Because weight loss is a function of many aspects of your life i.e. your lifestyle, and a consistent effort is needed.

The main effort is mental. Focus and attention. Follow through on commitments and promises, usually made to yourself.

And monitoring of results, and here, I mean the daily small changes that need to be made and corrected as you go.

The advantage of making walking to lose weight a lifestyle change is the  mindset it brings with it. If some aspect of  walking daily really doesn’t suit you currently are you likely to make a significant attempt to do it over the long term? If however you see it as a step in the process of  changing your life for the better will you make or plan the necessary changes into your life even if it takes some time or requires rethinking decisions already made such as where you live?

Once you make lifestyle changes walking to lose weight is built in. The thinking about it becomes secondary. It is self fulfilling.

How many ways could walking be built into your life ?

The beauty of walking to lose weight is its simplicity. The longevity of weight loss and walking in your life depends upon the refinements which are made to ensure that it remains relevant, attractive and doable.

If you’ve been thinking about walking for weight loss, then think about what other changes you could make.

For instance, as you get older stairs may be something you normally avoid. Yet a house with steps (and an alternative flat access for times when it is needed) is an instant weight loss tool. Taking the stairs in shops, at work, at the train station are all real help for an active healthy lifestyle.

Shortly I will be announcing how to sign up for my newsletter, for those who want more from walking to lose weight than weight  loss. This is just a starting point. Get started and be prepared to change your whole life for the better.

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With walking however there are real assets in your life. Versatile and fun options which contribute to social skill as well as fitness, health and well being, such as getting to know an area, enhancing creative thinking, making walking buddies, taking walking tours and holidays, etc.

Passionate belief is a great motivator and great to have on board. Build up that passion over time and it has even more staying power.

Walking to lose weight is a way of incorporating meaningful change by breaking it into small doses of the new combined with a solid foundation of the old. Over time the incremental changes in walking intensity make for impressive weight loss.

Accept walking to lose weight as a meaningful part of your daily life and build it into your lifestyle in contributing ways and suddenly you become one of the minority of people who are on top of their weight issues.

If you haven’t done it before and you’re in need of reassurance that walking is a reasonable thing to do, go to a beach side suburb or green area with decent walking paths and see the number of people, usually in ones or twos, who are there to walk, as exercise.

The age range is wide: from young adult to the elderly. Those young ones tend to slimness and walk fast. Probably mainly female, with young men more into running. The walkers in older ages ranges can also be slender and vigorous suggesting that walking keeps you fit and suits many types.

It may be that overweight walkers prefer to be away from popular spots to do their walking but contrary to myth those who choose to make walking a regular part of their health routine are various and it is increasingly acceptable for all sorts.

Walking to lose weight suits the many because it is adaptable and easy to individualize.

Accept that weight loss means a lifestyle change and walking to lose weight has much to offer anyone.

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Walking to lose weight for some people is easily integrated into their life and achieves their weight loss requirement of say 5 pounds. If you don’t fall into the category of needing only a little tune up (losing up to 10 pounds) but need to lose more, then inactivity is likely to be a major cause. If you are more than 10 lbs overweight and very active at work or daily, than the cause must be what you eat.

So for those who are majorly inactive, and overweight, walking is a real life saver. It is relatively easy to do, and there are generally no fancy requirements but taking the time to do it often means making the time and this is where attitude can really affect your results.

Are you miserly in your attitude towards making time for walking for weight loss?

Do you let every minor deterrent be a good enough reason to not walk?

Check back with me over the next few weeks as I put together a few posts on the sneaky way an attitude overhaul can change your lifestyle for the better by walking to lose weight. Let me know if your attitude is affecting your walking schedule and any ways you may have found to get through them.

For example: does the weather stop you? do you need company? don’t feel like it? feel too tired?

Contact me through Walking to Lose Weight if you wish to contribute a guest post; leave a comment below or tweet me @walk2loseweight.

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The crux of the weight loss exercise argument is always about calories burned. Aerobic or fat burning exercise produces more calories burned in a shorter time than walking. Once I have a certain level of fitness which can sustain faster or more intense exercise without causing undue restriction to ongoing activities (the easiest way to derail an exercise program is to overdo it and force quit ) then walking to lose weight can be supplemented with very effective calorie burning for those occasions when walking for an hour is not an option for me.

Just Dance! for an hour would probably burn 500+ calories. Walking at a brisk pace would burn around 300. Time vs effort is the equation!

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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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The starting point is always relevant when walking to lose weight.

Your starting weight, your fitness, your current level of activity.

Since the Walking to Lose Weight blog caters for the exercise-challenged and adds calorie burning rather than focusing on decreasing calories consumed, it does not mean that diet is considered irrelevant.

Responsible eating is required for successful weight loss even with the addition of walking to lose weight on a daily or thrice weekly rate.

Initial impact from adding exercise should be the loss of weight but over time one’s body acclimatizes and uses less energy for the same workout. This then requires two changes- the walking quota must increase and the diet modified to cut out obvious excess.

Tips:

1. At all times the increase in walking to lose weight should not result in higher calories eaten.

2. Drinking will need to increase to balance moisture loss but should be made up of water or low calorie drinks, or vegetable juices such as carrot. Check for the calorie information. Do not assume that a flavoured drink of any kind is low in calories unless labeled as such. Fruit juice can be very high in sugars.

3.Look at your existing diet particularly what you drink. Alcohol, sodas, fruit juices, milk drinks are generally high in calories unless made with low fat dairy products, artificial sweeteners or are unsweetened. Replace with water or other low calorie drinks.

4. Balance your food intake. Avoid cutting down on food early in the day and then becoming so hungry that you eat any and all the food you can find, later in the day.

5. Unless you have the time and willingness to shop and prepare foods which are low in calorie and fats become a low calorie shopper. Look for and sample the different low calorie versions of many foods ensuring you are never without a low calorie food option when  hungry. Try to identify those items you enjoy as snacks or meal substitutes. E.g. raw carrots, low calorie yogurts, low calorie frozen meals, low fat milk.

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I’ve had the WiiFit for some time and have always been a big fan. It has always supplemented walking for weight loss, and gives guidelines, weight management advice and some fun exercises.

Since Christmas though I am an avid fan of ‘Just Dance’ the Wii dance game. Watch the trailer below to get the idea. The point of using such a way to exercise is to let the fun take over, not worry about the scores or what you look like. The beauty of it is that anyone dancing doesn’t have time to look at anyone else and crticize.

Some of the the advantages of dancing for weight loss is presented in this article Kelly Osbourne Shows Off Weight Loss.

Dance like no one is looking, at home and lose weight. As with walking to lose weight these are normal activities which are natural and easy to do. Add a little gadgetry and a good time can be had by all!

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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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The big sell about walking to lose weight is that it takes off inches and gets your clothes to fit better! Walking in all its forms is fantastic life enhancing exercise for most people who are otherwise inactive. Walking for weight loss has other goals in addition to the wonderful benefits. These are some of the benefits which I have felt and am experiencing: my health and energy is maximized, my mood is generally good, and balances easily if I move away fom that, I am flexible and can do a bigger variety of activities, which otherwise I would have avoided (lifting heavy objects) or found someone else to do instead (play the Wii with the kids).

Having said that, the walking to lose weight beginner can get misled into believiing they are doing more than they are. Yes any activity improves your health and well being but for weight loss more is required.

Start anywhere, but be prepared to move quickly into a situation which benefits you the way you want. Others do not necessarily share your enthusiasm or goals and may even be reluctant walkers. This is not good for your long term success. Be aware that you may need to move on when a walking to lose weight partner is oblivious to doing more as you progress and build up your stamina and leg muscles.

One of the big drawbacks of weight loss programs designed around partners or carers, occurs if independence is  not built in.

Find others with similar goals and use any tools, websites or group activities which enhance your own progress. Walking to lose weight with a ’social’, reluctant or disabled walker, etc. can satisfy many other goals but probably weight loss will not be one of them. Seek others with similar goals to supplement your own enthusiasm if that should become necessary.

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Having satisfied whatever desire to break the rule I felt at the time, I have returned to my first love which is walking to lose weight as a title. It seems much more meaningful to me and is a cornerstone of my well being strategy. Just as an alcoholic may think it better to see himself as an alcoholic even after numerous years on the wagon, I like the idea of keeping my weight loss maintenance through a walking (to lose weight) program.

Also as successful weight loss through walking requires preparation on the part of long term over eaters and under exercisers, the same is true for home based Internet Marketers when first starting out if you have worked for a large organization previously. The routines, responsibilities and logistics of working from home, and for yourself, make it normal to require a transition period for learning how best to create a high performance lifestyle.

The advantages of walking as a daily activity for home business owners is enormous- stress relief, creativity, mood control, health and energy improvements, physical well being, etc.

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