Walking To Lose Weight

When walking to lose weight needs some extra spice in it to keep the interest and enjoyment alive you could try aerobic dancing (which burns approximately 500 calories an hour) and doesn’t require much more than walking to lose weight when starting out.

I’ve written about Nintendo Wii’s Just Dance! previously and it’s great for fun and burning calories but the truth is that just as with walking, to get started on an aerobic dancing exercise program nothing much is needed.

First requirement is somewhere to dance. This is simply space enough to move and wave your arms, in front of the bedroom mirror is a popular option.

Second requirement is great music. A good beat is important but it can range from drumming to disco.

Just as when walking for weight loss exercise, the right attitude is important. Start with ten minutes and see how your body feels the next day. Add more as your body can take it.

Walking to lose weight is fantastic for the lower body mainly the legs. Moving your arms in a natural swing keeps the joints flexible. Add weights and the arm muscles get a workout.

What walking to lose weight cannot do normally is use those abdominals.

This is where dancing to lose weight can shine!

Use Latin style dance movements, hula or twists to trim this area of your body.

Latin dancers, male and female, have the most beautiful bodies.

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Why do you need a lifestyle change to make walking to lose weight a success for you?

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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Once you’ve started walking to lose weight and have actually remembered to do it regularly the best way to increase weight loss is to increase the calories burned walking, by adding variety with interval and power walking. However there are many ways to add to the calories burned and increase the other advantages which come from exercising your body.

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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After watchng and playing on the Wii this holiday, particularly Just Dance, it seems walking for weight loss may have a serious contest with other of the more technology based exercise tools. On the other hand it is possible that as much as I enjoyed it, the Wii is a part of the holiday or vacation mentality and not so much a regular way to enjoy exercise and its commensurate benefits.

Walking to lose weight continues to be of enormous benefit even in away from home or holiday mode. Recent vacation time for me included getting up and walking first thing, shopping at new boutiques and malls- lots of walking for weight loss- and activity from the time of awakening to bed at night, followed by restful restorative sleep.

I’m aware that the time we make for lifestyle change is often taken from elsewhere. It can be a challenge to find the extra time by removing another aspect of an existing fully comitted life.

This is done in a much better way when the new exercise routine can become a simultaneous goal with other important tasks which otherwise you may be reluctant to change.

Walking to lose weight is one of these ways of including weight loss exercise with normal daily tasks and goals. Another example is to use the Wii as part of the entertainment for friends and family.

The major advantage of walking for weight loss besides its calorie burning and muscle develping, is the ease with which you can adjust your lifestyle to joyfully include this regular exercise.

Don’t just be WiiFit this year-be walking for weight loss fit!

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