Day 1 and 4,400 Steps

I had these great plans laid out for Day 1 of the Billion Steps Challenge. I was going to walk to the park, take my dogs with me, record a video (which would be amazing, of course), get all of my steps done, then go home for a relaxing evening of reading and whatever else I decided to do. Okay, some of that happened, but not exactly in that order.

First of all, I did take my dogs to the park. It looked really nice outside, because it was 50-some degrees here in Missouri. I was excited. The weather looked beautiful. When I went out to lunch, the wind picked up dramatically. I decided that was okay. It wasn't that big of a deal. I could still swing this. I could still walk with the dogs at the park.

I had my smart watch all charged up and ready to go. I actually was ready to go to the park, dressed and with my shoes on at the time that I said I was going to go to the park. I had my dogs all ready to go to the park, too. Their leashes were on. I was set. They were set. I drove to the park. Everything was going as planned.

My little dog and I are getting our walk on. 

Of course, I failed to take into consideration how my dogs act at the park. My littlest dog is a barker. She is a whopping seven and a half pounds, and she barks at everything. A leaf blows by, and she barks. When we arrived at the park, several ducks were swimming in the pond as well as some geese and a blue herron. That's a lot of birds for my little dog to bark at. My other dog was there, too. He's 12 years old, though, and he is super laid back. He reserves his barks for important things, like strangers approaching me.

I had this idea before I arrived at the park that I was going to film a little snippet for the Billion Steps Challenge with my littlest dog. My other dog weighs 25 pounds, so it would have been harder for me to maneuver him, my other dog, and the camera all at once. You can't see him in the video, but I am actually holding his leash with my camera-free hand. I failed to take into account my girl dog most likely would bark at anything and everything. In one take, a motorcyclist pulled up. She barked at him. The next one, a family was walking their dogs, and she barked at them. In another take, a young woman went by on her hoverboard. More barking. I think I did about five or six takes before I finally decided to go with the one that I had. Watch it and you'll see what I mean.

Once I recorded my video, I thought I would walk my 4,400 with my dogs at the park. No such luck. the wind started to pick up, and I had to literally hold onto my hat. Also, the wind was cold. I had to remind myself that in the Midwest, it's colder than it looks outside. And, it's colder than what the temperature says, too.

I packed up my dogs, and I drove home. As soon as we arrived home, the dogs wanted to go outside and play. When I let them in, we all had a snack of apple slices and peanut butter. I drank a nice tall glass of water and then a warm cup of tea. I looked at my smartwatch. I was several hundred steps short of my goal. So, I shuffled around the house in my slippers listening to a podcast until I reached my goal.

The moral of this story: Even if things don't go as planned, you can still reach your goals. And, you can have a great day and make a fun memory while doing it.