Walking to Lose Weight

Walking for exercise does a lot more for you than just burning calories. It helps build muscles in your legs and the increased muscle improves your metabolism. Then your improved metabolism helps your body burn more calories even when you're resting. Walking is also a cardiovascular exercise, so it improves the working of your lungs and heart. If that isn't enough to convince you to start, how about if you knew that walking also improves your thinking? It's true. Walking and other forms of exercise cause the brain to releases chemicals that help cause the brain itself to function better. Besides all that, walking can also have a calming effect on people. If you don't already enjoy walking, you owe it to yourself to try it. Don't just take my word for it though, have a look at some books written by experts on the subject, below.

Unlike some forms of exercise, walking doesn't require advanced planning, elaborate equipment, or special clothes. As long as what you're wearing is comfortable and relatively loose fitting you're probably good to go. One thing that is necessary though is a comfortable pair of walking shoes.
Lots of companies make good walking shoes. The most important criteria is how well the shoes fit you. If they don't fit you well, they will not be comfortable no matter how good the quality of the shoes are or how much they cost. Because the fit is so important I recommend that you don't buy them online, especially if you are buying a brand or style that you haven't tried before. Even two seemingly identical pairs can fit differently. It's better to buy them from a local shoe store so you have a chance to try them on and try them out before you buy them. Even if you spend a little more, it will be money well spent to have a pair of walking shoes that fit you well and are comfortable to wear.

Sometimes life can get busy and it seems like there is no way to find the time to exercise. For example if you swim for exercise, you have to drive to the swimming pool, change into your swimming clothes, (swim), shower, dry off, change again, and drive to your next destination. Going to a health club takes a similar investment in time. It can take longer to prepare for and clean up after than the amount of time you actually spend exercising. Walking is different. You always have your feet with you (and hopefully a pair of shoes) so no preparation is necessary - all you need to do is get up and start walking. Even so, it can be hard to set aside a half hour or so for a good walk. If that is the case for you, here are some ways to get some extra steps into your day that won't cost you extra time.

Take the Stairs Do you work in an upstairs office? If so, do you use the elevator? Walking up a flight of stairs is even better exercise than walking on level ground. It also won't take time out of your day. At my office, taking the stairs from the first floor to the fourth floor usually takes less time than waiting for the elevator because our building has the slowest elevator on the planet:)

Avoid the Break Room Are you allowed (or required) to take breaks at work? Here is another chance to do some walking. Spending 15 minutes in the break room watching TV or chatting with your coworkers won't improve your health. Why not use the time to take a walk instead? You might even get to take longer walks on your lunch break:)

Park Farther Out When you go shopping, how long does it take you to find a parking space? When I go shopping, I see some people stop and wait up to 10 minutes for another shopper to load their groceries and leave, just so they can get that parking space close to the front door. What a waste. Ten minutes of doing nothing but burning gas and going nowhere. Why not park away as far as possible? The walk from your car to the store is good exercise, especially on the way back pushing a full shopping cart:)

These are just a few easy examples of how to fit some walking time into your day. If you think about it, you can probably come up with a lot more good ideas yourself.

Walking is a very convenient form of exercise. It doesn't matter if you live in the city or country side, you can always find a place to walk. You always have all the necessary equipment with you (i.e. your body) so you can take a walk without any preparation needed. Since it's a low impact activity, you don't need to worry about showering afterward (unless you walk really fast or it's really hot outside). This makes it a good activity for your lunch break.
In other words, you probably don't have an excuse to not start a walking program. It will benefit your physical, mental, and spiritual health. Besides that, it's a lot of fun. It's a great way to get your husband off the couch. It will also calm down a fussy 4 year old boy.