your shoes by the door. That might mean sleeping in your walking clothes or near them. Whatever it is that you can foresee that might cause a problem for your stack. Don't wait until it becomes a problem. Solve the problem first.
Prepare yourself. Prepare the ones around you. Prepare your food, right? If you know that you wanna take a walk at lunch, you might not have time to stand for 10 or 15 minutes in the lunch lineup. Pack it, bring it with you, save that time so that you can actually spend it on yourself. Right?
In my years and years of helping people with health and wellness, I hear this a lot, is if, if I take a day off, I'm gonna lose momentum.
You don't lose momentum if you take a day off that that is not true. Okay? That's a myth. That's a story inside [00:17:00] your head. Just you do, and it also doesn't mean you need to punish yourself and do more the next day. Just pick up where you left off and keep on going. Okay? Promise me that.
We can do it right.
If you try this challenge, I, I want you to share with me how it goes, so you can tag me on YouTube. My username is at Karen Wilson online, all one word. I'm not on the other social media platforms very often, so don't tag me there. You can go to my blog
i'll make sure that that's in the show notes as well.
What's one daily routine I might not have mentioned that you feel like you could stack a walk-on? After seven days, you are gonna notice a boost in your happiness, your productivity, and a definitely, you know, it's gonna feel good to do the thing that you said [00:18:00] that you were gonna do and be able to tick that off and say, yeah, I did that. That's always a boost of confidence.
Now if you'd like a little bit more motivation about building a walk-in plan that works, I'm gonna make sure to link up that episode in the show notes as well and make sure that you have easy access to that. And, uh, thank you for spending this time with me. Now it's time to go for a walk. And if you have me with you on your walk, thank you for bringing me with you on a walk. I thank you for continuing to listen to the Creative Life in Motion podcast, and I will see you in the next episode. Bye.
