A goal is a dream with a deadline.

Back in October I wrote a post about my mission to reach my ideal weight in 2014

The post was very rewarding for a number of reasons including the emails I received from people who were inspired by the post to join me on my journey

I am also very pleased to share with you I am getting there (big pat on the back time)

To date this has been achieved in the main by following Rebecca’s advice about my diet and the mantra

High protein, low carbs, good fats and small portion sizes.

You would be so proud if you saw my grocery trolley and my refrigerator – 100 points

So I started to think mmh what could I achieve if I took the rest of Rebecca’s advice and got stuck into the exercise.?

Even when I was young exercise was not high on the list of things I enjoyed. I played sport but in the main the aim of that was to get into school teams for regional events so I didn’t have to go to school from time to time

My brother and sister and I also did the horse show circuit. Anyone who shows horses knows that takes a lot of hard work – exercising, cleaning saddles, washing horses, plaiting tails et al and stress that comes from being a high achiever and wanting to win every time I went in the ring.

Winning was good but it was wasn’t much fun

By the time I was sixteen I had enough of the stress and was thrilled when we sold the horses and bought a speed boat. Sacre bleu I can just imagine all the young girls out there who would give anything to have a horse would be hating me right now

But seriously buying a speed boat and going water skiing every weekend was the best thing my family ever did. Actually spending your weekend having fun – there is nothing like it and then in my thirties we discovered snow skiing – awesome awesome awesome,

My dad still has the boat all we have to do is dust it off

Sadly water skiing and snow skiing seem to be part of my past and its looks like walking is the go

So how much walking do I have to do?

Well it appears the 10,000 steps concept seems to be trendy right now and its all about setting goals

A good way to remember goal setting is the SMART principles, consider these when setting your goals:

1. Specific – goals should indicate precisely what is going to happen

2. Measurable – you should be able to quantify your goal

3. Achievable – you have to be confident that you can achieve your goals

4. Realistic – ensure that your goals are realistic and maintainable, it may not be beneficial to say you are going to add an extra hour walk every day if you realistically may not be able to stick with it

5. Time-bound – ensure that your goals can be achieved within a reasonable time frame

See http://www.10000steps.org.au/library/setting-your-goals/

So I thought I would do some research into how many kilometres are in 10000 steps?

According to this blog the answer depends on your stride length and the length of each step.

Number of kilometres in 10,000 steps = 10,000 steps X Stride Length in kilometres

Stride length can be measured or calculated:
Women .413 * height
Men .415 * height

Now I am 175 cm tall so I imagine that means I would have the same stride length as the average man

So doing the maths

175 x 0.145 = 72.62 cm = 0.000725 km

So to walk 10,000 steps I have to walk 7.25km in a day

WOW so walking a 5km/hr I will have to walk for 87 mins per day

Now there is a goal and according to Napoleon Hill “A goal is a dream with a deadline”

2014 is the deadline

Is it SMART?

Have I got what it takes?

We will see wont we?