This video below is fun for me because when I first started Walking to Lose Weight blog I wrote a post about avoiding excuses for not walking and included a video with the same topic and from memory the same doctor talking about walking for weight loss in the rain. In the first video he was holding an umbrella! Walking to lose weight is a lifestyle because of the dedication you demonstrate when overcoming the ‘issues’ that you can choose to let get in the way, or choose to look for answers or solutions to resolving the obstacle.

The first step is to make an attitude change if for some reason the ease of starting walking has led you to believe that you will never have to change your mind or food habits, make decisions supporting your new hobby and try doing it differently occasionally.

Walking in the rain or going to the gym, using a treadmill at home, walking early morning in the  local mall…These are some examples of solutions for weather problems that I use all the time!

Think of it this way-I am an active person (or becoming an active person) so I will do what an active person would do under these circumstances. An active person feels better for exercising so prioritizes it, an active person sees benefits for herself and others (children, partner, other walkers) from her activity, so feels good about doing it. An active person finds way to make walking, exercise, running more than a means to an end, because there is no end. Old age is not about sitting back and relaxing! Use the extra wisdom you’ve gained from those years and enjoy living.

However tiredness is a potential problem that can be resolved with trial and error. How much tiredness is from muscles and joints getting a workout for the first time ever perhaps? How much is from physical exhaustion? When you increase your level of exertion such as I did from the beginning of this month it has an effect on your tiredness during and at the end of the day.

Take a lesson from athletes and take care of yourself with proper treatment of injuries or concerns. There is a vast array of creams and potions for strains and blisters etc. so use self care first unless you have done something serious where professional help is necessary.

For hints and tips for how I stay above the real world issues that could prevent staying focused on walking to lose weight join my free mailing list for insight and advice from my ebook.

The point is to do as much with what you’ve got until the time you can develop higher fitness levels or have reached your personal limit. Stretch those boundaries to determine just how far you can go.

Keep on with the walking even if at lower intensity until any physical ailment resolves itself. If you are really tired then sleep-an early night or cat nap worked well for me when long work days added stress to the list of issues. Walking aids depression sufferers so it may actually be the ‘fix’ needed.

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I’m going in to a period of increased cardio and weight loss over 30 days and writing posts daily about my thinking processes. Incorporating walking for weight loss, running for increased calorie burning and general activity is the process. I am training for a ‘marathon’. Not the traditional running or walking event but a vacation!

Today I am using basic visualization techniques to help motivate me. These are not the end goal of a bikini clad goddess (I leave that to the young or more adventurous) but the vivacious full of energy magnet for fun and feeling good, who looked great in swim wear, shorts and evening gear. Note the use of past tense as I build my visualization.

I  had an action packed sun and fun filled January (note the past tense, goal achieved) including an intense 12 day cruise, that would be the equivalent of a marathon, unless I trained for it. My goals for this cruise include enjoying as much as the onboard and port activity as I can and still have time for relaxation!

The key that seems to have slipped notice of many people that if you are not used to having a really good time you have to prepare for it. So to look as good as I want and to have the energy and enthusiasm for lots of action I am starting now. At my age and lifestyle (behind a computer a lot of the time) even with my regular walking to lose weight activity, I can benefit from this process of preparing both mentally and physically.

The overall success will be enhanced if I use (as I am doing) a memory visualization as well. During this short visualized ‘dream’ that focuses on the end goal I am adding the ‘memory’ of how much I enjoyed the process of getting into shape, increasing my energy and fitness, and how valuable it has been for my enjoyment of my new lifestyle.

Doing walking to lose weight as a lifestyle means that there are times when preparing or training adds to your success!

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I’d been there but not without interval training with intense calorie burning exercises while also walking to lose weight. I have done this a few times, with the same result. The voice of reason prevailed. The result from ‘urgent change’ exercises such as the high intensity calorie burning of spinning, is initial high fat loss which returns after giving up the exercise.

The implication is the same-whatever exercise is introduced must be maintained in some consistent way.

If you decide today to walk across America but haven’t done a day’s real exercise for several years, is it going to be successful? Read any account from those who have taken on a physical challenge which is out of the norm, and realize that they prepare.

Even walking for weight loss requires a period of adjustment for success.

You know you have made the changes necessary for success when:

you feel good about your body and the changes in it;

you enjoy looking after your body and grooming tasks more than ever;

the world has a soft glow which you feel when out in it.

Walking to lose weight is a lifestyle which suits many people to maintain consistently over time and one of the reasons is that it is so rewarding everyday.

Some of the ways you can make it enjoyable for everyday is to do fun, good feeling things when you are not walking. These are obviously ideas which also contribute to weight loss or feeling good about your body, or just being alive. You know what I mean!

This is the answer I give when asked about being aggressive with walking to lose weight: try to work up to this level of exercise at a slower rate which means that the new exercise can be maintained.

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One of the frustrations for walkers or runners is that a favorite route will go off road onto paths or byways which make the distance traveled when walking to lose weight difficult to tally. While a pedometer is an obvious answer, there is also the mapping software available at Running Map and Google GMaps Pedometer which is a similar system with the extra finesse of calculating calories burned as well.

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Walking to lose weight outside offers the potential opportunity to do other exercises. Recently I was walking in a park with a friend-we were walking for weight loss as were many other people who were there-and discovered that the park had an outdoor gym with some interesting gym-type equipment. It was fun and added some more intense muscle exercises and a diversion to our walk.

When in a park or grassy area which lends itself to sport or activity it is more comfortable to do some exercises which wouldn’t look right in your suburban street. However you could do them at your house at the end of the walking for weight loss, or with the Wii.

My suggestion today is to add lunges -doing a set of 10 every half mile or 500 meters. They could be walking lunges or stationary.

Always allow your body particualry the leg muscles to warm up before lunging, and if you haven’t done them for a while or are new to them start gently and judge how your legs are coping before intensifying.

For far too many years I couldn’t ‘do’ lunges. For some reason the lunge fairy hadn’t stood on my shoulder and sprinkled the fairy dust and I reluctantly lunged. In case you had the same errors in your thinking as I did I will pass on my new way of doing lunges which now gets me rated as ‘very good’.

To lunge:

Stand with your feet slightly apart and take one leg back behind, with the heel of this foot off the ground and the toes on the ground and flexed, balancing and taking the weight.

The front knee must not come over the toes when bent so move the back leg further back if this is the case.

The ‘lunge’ is bending the front knee as the back knee moves towards the ground.

Stability comes from the placement of the back leg- not too close or they are impopssible to do, or too far back and balance is lost. Try until you can keep balanced while doing the lunge down and back up.

Don’t worry if your back knee doesn’t seem to go too far down at first. Unless you have a mirror it is hard to tell just how far you are getting that back knee down.

Walking to Lose Weight Hints:

1. The important leg in this exercise is the back one. Focus on dropping that back knee rather than bending the front one.

2. When taking the leg back, think ‘balance’ rather than taking a direct line backwards. It may be easier for you to take your back foot off line a few inches. Avoid going so far as to require your body to twist when you are lunging.

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Can using an extra 100 calories daily lose weight when we know that a pound of fat is made up of 3500 calories?

Yet it does. Over time, and more quickly than these figures suggest.

Sometimes it can be easy.

Other times it takes a combined effort of diet and extensive exercise.

There is a magical process which works to make the calories in and out equation more productive than it looks from this information.

It occurs when a number of aspects of diet and movement, metabolism and body chemistry combine in such a way that weight loss occurs quicker than the simple burning of calories suggests.

All things being equal the benefit of calories burned through exercise is more than simply a withdrawal from the fat bank account but the increased metabolic rates and standing body rates of ongoing life support.

Knowing too much can be discouraging and  irrelevant unless you are selectively using monitoring of behaviour rather than results.

The connection between food and calories made by recording food and calories eaten can be insightful and effective.

The connection to exercise is more problematic-it has more than a calories burned impact, dependng on the type of exercise it can effect metabolism as muscle uses more energy for maintenance than fat. And walking for weight loss can provide a way of feeling in control. it offers a solution after the horse has bolted i.e. having overeaten then walking can ameliorate the guilt or physical affects in addition to the calories burned walking.

Recording pedometer steps helps motivation towards achievement of a target such as 10,000 daily steps. It allows the user to become conscious of their movement and liable to add extra when possible. For eating the recording of food as it is eaten becomes a means of avoiding unconscious eating.

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