How are the steps coming?  The plan is to take the average of your steps for three days and then each week start adding 200 daily steps.  This is a small, but doable, change and those who started out with me should be seeing some increase in their movement by now.

But maybe you are stalling out at working in more steps.  Or maybe you feel you aren’t doing enough.  If so, you are ready to add a daily walk to your routine.

Walking has lots of benefits.  It doesn’t take special equipment, other than a good pair of walking shoes.  It isn’t strenuous for those who aren’t accustomed to exercise and, best of all, it frees your mind to think.   With exercise classes and weight equipment, your focus has to be on what your muscles are doing. Otherwise you might clonk yourself on the head with a weight, as I have done, or lose your step and get trampled by the class moving right when you are going left.  Also been there/done that!

For the next couple of weeks we will be focusing mainly on walking — and more.  We will discuss how to make your daily walk into a deeper walk with God.

First things first, though.  To succeed you have to start with a plan.  When are you going to walk?  Look at your schedule and see where it will fit best for you.  The more difficult it is to do it, the less likely that you will actually accomplish it.

Morning before breakfast is a good time for physical reasons.  Your body will burn up to 300% more fat if you exercise while fasting.  You might as walk do it when it will do the most good.  Also, the earlier you do it, the more likely that it will happen.  If you miss a morning you can pick it up in the afternoon or evening.  If you plan on evening and miss, you have lost your exercise day.

If you work at a job, lunch time might be a good option.  Take your walking shoes with you and plan a route to walk.

Slump time might be a good time for you.  Exercise lifts your mood, helps you think, and gets you away from the refrigerator.  A walk at slump time may turn your low time into a high.

Evening walks have the advantage that they burn off some of the calories of the last meal of the day and the long-term effects of the glucagon release works throughout the night.

You are unique. Figure out what will work best for you and make plans to do it.

Tomorrow:  Walking Plan part 2 — Where will you walk?

Eating to live and living for Christ,
Susan Jordan Brown