She Speaks: Taking steps to create a healthier new year

It’s the eve of New Year’s Eve and across the country people are making out a list of resolutions.

I’ve already got ahold of mine: Walk 10,000 steps a day. But I have a confession: I cheated.

Resolutions always seem so loaded. You start on the first of the year and suddenly a lifetime of bad habits are supposed to melt away.

One slip-up and you’ve blown your resolution. Better luck next year.

But bad habits are hard to break and good habits are harder to establish. So I started early. Like two months early.

By starting in late October, I give myself the chance to ramp up slowly and figure out how to fit bouts of fitness into my busy if not active schedule.

And adjust I must as my daily step average was a meager 4,000.

We all know the advice: Drink eight glasses of water, eat more veggies, destress and get in at least 10,000 steps a day. Of course the list goes on.

Eight hours a day at my desk … nearly three hours a day in my car … I thought there’s no way any normal working mom can manage to walk 10,000 steps a day. Marathoners in training, sure. Waitresses, definitely. Single millennials, maybe. But office-working moms, never.

I had totally convinced myself that no one in my demographic was hitting this number. I even polled my friends in an attempt to bolster this belief.

“Do you get 10,000 steps a day?” I’d ask, and my fellow moms would laugh. Except for one. She looked at me straight-faced and said regretfully, “Not every day. Sometimes I only get about 9,500.”

“What? But you have two kids, and you work at a desk all day, like me!”

Then she described how she worked in pockets of time into her day to walk.

My mind was blown. I was wrong. Normal moms can do this.

With renewed resolve, I studied my schedule. I walked the six floors of the parking garage instead of taking the elevator. I walked the long way around the block. I carried my phone with its digital pedometer with me everywhere.

The next day I had doubled my number. I became obsessed with the Health app on my iPhone.

I went for a walk while my sons engaged in their respective sports.

I parked my car a little farther away from the entrance to Longs, just a little farther — I’m not crazy.

Two days later, I hit my goal for the first time. Actually, I crushed it: 11,119 steps.

Since then, I’ve delighted as I racked up steps and my weekly, monthly and yearly averages ticked upward.

Of course, I didn’t hit the big 10,000 every day, but no harm done. No resolution broken. Just try again the next day. And most days I manage to at least get close.

I was delighting about my newfound success with the mom who inspired my resolve and a coworker overheard us. “How many steps do you get each day?” we asked. “Twelve to 15,000,” he answered.

Sigh, maybe next year …

She Speaks” is a column by women writers of the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. Reach Donica Kaneshiro at dkaneshiro@staradvertiser.com