Hi friends! Well we’ve had some amazing weather here in the Midwest, it’s been so warm and sunny, great weather for doing more walking. That is the focus of my post today. 

  
Did you know that you can add SEVEN YEARS TO YOUR LIFESPAN BY WALKING FOR 20-25 MINUTES DAILY?!! I had to put that in caps because it is such an incredible fact. 

Now that’s not to say that’s all you need to do, obviously you still need weight training and a healthy diet. If you also add in weight training and interval training to your fitness regime you can add an ADDITIONAL 3-7 YEARS TO YOUR LIFESPAN!

  
 Walking is important for a few different reasons. First, if you’re walking you’re not doing one of the worst things for us and the thing we Americans do far to much of, and that is sitting. Sitting for long periods of time is known to lead to type 2 diabetes, among other diseases. Second, walking helps delay the onset of dementia, serves as an anti-depressant and improves cognitive function. Yep, all that with a simple 20-25 minute walk! 

And if you vary the pace of your walk you can burn 20% more calories than if you walk at a consistent pace. Slowing down and speeding up help to create a varying pace, but stopping and starting are where the most energy is expended in a walk. Another thing that helps is to walk with weights or a backpack to burn more calories. Oh, and walking in a curving route rather than a straight line will also burn more calories. All of these things can be achieved when walking with dogs because if you’ve ever walked a dog you know they slow down, speed up, stop suddenly, and definitely don’t follow a straight line. Also, since I have two dogs and they pull hard despite wearing pronged collars, it takes all of my energy to pull them back so they don’t run into the road and get hit. I’m burning some calories for sure!! Getting a dog has so many advantages, too many to name here, but one of the best ones is that they get me MOVING.

So that’s my message for the day for my wonderful readers, get moving and keep moving! If you have a fit bit or a step app on your phone aim for 5,000-7,000 steps per day, but 10,000 is the ultimate goal to reach for. Moving to a new home is a great way to get your steps in because since we moved a week and a half ago I’ve increased my steps to the 10,000 range daily unpacking all the boxes, and it’s great weight training at the same time. Win-win! Keep on walking and you’ll live a life of vitality- with Valerie!