Start walking: Are you ready boots?
Listen to this articlePart three of Ron Irwin’s road to weight loss.
The critical reason why I strongly recommend that you walk 30 minutes twice a day every day is because it starts the process of forming a new healthy habit. I again want to emphasize that this is all about making necessary positive lifestyle changes and not going on yet another diet. So whatever else you may do by all means take those two 30 minute hikes each and every day.
Of course, depending on where you live and your physical condition there can be circumstances that make walking 30 minutes twice a day extremely difficult. You could, for example break your leg or be in the hospital giving birth. That degree of physical incapacitation is obviously a valid excuse but most others, including adverse weather are not valid excuses.
It is January in Idaho and the snow is coming down hard. The temperature is below freezing and the mere thought of going for a walk is repulsive. Sure, if you could only walk outside, but under conditions like this walk in your house, or barn or garage or a nearby grocery store or even a shopping mall. Or you live in southern Nevada and the temperature is well into triple digits. Well same thing, stay inside but walk 30 minutes inside your home, a store, a mall or even a casino.
Going even beyond your two 30 minutes walks continuously take actions that enable even more walking. Rather than always trying to park as close to a doorway as possible, park at the far end of the lot. Need to go to an office on the third floor, well walk up the stairs and ignore the elevator. When at the grocery store start creating the habit of walking each and every isle even when just picking up a bag of tomatoes.
The more you do these things the more movement you achieve and the stronger will be your new habit of movement and better health. But while walking is the foundation there are plenty of other ways to get more exercise.
Very much related to walking but with the added benefit of increased cardio activity is jogging and running. In fact if you prefer you may include in your two 30 minute daily walks periods of jogging and/or running as suits you.
walk this fat off me.”
Moving beyond simple walking, jogging and running consider any sport that appeals to you. Bicycle riding, soccer, tennis, swimming, softball and even just tossing the ball around with a friend or two elevates your movement even more and in the process burns even more calories. Even golf can be beneficial but only if you leave the cart at the pro shop.
It is all about increasing your movement. The two 30 minute walks per day are the cornerstone, but you are encouraged to expand upon that. What you will discover is that the more you move the more you will want to move.
Movement feels great once it has been fully integrated into your daily routine. And even if you do nothing about your food intake by increasing your movement you will begin to burn more calories and you will begin to lose those very much unwanted extra pounds.
That said, what you do eat is critical to your overall health so I will be discussing that very soon. But before I move on I want to leave you with this sad but very important Hollywood story.
It is common but very wrong to believe that simply because someone is rich and famous they don’t run the same risks and suffer the same difficulties as the rest of us “ordinary” people do. Born in Madison, Wisconsin in 1964 this television and movie star quickly rose to fame with Saturday Night Live. He had major roles in such big time movies as Wayne’s World, Coneheads and Black Sheep. Yet for all of his fame and fortune Chris Farley died at the tender age of just 33 years.
The primary cause of death was deemed to be a drug overdose but the autopsy also revealed that the extremely obese Mr. Farley suffered from advanced atherosclerosis, which was determined to be a significant contributing factor in his demise. That disease was directly related to Mr. Farley’s extreme obesity.
He was a very talented man but he left our world at far too young an age. The lesson to be learned is that talent, fame and fortune cannot assure long life, but walking absolutely does make a difference.
You can, at any time, get your very own copy of my true and real guide to effective and permanent weight loss, Lose Live available at lulu.com, amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com. Just be sure to keep checking in right here for regular updates. And if you have a question or comment for me please send your email to: [email protected]
Copyright © 2016 Ron Irwin
All photos by Ron Irwin
Ron Irwin was born in Chicago, Illinois a long time ago. He served in the Marine Corps in Vietnam, became a trial lawyer, TV and radio host, CEO of a public company and once held an Emmy. He never won an Emmy he just held one. Ron has written and published twelve books. His most important book to date is “Live, Die, Live Again” in which Ron tells of his early life and his unexpected and very temporary death in 2012. That experience dramatically refocused his life and within the pages of that book Ron reveals how he achieved a much healthier life, ridding himself of Diabetes, Cancer and Heart Failure. Now Ron enjoys writing about many things including health topics, travel [he has circled the globe several times], adventure, culinary experiences and the world of performing art. Ron’s motto is “Live better, live longer and live stronger because it feels great and annoys others.” Contact the author.