Walk Your Way to Great Health

Walking is a great form of exercise that can help you to become healthier, happier, more fit, thin, and live longer. If you want health and longevity, walk your way to it using the following five tips:

Tip one: Make it fun. Most people would agree that hard exercise is not very fun. If you want to walk your way to a healthy new you, you have to make it exciting or enjoyable enough that you will do it on a consistent basis. A few suggestions include purchasing an iPod or other listening device and downloading books on CD, your favorite music, and more. Other ways to make walking more fun are to join a walking group, that way you have someone to talk to, and people to enjoy being around as you walk to health. Another option is to walk to a destination that is fun. For example, walk to a park. Walk to a pond where you can feed ducks, et cetera.

Tip two: Protect yourself: feet, skin, all of you. While walking is great for your health, if you come home with huge blisters, a bad sunburn, or broken limbs from getting hit by a car, your health is likely to suffer more than benefit from the walk. So, one tip for walking your way to a healthy new you is to do it in the right shoes. You have to find comfortable, supportive, and breathable footwear that will not cause you to have injuries, and that will feel good when you walk, not rubbing your feet wrong and causing blisters to form. In addition you should always apply sunscreen before going outside, wear a hat, and be properly hydrated. Lastly, be sure that you stay out of the road, and make yourself visible to traffic. This means if you walk at night, wear some reflectors, and stay off the road as much as possible. While you may occasionally need to cross the street, stay out of it at other times.

Tip three: Get a pedometer. This is going to help you keep track of how far you are going so that you can measure your success and get the rewarding feel of being able to see that you walked a great deal. In addition, you can purchase ones that have heart rate monitors or other extras, so you can measure how hard you are pushing yourself among other things. The investment is worth it.

Tip four: Walk further and faster. If you want to walk to a healthier new you, you can’t just take a leisurely stroll. Work to get your heart rate up and get a decent workout in. If you can push yourself some, or walk a long distance you will get more benefit than you would if you don’t.

Tip five: Be consistent. If you are going to get health benefits from walking it is not something you can do on occasion. You have to be consistent with it, walk every day, and make it an enjoyable exercise. You can set up a time and walk with friends, or you can walk during your lunch break at work, or something similar. Going two days without walking will result in not as positive of results. You will lose more weight, feel better, live longer, and have less disease if you consistently walk and combine that consistency with the other four tips.