After learning the average American adult makes about one million steps in one-year, I set out, on September 1st, 2021, to test if it’s possible to make this number of steps — one million — in one month.
This is the story of how I proved, it’s not only possible to make one million steps in one month, it’s actually possible to make 1,067,520 steps in one month, WHILE being a reasonably good husband and father, and having a full-time job.
I’ll tell you this story by answering the three most frequent questions people have asked me about these one-million-plus steps:
1. What do one million steps look-like? In other words, “I can’t fathom one million of anything, let alone, one million steps.”
2. Why would you do such a thing? In other words, “don’t you have better things to be doing with your life?”
3. How the heck did you do it? In other words, “I don’t believe you did this, but if you did, I may want to do it too.”
What Do One-Million-Plus Steps Look-Like?
Distance
My 1,067,520 steps (35,584 steps per day) in the month of September 2021 equaled 504 miles (16.8 miles per day) or more than 19 marathons. For a geographical perspective, it’s 476 miles from New York City to Columbus, Ohio, 496 miles from Chicago to Freemont, Nebraska, and 504 miles from Phoenix to Salt Lake City, Utah.
Time
When walking with purpose, I averaged about 7,700 steps (or 3.6 miles) per hour. My 1,067,520 steps weren’t all achieved by “purposeful walking.” Additionally, my one-million-plus steps were from the walking required by my daily activities — making dinner, getting the mail, teaching a class, etc., and as you can imagine, “daily-activity walking” was significantly slower than 7,700 steps per hour. Thus, when combining purposeful walking and daily-activity walking, I was walking about five and a half hours per day for the 30 days of September.
Energy
Assuming 500 calories are burned for every 10,000 steps walked at a 3.5 mile per hour pace, my 1,067,520 steps expended 53,376 calories of energy or about 15 and a quarter pounds of body fat.
Why Would You Do Such a Thing?
“Because it’s there.” George Mallory made famous this answer after being asked why he was attempting to climb Mount Everest. When people asked me why I was attempting to walk one million steps in one month, I gave a similar answer to that of George Mallory’s. But I never needed Mount Everest, The English Channel or Mars to motivate my curiosity about testing what’s possible, instead I just needed what’s outside my front door.
Whether it’s walking a million steps, swimming an icy pool, cycling for 24 hours straight, donating at every Goodwill or consuming all the items on a restaurant’s menu, like Mallory’s Everest, these are simple, yet absurd attempts at overcoming our most basic of existential crises, in the forms of me against me, me against others, me against society, and me against nature.
How the Heck Did You Do It?
The method to this madness was uncomplicated: Schedule time for walking, then walk during these times. I scheduled five and a half hours of “walking time” per day. This seems like a lot of hours of a daily schedule until it’s put in perspective. Most of us have a lot more time than we realize. There are 168 hours in one week. For each of the weeks of September 2021, I slept 42 hours and I was awake for 126 hours. Of the 126 hours I was awake, I worked for 50 of them and was “at leisure” for 76 of them. Of the 76 hours I was at leisure, I ate, drank, and did “other” necessary bodily functions for 14 of them. Of the remaining 62 hours I was at leisure, I spent time with my wife and children. My wife and children can only handle spending time with me for so long which left plenty of time for my 38 and a half hours of walking per week (five and a half hours per day).
For those of you who want to know my actual daily walking schedule, I walked from 5 am to 7:30 am, then I walked during two, 1-hour work-breaks, one in the morning and afternoon, and lastly, I had a 1-hour evening walk.
My sheer curiosity about testing this walking possibility and my walking schedule served as intrinsic motivators, but I likely wouldn’t have made my one-million-plus steps if I didn’t include the extrinsic motivator of sharing my daily walking achievements with others on Facebook.
More than 150 Facebook friends commented on my daily walking updates and 11 Facebook friends commented or virtually cheered for me every single day of the 1,067,520 steps. This may seem trivial, but it’s not. Intrinsic motivators like my curiosity were wonderful at driving me towards achieving my step goals, but I could’ve easily adapted to and rationalized away my intrinsic motivators by simply saying to myself, “I’ve done enough.” Extrinsic motivators like sharing with others drove me towards achieving my step goals in ways I could’ve never predicted, thus they’re difficult, if not impossible to adapt to or rationalize away. For example, I was as extrinsically motivated to achieve my step goals by people telling me I couldn’t achieve one-million steps, as I was motivated by the people telling me I would be achieving one-million steps.
Speaking of motivation and people, three friends, and my mom, independently joined me in walking about 160,000 of the 1,067,520 steps. I otherwise walked alone with no headphones or air pods. I know this may be hard to imagine in the World today, but I used this “alone time” to think for the sake of thinking.
Some of the 1,067,520 steps I made while walking in the rain — and once while walking within electrified rain. (Note to self: Lightning can go from cloud-to-cloud to cloud-to-ground in the blink of an eye.) With temperatures ranging from 58 to 100 degrees Fahrenheit, I walked in a lot of different places, most of these places were routes I mapped in my neighborhood, which ranged in distance from 7,000 to 16,000 steps. When the weather wasn’t cooperating with me (too wet or too hot), I walked laps of a 150-step route I mapped in my home, or I walked laps of a 3,600-step route I mapped inside a local shopping mall.
My one-million-plus steps were walked in a pair of HOKA Bondi 7s (love them!) and tracked by two iPhones, an iPhone 6 (R.I.P. 9/15/2021) and an iPhone 12 mini.
What Have I Gained?
Before making the 1,067,520 steps in one month, I considered myself an “avid walker,” I’ve been averaging more than 11,000 steps per day since April of 2020, and I walked 100,000+ steps, in a single day in October of 2020. After making these one-million-plus steps, I consider myself an avid walker — with a strut. Lastly, and in addition to the strut, I gained a book full of memories, I gained six blisters on my right foot, and I gained one and a half pounds — despite burning more than 15 and a quarter pounds of body fat.
Not only do I know how to walk, I apparently also know how to eat.
…
Dr. Don Lucas, Ph.D. is a Professor of Psychology and head of the Psychology Department at Northwest Vista College in San Antonio Texas. He loves psychology, teaching, and research.
If you like this story, check out Don’s YouTube channel, 5MIweekly: https://www.youtube.com/c/5miweekly/videos/
#onemillionsteps #walking #exercise #10000steps #health
