Summer days are long and an opportunity to add WALKING to your life! Here is a month-long program to remove your barriers to walking and become a Walking Woman.
Week 1: Barrier #1 : I’m out of shape! Wear a steps tracker. Activate your G-force! Get up and walk around every half hour for a few minutes (set a timer). Do foot strengthening and leg stretching exercises. Here are a few: stand on one leg and make circles with your foot using your ankle as the pivoting point, roll your bare foot over a rolled up towel or a foam bar, hang your heel of the edge of a stair tread and stretch your calf and Achilles tendon, pull your toes up and back, go barefoot). Be surprised to see how much you walk without trying.
Week 2: Barrier #2: I can’t find the time! Park your car at the far end of the parking lot and walk to where you need to go. Get off the bus one stop before your destination and walk the rest. Walk up the stairs instead of taking the elevator. Have a walking lunch. Walk around during phone meetings. Listen to messages, podcasts, programs while walking. Ask yourself when you’re sitting, “can I do this while walking/moving around?”
Week 3: Barrier #3: I have too much to do! Do 50% of your errands on foot. Map out your week’s necessary errands, combine the distant ones to one day and drive. Walk or bike to the closer ones. Get a backpack or cart to carry your groceries home. Fix up your bike with bike bags and haul your groceries in them.
Week 4: Barrier #4: Something always gets in the way! Establish a daily routine at a time you block out, be unavailable to others or let them join you! Keep it up if you’re traveling! Walk 3 miles, 6 days a week as a rejuvenating, relaxing walk. Or avoid interference with your walking by making walking part of your daily movement around the house, your place of work, your daily errands, or seeing the place you’re visiting. Are you walking while making phone calls? Are you walking up and down your stairs many times a day? Are you walking to the corner store yet? Are you walking to the next subway-stop/bus-stop? Find these opportunities in your day and enjoy a moment of walking and thinking, un-stressing yourself while you walk.
Now that you’ve come this far, you have established yourself as a “walker”. Keep it up for a few months and note the results; are you feeling better, do you have a little more energy? Do you sleep better at night? If you can say “yes” to these questions, you can work toward walking the recommended 10,000 steps daily and enjoy the results even more.
