Welcome to the Bluewater Walking Club

I’m starting the Bluewater Walking Club, and I have a feeling it’s going to become one of my favorite parts of Bluewater Lane.

The idea began with a simple goal: I wanted to get serious about walking 10,000 steps a day again. I already have an Apple Watch. I can check my steps whenever I want, close rings, watch the numbers climb and receive little reminders that I should probably stand up. But none of that made me particularly excited to walk.

What I wanted was something more fun, more seasonal and, honestly, a little less digital.

So I made a coloring tracker.

Instead of finishing a walk and immediately moving on to the next thing, I can come home, put my phone down, pull out my colored pencils and color in my progress. The more I walk, the more the page comes to life. There’s something ridiculously satisfying about watching a mostly blank page slowly turn colorful because I actually got my steps in.

It also gives the walk a satisfying ending: ten quiet minutes with an audiobook or some music, no scrolling, no notifications, just coloring. It feels like a tiny reward for doing something good for myself.

And that’s where the Bluewater Walking Club came from.

Every month, I’m going to create a new 10,000-step challenge with a seasonal theme, and then we’ll build a whole little month around it. This isn’t a complicated workout program or another giant wellness checklist. It’s simply a reason to get outside, walk more and have some fun along the way.

There will be places to walk, seasonal scavenger hunts, something good to listen to, little ways to make your steps less boring and probably something delicious waiting when we get home. I’ll be doing the challenges right along with you, sharing my walks, my coloring pages and whatever I find along the way.

First Up: Palms to Pumpkins

September felt like the perfect place to start.

Here in Southern California, everyone is suddenly ready for fall while the palm trees and 80-degree afternoons carry on as if nothing has happened. The stores have pumpkins. I’m thinking about cinnamon. I’m still drinking something iced.

So the first Bluewater Walking Club challenge is Palms to Pumpkins.

It’s a printable 10,000-steps-a-day coloring tracker that starts in late summer and works its way toward fall. Every day you get your steps in, you add more color to the page. By the end, instead of having only a bunch of numbers buried in your watch history, you have something you can actually see.

The printable is available in my Etsy shop for $5. You can grab the Palms to Pumpkins printable here. This will be the format going forward: a fresh challenge every month, a completely new seasonal design and another excuse to keep walking.

October is already calling my name.

Make the 10K More Fun

Ten thousand steps feels a lot more appealing when the only goal isn’t simply “reach 10,000 steps.”

This month, I want to walk at sunset, take an iced coffee somewhere pretty, wander through neighborhoods looking for the first fall decorations, walk somewhere I would normally drive, spend an afternoon browsing a bookstore and the shops around it, and take the long way whenever I have the time.

I also want to take a few walks without headphones. I love listening to something while I walk, but I don’t want every quiet moment filled. Sometimes I want to notice the houses, flowers, dogs, strange little details and all the places I normally drive straight past.

That’s part of what I want the Walking Club to become: not just “exercise,” but a reason to explore your own life a little more.

For Palms to Pumpkins, I’m also keeping a September scavenger hunt going. I’m looking for palm trees, pumpkins, pink sunsets, a Little Free Library, the first fall wreath I spot, a vintage car, something heart-shaped, a house I would happily move into tomorrow and anything that makes me stop long enough to take a picture.

You can make up your own additions as you go. Half the fun is simply having something to look for.

Walk & Listen

I want every Walking Club month to have an audiobook, too—something easy to listen to, clean, entertaining and good enough that I actually want to put my shoes back on because I need to hear the next chapter.

For September, I picked The Summer of Yes by Courtney Walsh.

It’s about two women at very different stages of life who start saying yes to experiences they normally would have passed up. There’s friendship, travel, romance and a lot of actually getting out there and living instead of sitting around thinking about all the things you might do someday.

It felt pretty perfect for the first month of this club.

My rule is going to be simple: if I want to keep listening, I walk.

After the Walk: Peaches or Pumpkins?

September can’t decide what season it is, so neither can we.

For the Palms side, I’m making a Peachy Sunset Smoothie.

Peachy Sunset Smoothie

Makes: 1 large smoothiePrep time: 5 minutes

Ingredients

• 1 cup frozen peach slices

• ½ cup frozen strawberries

• ½ ripe banana

• ½ cup plain Greek yogurt

• ¾ cup unsweetened almond milk

• 1 tablespoon fresh orange or lemon juice

• 1 scoop vanilla protein powder

• ½ cup ice

• Optional: 1 small handful of baby spinach

Instructions

1. Add the almond milk, Greek yogurt, orange or lemon juice, protein powder, frozen peaches, strawberries, banana and ice to a blender.

2. Add the spinach, if using.

3. Blend until smooth and creamy, adding another splash of almond milk if needed.

4. Pour into a glass and enjoy right after your walk.

It comes out cold, creamy and peachy-pink—basically September-is-technically-fall-but-nobody-told-California in a glass.

For the Pumpkins side, I’m making a Pumpkin Cinnamon Smoothie.

Pumpkin Cinnamon Smoothie

Makes: 1 large smoothiePrep time: 5 minutes

Ingredients

• ½ cup pumpkin purée

• ½ frozen banana

• ½ cup plain Greek yogurt

• ¾ cup unsweetened almond milk

• 1 scoop vanilla protein powder

• ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

• ¼ teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

• ½ teaspoon vanilla extract

• 1 tiny pinch of salt

• ½ cup ice

• Optional: 1 teaspoon maple syrup

Instructions

1. Add the almond milk, pumpkin purée, Greek yogurt, protein powder, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, vanilla, salt, frozen banana and ice to a blender.

2. Add the maple syrup, if using.

3. Blend until smooth and creamy.

4. Taste and add a little more cinnamon, maple syrup or almond milk if needed.

5. Pour into a glass and enjoy cold.

   
   

One tastes like we’re hanging onto summer. The other tastes like we’re already halfway to October. Exactly right.

From My Walk

I want to keep one little section in every Walking Club post for something I noticed while I was out.

Maybe it will be a sunset. Maybe a great house. Maybe pumpkins stacked outside a grocery store or a coffee shop I found because I decided to walk a few blocks farther than usual.

Nothing needs to be profound.

I don’t want 10,000 steps to become another number I hit and immediately forget. I want to remember some of the places those steps took me.

That’s the Bluewater Walking Club.

We’re walking 10,000 steps a day, coloring our progress, changing up the challenge every month and finding better reasons to get out the door than “my watch told me to.”

We’ll have a new theme every month, a new page to fill, a new audiobook, seasonal walks, scavenger hunts and whatever else makes the month more fun.

Palms to Pumpkins is where we’re starting

Grab the printable here, get your colored pencils ready and lace up your shoes.

We have 10,000 steps between us and a day worth remembering.

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