Walking to lose weight is a lifestyle choice because the exercise must be for the rest of your life if you have a chronic overweight issue.

I have been living this lifestyle and experienced many of the implementation challenges and concerns that you also have. Simultaneously with monitoring food intake and walking to lose weight I have taken the feel good approach to making exercise, activity and vitality a fundamental asset in my life.

Feeling good about what you do is a basic of law of attraction technique.

As I read through some of my previous posts there was so much I liked that it became a bit difficult to choose. I will return to some more of my older posts again-these are from 2010 and 2009.

Walking to Lose Weight Breakthrough:

Each time you  make the decision to feel good about what you are doing when walking for weight loss you have made a breakthrough. And just like when working, the option to feel good is always available.

Making Walking to Lose Weight a Lifesytyle

Take the focus off weight loss. Put it on life! This is not a weight loss program but a lifestyle.

Yes overweight people have a life. Look at Oprah. Overweight isn’t a code word for loser but for lifestyle habits which don’t encourage bodily well being. What is needed is a life style which supports our continued healthy active well being.

Lifestyle change is the answer because hanging onto the lifestyle which caused the problem in the first instance isn’t.

If you are prepared to make weight loss a lifetime activity then lose weight and then go back to exactly what you were doing in your life before which resulted in the weight gain.

Lifestyle modification is the key. That means activity or walking or other exercise for several hours a week.

Somehow most of us seem to believe that keeping weight off should be easier than losing weight but is it?

Aging and Walking to Lose Weight:

The story of this 78 year old nun who leads an extremely active lifestyle, makes me aware of the standard of well being which is acceptable for most people at 78. And it ‘s not a high level of activity. Often health is an issue, particularly aggravated by over weight and “aging” body dysfunctions. Walking to lose weight is ideal for the older person needing to lose weight, although it may require starting very slowly, and with assistance.

Over a life many of us consider the older we get the better off we will be if we decrease activity. It’s easier to get others to do the running about, and each neglected body part becomes more achy.

Generally speaking, as we age, we don’t feel older, until our bodies start feeling that way. If then we connect the two and decide that we are old because our body doesn’t work like it used to, or vice versa, we are accepting a convenient myth. It’s convenient because it saves looking for another answer but it is not an answer that I like.

Technorati Tags: aging, exercise, law of attraction, Lifestyle, walking, walking to lose weight, weight loss

We all find times when we like to relax. It feels really good under certain circumstances. Yet there are times when it feels really good to be excited too! There is a repression of ‘excitement’ amongst many families. Excitement makes someone harder to control. The growing trend towards finding your passion or the desire to have a passionate life is a reflection that many have lost it.

Fear of excitement in others can be one reason for negative attitudes towards another’s attempt to make significant changes. When it comes to exercise the effect of a regular dynamic body workout is to eventually become energized and want to do things.

As we age we often lessen excitement along with vigor. Vitality tends to come along with active lives. Sedentary lives often attract weight gain and muscle loss.

Part of walking to lose weight as a lifestyle is the physically joyful approach to the world around you that is very soon automatic when you start walking. It becomes second nature to look for the beauty of nature or human endeavor.

Watch children playing. We like them to have fun and there is a number of ways each of us let ourselves experience good times. There are the quiet times. Then there are active times. A balanced person is able to be fully engaged in both. Watch a kitten or dog.

Walking is a major form of activity that fits into most lives easily. It is of benefit in countless ways.

An additional benefit is to be able to start thinking of yourself as an action person!

I am a person of action.

Simply by starting a walking lifestyle you have taken a significant step to weight loss and control of your weight.

To make sure you don’t miss any Walking to Lose Weight posts subscribe below.

Technorati Tags: exercise, walk, walking, walking to lose weight, weight loss

I dislike any implication that ‘weight’ should be thought of as a lifetime disease that perhaps may come with the idea of continuously walking to lose weight. The real purpose is to start with walking or any other routine activity as an add on to your lifestyle that wasn’t there before, and to integrate it with such thoroughness that the benefits including but not especially ongoing weight balance, flow every day.

Also while starting with the easiest option (walking) it is by far the healthiest and most effective to continuously try out and apply differing exercise and diet techniques to add variety, for the fun factor, and to intensify calorie burning.

Keep Walking to Lose Weight does convey the fundamental premise of successful lifetime weight balance for those with chronic weight issues, that is, once started you don’t stop. You keep activity and diet conducive to weight loss. In other words it is a benefit to remember to keep walking for weight balance even though your weight is under control now.

You don’t have to continue to talk about weight issues and walking to lose weight. With the interim goal achieved it is now about having an ongoing lifestyle that supports who you want to be!

Do join me on Facebook or Twitter:

Technorati Tags: calories burned, diet, exercise, walking, walking for weight loss, walking to lose weight, weight loss

Does Age Matter?

Since Walking to Lose Weight I have changed my philosophy on age and the counting of the years. When they’re young a lot of focus is directed towards how old a child is and it is important to them because of this. So many freedoms seem attached onto the years accrued. The book, Outliers by Malcom Gladwell, makes an important point by showing how often the month of their birth can influence a child’s success, particularly as to physical tasks. So someone put into a class of smaller kids can become to believe in their greater ability as a facet of talent rather than simply a function of their size and manual dexterity relative to that of the younger group.

Should Age Matter?

Age itself doesn’t matter. This point made by Gladwell is that a ‘perceived’ talent can be turned into a ‘real’ talent over time with the self belief that it exists.

How Old is Too Old?

If you can take an advantage and use it then do so. The advantages of age exist at every year of your life cycle.

When looking at an exercise program such as this one advocated on Walking to Lose Weight it always requires that walkers start from where they are.

The age issue here (as we’re talking to adults) relates to how old is too old to get more vitality and activity from your lifestyle?

As it is when we’re young and anxious to ‘grow up’ so it is as we age- that certain associations of disability can become dominant expectations around older ages.

The benefits of walking accrue at any age with regular exercise. Sometimes the level of disability makes the normal activity of walking difficult. For information along these lines read Too Old for Pedometer Steps?

The Advantages of Age

Over time I admire the positive traits of both youth and the mature ages even more. In our wealthy and privileged countries most of us live a life of advantage compared to previous eras. This includes the availability of medical and lifestyle technology that would have seemed a fantasy to our ancestors.

Many of the advantages are available to anyone whatever their age and it is only an attitude of perceived limitation that prevents some ages from using the benefits from these different lifestyles in their own. Frankly much of this can be directed at the older ages that suffer from comfortableness. Comfort is a great attribute and is to be admired except when it prevents kaizen or constant improvement.

Starting again in any way can be uncomfortable for many adults. Having gained a certain status, dignity, position, etc. the thought of giving up any of this hard earned achievement seems silly. The accumulation of responsibilities, assets, goals can make leaving it to the young ones can seem a noble option.

When you stop embracing life with open arms the push of energy towards mental renewal stops as well. All our cells renew. Our bodies are new-renewed continually as cells are replaced. Different organs renew at different rates but at any one time our bodes are relatively new. When our thoughts are ‘old’ so are we. A re-evaluated and improved ‘thought’ is ‘new’. It may not actually have changed much. It will however keep us young.

For some the retreat into ‘old’ is a well earned retirement or it is the excuse for not doing what others want of you. There are other ways to get the freedom old age often brings.

The perspective of age is valuable-life experiences that enhance your life force, your willingness to live for yourself as well as others.

Walking to Lose Weight is a way of finding that life force renewal.

Technorati Tags: age, exercise, walking, walking to lose weight

Instantly I abandoned whatever thoughts that led to this ‘aha’ moment.

Ready to move on the thought then struck me that really next year was the much more appropriate time for me anyway!

Stick with me here. Walking to lose weight and fun runs ( well serious for some runners but for the rest of us an excuse for a major street party) are not a natural fit on first thought. The Sydney City to Surf 14 km run has 80000 entrants and the smallest percentage are serious about running. It takes forever just to leave the starting line!

The comments I’m making at this stage are from years of being vaguely interested in it. I remember one year standing at the front of a friend’s house with a glass of wine in hand offering encouragement to those passing by.

I’m also aware of Heartbreak Hill, a major incline just before the finish line.

The new Walking to Lose Weight attitude requires making walking an integrated and fun, as well as functional, part of my (and your) life. What better way to feel committed then to have a goal to ‘do’ the City2Surf.

Just as with other aspects of walking to lose weight this requires some thought and preparation. I’m not committed to the event at this point. I am committed to  checking it out and evaluating it as a way to exercise with discipline. Essentially for me this would be a 14 km walk. It should be fun, scenic and social. Who’s with me?

Anyone who is participating or would like to, throw in your suggestions as well and see what creativity can  make of this opportunity.

Subscribe to this blog with the link below. Follow on Twitter @walk2loseweight and find us on Facebook at Walking to Lose Weight.

Technorati Tags: city to surf, city2surf, runniing, walking, walking to lsoe weight

As part of this process I have developed an approach that is about making it fun to be living a life of wellness and healthy vitality.

Walking to lose weight encourages daily appreciation of your life. Walking almost forces you be positive and look around you. It is a genuine alternative to Valium and meditation. It has major stress relief benefits.

This is the best way for those juggling several areas of stress and worry in their life to consciously work on one area-health or weight loss- and also help in other areas. Walking to lose weight becomes a pivotal tactic for resolving much of the tension in your life.

This is an all embracing use of Walking to Lose Weight to cover activity of all sorts and those who are currently seeking to lose weight and those who have reached their body weight goals. If you need to change your activity levels substantially i.e. over an extended period of time, say longer than one year, to lose the weight, than you need a lifestyle change.

Walking must become a part of your lifestyle, and other exercise activities are also helpful for creating variety and specific results.

Weight loss becomes integrated into your daily life schedule. This then continues once the weight is lost or desired size achieved.

With walking to lose weight as a lifestyle, lots of fun ways to appreciate the essential nature of activity in your life are helpful. You might like to tweet your steps or thoughts while walking, or find us on Facebook at Walking to Lose Weight.

If you like the worldview of Walking to Lose Weight and you would like to subscribe click on the link below. Find me on Twitter @walk2loseweight and on Facebook.

Look out for my new ebook- a free excerpt will be available soon.

Technorati Tags: facebook, walking, walking to lose weight, weight loss

One way this reveals itself as a disadvantage is when you have actually been successful. The relaxing of your desire i.e. goals around weight loss and the tasks or focus required to achieve the original goal, often means a return to the exact behavior which caused the problem in the first place, such as lack of exercise or  poor diet and food consumption habits.

It is likely that you have lost weight successfully before. Often times it is a lack of ability to continue the behavior which caused the weight loss which triggers the return of excess weight. To use a trivial example, say your house is generally comfortable but messy. Your mother-in-law is coming and you want to make a good impression so a spring clean is underway. You could even say to yourself as you appreciate how nice it feels to be in a cleaned house with the sunshine and flowers creating a cozy effect: ‘This is the way I want it to be always.’  Yet with the mother-in-law gone (and she lives far away) and the kids come home and don’t understand your new desire for order and cleanliness, soon you’ve forgotten you had any other goal then to tidy up for a particular occasion.The same applies to diet and exercise aimed at one goal-weight loss- without embedding the desire into your lifestyle.

Walking for weight  loss and activity for its own sake adds value to your life in many ways. Eating in filling yet healthy ways also adds to a sense of caring and looking after ourselves and our bodies which also feels good.

Counting calories or pedometer steps are ways to systematize a balanced diet and regular exercise into your lifestyle. Walking to lose weight is a lifestyle choice which lends itself to activity as a matter of course. While other  exercise options are still necessary because variety is important, the advantage of walking is its ability to fit into most lifestyles with ease, and making it easy is instrumental to weight loss success.

Walking to lose weight becomes an attitude pervasive enough that once established it has its own  momentum and replaces the need to consciously choose to diet or exercise.

Technorati Tags: counting steps, exercise, walk, walking, walking for weight loss, walking to lose weight, weight loss

If you don’t understand how good it feels to live in an exercised body it probably means you have never done it and doubt the result.

The exercise and gym fan with the appropriate clothes and early start, is hooked on something. It is the natural high of endorphins and the benefits of feeling good. Feeling good can have a major influence on your lifestyle as you choose to enjoy it!

Walking to lose weight as a lifestyle embodies those who wish to have a life full of every day joys in the best way possible. Most adults do not get daily exercise and this can lead to health and weight problems in the long term. Having a diversion from your main daily focus whether family or work is also healthy, a way to relax from the peculiar stresses of your main life.

The more of an asset walking becomes in your lifestyle the more weight loss results. Eventually you will forget that the reason why you started walking to lose weight and do it for the many positive aspects it brings into your life.

To start feeling better about your body is a good way to get the right mindset for weight loss.

Think of your new body as you might an impressive loved one. Admire the willingness to do the best it can; its ability to perform at a new level and on an ongoing basis; thank your body by looking after it and responding to its needs. This is not an inventory of faults but encouragement and solutions. Identify when help is needed but be a supporter not an inhibitor. Over worry or in fact worry of any kind is a burden. Appropriate concern encourages finding solutions not giving up.

Be a guardian angel-make walking to lose weight a way to  ’enlighten’ your body!

Technorati Tags: exercise, stress, walk, walking, walking to lose weight, weight loss

The new Walking to Lose Weight is about the lifestyle skills learned from adapting your way of life for health, fitness and joie de vivre.

I’m writing from this perspective. Studies reveal that the behavior such as exercise and eating style required to lose weight is the basic behavior required to keep it off.

The original impetus for me to start was walking to lose weight. This process of integrating walking and pedometer steps into my lifestyle turned out to be a significant change to my  approach to life.

This blog, and others, enabled me to use the turnaround process I had developed elsewhere for my own well being benefit. If you have read since the beginning of this blog, August 2008, you may have noticed a new emphasis develop. It really was a personal attempt to make walking a consistent part of my life. Over time I moved from the regulation technical and fact oriented regurgitation of well established (although not undisputed) theories of weight loss. I realized that more than that was required and it had a lot to do with how I viewed my life and the world as I saw it.

OK that’s a big jump, and there are a lot of steps in between. I hope to make the leap easy for you.

Lifestyle change is not easy when it is voluntary. It allows wobbling, changing your mind, not taking the harder decision, getting confused along the way.

We (humans) seem to feel better with a simple answer, such as change only one aspect and get the whole problem resolved. This makes it seem achievable. This is good. If you don’t start with enthusiasm it is even harder to change.

Walking as a weight loss process tends to be the preferred option for those with issues around exercise and maybe diet.

It is so simple to make the time and do it. But then it requires doing more to continue the weight loss impact. Then it requires solving issues such as injuries or stress, tiredness, time conflicts. And doing it every day seems harder than you thought. Why is that?

Walking for weight loss and using the 10000 steps program for instance, requires a considerble lifestyle adaption.

It means looking for support from people other then friends and family or in addition to them because their goals may not complement yours that well.

It can be done; but it requires a period of time to blossom into its full potential as little bit by little bit you find your issues are resolved and some even disappear.

OK now it is practically possible but what’s this?

Sometimes you don’t feel like it. Sometimes you’re distracted, bored, off color.

What do you do then?

One day or even two doesn’t matter…unless you give up and decide its too hard, you’re not up to it, it works for others but not for me.

Keeping to a lifestyle change which is voluntary, and most of us prefer our changes to be of this type, requires more of something we don’t always have consistently over long periods and that is unfailing enthusuasm.

This is no different to other issues within our lifestyles that we know we can change for the better… but it seems too hard, others disagree, maybe it isn’t possible… Your lifestyle at the moment probably grew over time with changes integrated haphazardly until now it is what it is and mostly it seems unchangeable. Inertia has set in and the momentum is towards keeping it going in the same way.

Any lifestyle change of significance, done over time, requires a perseverance and positive attitude. There is a transition necessary and if this process is seen as failure than you may give up before the success you so desired.

Dramatic changes such as the sudden onset of illness or winning the lottery are quick disruptions to old patterns but dealing with, or coping with them in your life, takes time for the new adaptations to be comfortable

Longer term processes such as weight loss require these adaption tasks ahead of the overt change.

Necessary now is a way of thinking and attitude to support the change.

Weight loss is an example of life style change. Another example is starting a home business.

Now we’re getting to the connection to your personal and world views.

Having what it takes to make and then keep to these changes requires a mental and emotional outlook which keeps you up for it.

These abilities are distinct to the individual but exist in each of us. Whether we can access them depends on our own limits and aspirations. That is your world view and your attitude to life.

This is a big concept for some and a non-issue for others. My work life involves mentoring those who would like me to help them make the connection to making the big changes over time.

I will continue writing abut the connection your view of the world has to your success.

Technorati Tags: exercise, Lifestyle, pedometer, pedometer steps, walk2loseweight, walking, walking for weight loss, walking to lose weight, weight loss

Recently I was putting on the Leslie Sansone walking DVD for the third time in a few days and felt, let’s say,…hesitant. How many times can I do it in a row without getting bored? Especially since I’d misplaced the 3 mile walk and was doing the 2 mile. (I’m packing up the house ready for selling.)

As usually happens when I’m reluctant to do something when I get started it feels much better than I expected. However knowing that I really wanted an extended walk made me put extra effort into the 30 minute walking to lose weight program. The 3 mile walk is high intensity and I really know that the guided DVD walk is more calorie burning than my regular one hour, because you follow  four different types of steps in this home version some of which you’d be unlikely to do exposed in the outside world. Knee lifts, kicks, sideways moves and, of course, weights.

This time with the 2 mile walk I threw myself into the “walk”once the warm up was over. I did it all at a high energy pace and ended up with some floor exercises including push ups. I surprised myself with how much I enjoyed the exercise even though it was only another walking to lose weight DVD.

Then today I went for a walk in the sunshine and perfect sky when all of a sudden black clouds appeared and a little while later a drenching shower made me very, very wet! Unable to do much about it and without an umbrella or rain gear, I simply walked quickly along my walking route. I reasoned that as it was not cold, and I had on my Goretex trainers (I highly recommend these for wet ground) it was better that I simply accept the conditions and get the most out of my walking circumstances.

This is it folks! By accepting the challenges of walking for weight loss it really works. The answer to how to make it work is to make it joyful work.

Technorati Tags: burning calories, exercise, Leslie Sansone, walking, walking dvd, walking to lose weight