Good Health Is No Secret – It’s Time To Make Changes

September 11, 2009

modern-aborigine It’s amazing to me that for centuries and beyond our ancient ancestors walked as a way of transportation and did you know they didn’t suffer from the diseases we know today. Albeit, they didn’t have many wheels to choose from, there weren’t cars, buses, bikes — just feet. They worked, hunted, walked across continents to get ahead of seasonal weather conditions — but they were healthy.

In many parts of the world today in primitive tribes, this type of lifestyle still exists. Researches have reported that diabetes, cancer, obesity and a gazillion other health issues do not exist in these tribes. They don’t have Tylenol or Advil or even wear shoes, and yet they are very strong and healthy, living a simple life without stress or the conveniences of modern day living. They don’t eat Hot Pockets out of the freezer, they feed from natures resources.

Let’s be honest for a minute, we KNOW that poor eating and sedentary lifestyle lend to the health issues that are compounded generation after generation. Now we accept obesity and diabetes as part of our hereditary through our genetic makeup. We have conditioned ourselves to believe that most of our ailments are a predisposition at birth or part of our DNA. This may be true to a certain extent, but you don’t have to be the next generation.

Over the next week I’ll be posting lots of research findings to help educate readers that WE CAN BATTLE the bulge, WE CAN BATTLE and PREVENT diabetes. Walking is the key to good health for all of your body systems ( if you visit http://www.walk2bfit.com and click on Walking you can see a long list of benefits that walking provides). Not only is walking good for your physical well-being, it’s also great for your emotional well-being. Walking relieves stress, depression, changes your personality type, helps with insomnia, provides mental clarity, well, the list goes on. Good health is no secret, you can find information on-line, in line at the grocery store (as you read magazine headlines, “Walk the pounds off!”, “You are what you eat!”), on television — just about anywhere you go, you can tap into a plethora of health and fitness information. Isn’t time to take control and make changes?

Many people looking to get into shape and lose weight choose walking as a way to do so. It makes sense: It is low-impact, pleasurable, and manageable for most fitness levels, making it far from intimidating. Further, it has been widely accepted that walking three times a week for 30 minutes each time can help bolster your cardiovascular health. But is walking really enough to get into good physical condition? Unfortunately, I would have to say no.

Saying that walking is the only thing you need is like saying that gas is all your car needs to function properly. If you neglect the engine, don’t put oil in it and don’t inflate the tires, the car eventually will stop running properly. Walking is a great activity to incorporate into a healthy lifestyle, but it isn’t the begin all and end all of being in great physical shape.

If you haven’t exercised regularly for a long time, walking is a good way to start getting back into a regimen. But to make it really work for you, remember the following:

Are you strolling or are you pushing yourself? More than the exercise itself, getting your heart rate up into a zone of 65-85% your maximum heart rate is important to making the activity beneficial.
Walk on a treadmill to pace yourself. You should try to walking between 3.5 to 4.5 miles per hour. This will ensure you are getting some sort of cardiovascular workout. (If you don’t have a treadmill, get a pedometer and try to steadily increase the number of steps you take within the 30 minutes, every time you walk). Once you are able to walk in this range for 30 minutes comfortably, challenge yourself. Try jogging. If not, try to walk faster and longer. As you become more fit, you will need to work harder to get the same benefit.
Try to incorporate some strength training into your workout. It will help you to build muscle and raise your metabolism…which will burn more calories…which will help you lose weight.
Make sure you are eating properly. Even if you were to walk an hour a day, every day of the week, but you continued to eat poorly, you would not see results.