You know Why Walking Is Good for Your Health

Rumi, the 13th-century mystic writer, was keen on oral communication, “Beauty surrounds America, however typically we want to be walking in a very garden to understand it.”

I get it. So many times I whiz back and forth in my car, covering the same areas time and time again. It’s not until I get out there on my feet and slow down with a walk that I’m able to notice and take in the beautiful and minute details of my surroundings.

I don’t know about you, but lately, walking is on my mind a lot more than it’s ever been. Why? Well, for one thing, ever since I purchased a FitBit (in case you’ve been living under a rock and don’t know what that is, it’s a device worn around your wrist that measures your steps), I’m a lot more mindful of getting my steps to 10,000 a day (inspired by the Surgeon General’s recommendation to accumulate 30 minutes of activity most days of the week).

Suddenly, i do not mind obtaining up off the couch to fetch one thing in another area or obtaining up within the middle of the night to travel to the lavatory or parking my car in a faraway spot in a parking lot. It all yields more STEPS!

And for another, all this dire news about how dangerous sitting is to your health (when the majority of my day is spent sitting in front of my computer, writing) scares me. “It’s the new smoking!” headlines scream.

Scary.  UN agency is that the director of the salad dressing Clinic/Arizona State University Solutions Initiative, as well as the inventor of the treadmill desk (would love one of those!), has even written a book on it (Get Up!). I haven’t read it yet, but plan to.
Another health pioneer who is all for walking is wellness guru  who says that putting in 45 brisk minutes a day is “quite simply the best practice I can imagine for a lifetime of health.”

Among walking’s benefits, he lists:

Longer life: A study of some 8,000 men published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that over 12 years, walking two miles a day dropped the risk of death by nearly 50 percent. Walking seems to be particularly protective against cancer. The walkers cut their risk of death from cancer throughout the study amount by regarding sixty five p.c.

Lower weight: Several studies have shown that walking from 8,000 to 10,000 steps a day—roughly four to five miles—is highly effective as a means of weight loss.

A better brain:Â The National Council on Aging found that walking 45 minutes daily at a rather brisk 16-minute mile pace significantly boosted cognitive performance in people over age 60. Another study found that walking forty minutes 3 times weekly slowed the conventional, age-related shrinkage of the hippocampus. This part of the brain consolidates short-term memory and is one of the first regions to be damaged in those who have Alzheimer’s disease.

Dr. Weil suggests that despite the fact that walking could be a mild exercise, you need to put some effort into it to get the real benefit. “You ought to be able to cowl regarding 3 miles in forty five minutes,” he says. “You ought to breathe a lot of quickly, and see a rather elevated vital sign however still be able to persevere a speech.”

How about making it a team effort? Vionic, the footwear company, is working with Dr. Weil and celebrity trainer Juliet Kaska and sponsoring a super-easy way to get your walking in with a campaign that officially kicks off on February 1. You can sign up to improve your health and well-being by pledging to walk 30 minutes for 30 days by clicking here. It’s the next best thing to a personal trainer or having a little voice inside your head gently urging you onward every single day.