Articles and experts who tell us that women in particular gain weight over 40 as their metabolic rates decrease are simply offering an explanation for why many people experience weight gain. In the public mind the reason is often seen as the age increase instead of the accumulation of life experiences that pull our commitment and brain space all over the place.

Weight gain has a lot to do with your lifestyle. Not just one ‘wrong’ thing but a series of choices that can detract from health and well being. I’ve put those other non-weight issues in there as overwhelm and excess stress is one way of accumulating weight instead of wealth and good times.

Gradually as we live our lives over many years our daily lives change. Levels of physical activity, body issues and commitments, take the focus away from connecting your body with yourself. I like to say that there is only one fact about our bodies-it will definitely be with you until the day you die!

Walking is a passion of mine as it is a wonderful way to bring balance back into your mindset. As walking to lose weight offers benefits for those having other issues such as anxiety, depression, health concerns, on top of wishing to lose weight, it is a remarkable tool for repairing your lifestyle. Yes it takes ‘longer’ to lose depending on where you start from-but taking a bit of time doesn’t matter when you recognise that these are changes you’re making for life! It is not a short term exercise! Whatever you use to lose the weight is likely to be required post weight loss to keep up the results. So the way you choose to lose weight is a choice you make about how you will live your life forever.

Sorry if you’re a ‘just the facts’ sort of person. Actually I’m not sorry. Heaps of people live their lives as though their body belongs to someone else and if they just nag it enough it will do ‘the right thing’. Does this work with your children?

It is just possible that if you create a new level of relationship with your body you might learn how to have a new way of talking to your children as well. Don’t however go there too soon.

Part of the typical problem is the swamping of your self respect around your body, a ‘sacrifice’ of it as a priority because you have other priorities now. If you had role models from the previous generation who had kept their own body goals with the addition of husband, children, bosses, etc. then you might have skipped any neglect issues around your own body. Certainly post-2000 generations are fortunate to have a media which promotes the continued body care after marriage and pregnancy of many women in the arts and entertainment, and now for everyday people.

Those who still have the hangover of expectations that married women, mothers and grandmothers should act, look and be, less concerned about their own priorities may find it hard to easily keep fit and healthy.

I will be starting a new approach to Walking to Lose Weight that incorporates the self care issues. Walking is my favourite way to de-stress. It is also a great way to get fitter, feel younger and look good.

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While walking to lose weight I do a lot of  mental reviews. It is a great way to practice law of attraction.

Appreciation:

As an example the act of appreciation is tantamount to inviting things you appreciate into your life. These may be replicas of what you identify as appreciating or something that will lead you to feel a similar appreciation. Set out walking with the goal of appreciating as much as possible.

Meditation:

Highly Recommended! Getting Into The Vortex: Guided Meditations CD and User Guide

For those whose lives have been limited by illness, depression or other restrictive issues, and overweight or regaining fitness is the aim of your walking to lose weight program, exercise induced deep breathing is a life changer. There are physiological benefits to deep breathing and everyone knows that at some level when exercising you are breathing quicker. This is a good thing! Improved lung capacity, blood circulation, energising high…For those able to at least walk, regular, especially daily, deep breathing whether through exercise exertion or meditation is a great boost to your living skills. Walking the right way can do this! What an advantage-lose weight, get fitter, improve your  mood, and meditate all in one!

For those who are walking for weight loss or fitness yet still have extraordinarily interactive lives, perhaps what could be called an extraverted life, then daily meditation is a must. The first lot of people above often lack social interaction and walking acts as a means of getting out of themselves. The other group are often surrounded by others and if walking to lose weight may find it welcome personal time. If exercise without others around you is a turn off and meditation seems boring then you may be relying on stimulation from external causes and you would definitely benefit from a more traditional meditation approach.

This should also provide the deep breathing benefit although if you are obtaining that daily from your exercise it is less necessary through meditation. Getting Into The Vortex: Guided Meditations CD and User Guide is my all time favourite meditation that I use daily. I am a big fan personally and from the results when others follow this recommendation. This is Getting Into The Vortex: Guided Meditations CD and User Guide.

Walking, exercise, meditation all can provide the wonderful advantages I find from regularly breathing hard!

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I know that taking on a walking to lose weight program can seem daunting. This is often the exercise of last resort and the walker must contend with multiple issues. Health can play into obesity and obesity affects health. Constricting yourself from exercise for whatever reason starts a trend towards inactivity that can have serious health problems including depression.

Walking for weight loss offers multiple benefits both physically and mentally. When you are ready to give up making excuses and put the power into solutions then walking to lose weight has a lot to offer.

This recent article, Traverse City Sports Writer Loses 200 Lb,  includes a significant amount of information relating to obesity. However one aspect I want to focus on for some of this post is the idea that others are a good gauge in any way. Mike let himself believe that his weight wasn’t extreme because his friends didn’t mention it. We often use unconscious selection criteria when choosing friends and associates. Overweight people often surround themselves with other overweight people. Under exercisers often surround themselves with other under exercisers.

Most likely he already believed he was overweight but was able to avoid it by making his friends the decision makers for his behaviour. He set a criteria he knew would mean he could deny the issue. The same process but used to find supportive thoughts, words and emotions, would have created the perfect environment for change.

Isn’t that saying the same thing? It’s wrong but it’s right? The answer is NO.

The first step for most people is to get the difference. One way is finding excuses not to make a decision to change his behaviour, the other is finding ways to make the process easy.

Listen to overweight people talking about their weight, or their body parts. Suggesting that someone interested in weight loss should remove it as a statement of their personal value is one way of using law of attraction principles to support walking for weight loss.

Weight loss shouldn’t be personal. Put better, weight loss processes work best when you depersonalise them.

Law of attraction and weight loss as a combination is a natural fit. Evidence presents itself everyday of the effective use of words and thoughts but especially emotions to prompt a new view of your body.

Come back in a few days to read my  next post, as I continue to explain the thought processes that make the difference when walking to lose weight. Law of attraction isn’t as scary as it may sound at first if it is new to you.

I am in the process of rewriting my book Practical Law of Attraction for Weight Loss. There will be a new version of the free chapters available also by subscribing to my Weekly Weight Loss  Hints and Tips email list from July.

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For this reason any weight loss process is more than ‘exercise’ it is a lifestyle decision. For the same reason it has to be a lot better than ‘old style’ exercise or diets.

Let’s look at your support structure. Does it include a variety of exercise options that include all weather  and circumstances? Is it generally financially sound and not at risk of dropping off when other commitments get in the way? Can it withstand the occasional injury or health problem?

Walking to lose weight suits modern lifestyles. It is flexible, cheap, feels good, and most ages or ability can do it.

Walking to lose weight is a  popular choice for weight loss exercise and my observation over the last few years has an increasing number of walkers out on the streets and  not just in the pretty or scenic places. Running also has become sexy as exercise and attracts an increasing number, especially men, although plenty  of women indulge.

The largest consumer research report in the USA over the last decade found that the majority of those researched who had successfully lost weight and then maintained most of that weight loss for the next 5 years, continued their exercise program during those 5 years post weight loss. Walking was the most popular exercise for weight loss. It was a mainstay with successful losers who then chose a variety of exercises that they enjoyed to add to the variety and feel good factor.

The latest accessory to most exercise and weight loss is the use of the Internet for support, information and assistance on technical issues.

There are a variety of styles of web support and it can be a great asset for a daily routine. Check out some of these links for free  examples:

The Fitness.com Newsletter

Map Your Walk

About Walking

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When choosing an exercise program, companions or place to exercise you need to know that you can feel good your way there.

Many practice feeling good at all times so it is natural to want to feel good when walking to lose weight. Frankly it is easy when the natural advantages of exercise help make you feel great: deep breathing, accomplishment, fitter body, weight loss, endorphin release…

Activity including walking has many feel good advantages that flow over into everyday life making it better as well.

Combine exercise and deliberately feeling good and you have the best of both worlds.

The power of feeling good is what exercise brings with it. You might think that you’re walking for weight loss but over time you will find that your whole life has improved so much and it is from more than the weight loss. At first it seems as though the new self confidence is about looking better but there’s more…more energy in particular. Your real energy capacity is awesome!

Then you realise that it’s even more about feeling so good...all of the time…

Deliberately feeling good helps with all aspects of life, and if you want to  build a better lifestyle for yourself then do yourself a favour and start with the two easiest yet best value tips I can give: exercise daily in ways that feel good; and deliberately feel good as much as you can no matter what!

Walking and a variety of other sorts of exercise are a mainstay in my new lifestyle. I have learned to appreciate what normal daily exercise does for a person. Walking to Lose Weight blog started as a way to learn how to do online marketing. it was my ‘pretend’ business while I learned how to best do other things.

It has been of great benefit to me.

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You have a pedometer, you follow a plan, you’re counting steps, you think about what you eat and weight loss results. These would be normal behaviors for some when walking to lose weight in 2010. However what you believe is also important. Think about the typical drug evaluation process that requires the new drug to be tested against a placebo: An inert substance represented to the patient as an effective drug yet with no known medical value.

The placebo usually has an excellent result. It  can have a startlingly good result in fact. A drug needs to rate better than a placebo for it to become a prescription drug. The placebo effect is attributed to the powerful effect the mind has in contributing to someone’s health. Believe that what you are doing is going to work and it has a good chance it will, and this is a recognized part of therapeutic treatment where at least some of the resulting success is from the psychological effects of believing a treatment will help.

In our walking to lose weight process you have to find a way to believe in (i.e. have confidence in) what you are doing. This is either provided from others such as fellow walkers or successful weight losers; or from yourself. You are your own best resource, but with the addition of other’s belief in you, this is a powerful source of confidence.

The continuing process of weight loss (everyone gains and loses weight continually as your body does its job of  balancing the various processes of energy use and storage) requires that belief  be maintained for a long time even after the success i.e. weight loss, begins. Confidence around walking for weight loss and other tools of weight control once established creates results without your conscious effort.

Just as learning to sing or dance is an ongoing commitment so is getting your body attuned to living long and well. To do this, just as with any other skill, requires your best asset, self belief.

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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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Eating patterns develop over time. Repeated circumstances such as regularly hurrying to fit eating into a short space between tasks and choosing quick over nutrition, result in similar behaviors. The reason isn’t complex or deeply hidden- for most of us it is simply a habit. The choice is usually between one goal that supports weight loss and another goal that poor food choices satisfy. The goal that is more important at the time of the decision will be the choice made. For ease, ‘habits’ of eating take the thinking out of the process and this saves time, and also avoids an issue that may make us feel guilty or inadequate.

When I have a good time I eat less! Usually I eat less than my hunger. I find that by duplicating the environment that makes me happy not to eat I can make good food decisions easily. Introducing an eating environment that is separate from the family social occasion where I learned the bad habits of overeating and eating for stress relief has led me to a far more satisfying relationship with food. For instance I exercise before eating as much as possible. This often  means that walking to lose weight becomes social!

Also eating with those who you want to feel good with often means adopting ‘normal’ eating rather than ‘reward’ eating. It’s not a bad thing to have your eating restricted by decisions based on ‘what is right for this occasion?” For instance at a party: dips and canape can be messy so I avoid them; standing and eating is not an elegant look, particularly while juggling drinks and a bag; chips leave my hands greasy; smaller, one bite portions are easier to handle; etc.

I have modified my eating to satisfy my body’s needs yet let me ‘feel good’ about my eating. I am talking about the physical act of eating and this is about self image. If you haven’t had a preferred mental image than now is a good time to choose one. If instead you have had one that had nothing to do with good body habits, such as being the first person offered cheesecake (cos you love it so much), than make a different choice now, rather than letting a decision made many years ago still dictate your eating choices.

Walking to lose weight is an easy alternative to food for stress relief. Exercise, and consistently walking to lose weight, means you will have a daily natural source of decompression.

Time alone particularly if I am tired triggers a desire for food. As I have only added consistent exercise into my daily life over the last few years I have needed to develop a balanced way to assess my hunger. Sometimes I am hungry even when I’ve eaten what I thought was enough. It may not be my ‘old’ habit of eating to overcome tiredness.

Make it a game. To balance my food intake while exercising much more than I have ever done before on a regular basis, requires adjustments to my old style ‘diets’. You may have noticed watching The Biggest Loser and other shows that these contestants actually eat a lot! It is important to develop ‘snacking’ as a tactic for effective weight control. Fruits, drinks, small meals all enable you to monitor your stomach and feel if you require more food. In the past I would diet by being hungry a lot of the time. As I didn’t exercise that much this was not a problem. Hello…if you are seriously exercising and maintaining regular activity such as walking to lose weight then eating and drinking enough is vitally important.

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Because of this it can also come undone when the other layers of requirements are added if the whole basis of walking for the walker has been its ease. Adding 20 minutes a day is generally easy -remembering to do it being the biggest problem for most at this point.

After that it is the refinements to the walking to lose weight process which continues the weight loss and health/fitness increases, as well.  The first step is to get going and become a regular walker. Then once this is established start reducing the calories and volume of food eaten. Continue to upgrade the walking to lose weight process.

What is required:

• starting;

• adding to the time or intensity  level;

• watching what you eat;

• make sure you drink enough;

• correct any mistakes e.g. eating too little;

• add to the variety to stress muscles for higher calorie burn;

• repeat the process.

Stress, worries, physical changes- all have a detrimental impact on our bodies if we let them. Avoiding letting them requires strategies to avoid this. It is far easier to correct these as you go then try to back track and undo the cumulative effects of long term physical well being neglect. This of course is different from, although may include, medical care and wellness which often overlooks physical well being as a criteria.

The simple process of walking to lose weight can introduce general well being along with the weight loss which also contributes its own health benefits. However once you had successfully added the twenty minutes walking to lose weight each day, the game moves on- now it is time to do this twice a day, or add in an hours walk on the weekend, etc.

There is a lot to refine to determine exactly how you can get the best results for you. We recommend our newletter which is for those who want more positivity and energy in their lives daily! Sign up for The New Walker on the right hand side column and become part of the new-style walking to lose weight community.

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Walking to lose weight can be a group activity or a social bonding opportunity but that does restrict your options when busy. Of course it is not an either/or situation and one of the beauties of walking as a weight loss lifestyle option is its versatility. It can be social or competitive, intense or leisurely.

Generally it can be undertaken spontaneously so it lends itself very well to an ongoing campaign for health and weight loss. It has been found that men respond well to the use of pedometers which can add an element of challenge to walking to lose weight. The daily step total becomes a target to beat. Even young boys given pedometers have been found to respond positively to this aspect.

An active commute program where participants walked or cycled to work had a positive response from men and the average  five miles distance to their employer’s premises was effective exercise. But not so for the women involved.

Women use the pedometer and daily 10,000 steps often, from what I have seen on the many walking to lose weight forums etc., but respond differently to the use of these tools. It is another task to be done but does not have as much incentive. Initially walking as a social opportunity often appeals to women and this can be very attractive and effective as an incentive to walk more often particularly daily.

Busy lives require organisation and a social obligation can be a significant influence in performance. Frequently on a weekend walk I am delighted to see many walkers taking a scenic route which I do myself if I can. Lots of people are fitness walkers which can be determined by the demeanor and pace.

This is one of the reasons walking for weight loss alone can be the best way to go. You are in control of the intended duration, speed and location. The lifestyle change needs to be under your control. Doing it alone enables that more easily. It can’t be postponed or canceled as with a social commitment. Over time, walking for weight loss becomes a vehicle for other opportunities such as group walks and family entertainment. As you become more involved in doing it, find the best routes, fun alternatives, get results and look good, others may want to join in.

Build a list of favourite walks. Don’t be afraid to try new ideas and if in the end, they’re not for you, so what?

Often in a busy day the time to go for a walk can be flexible when you only have yourself to consider.

Even though ongoing walking for weight loss success is probably better as an independent activity there are many ways walking with others is a great way to keep a fitness or weight loss program fun and motivating. Family walks, walking to the restaurant, golf, etc.

A pedometer is a great personal tool which enables self responsibility for effective weight loss through walking. It has been the biggest asset on my weight loss journey since I started using it routinely in September 2008.

An advantage of counting steps is the ability to see how the day is going. Although I like to use a weekly count, on a given day if I have been at my desk without moving for several hours, it is quite possible to do only 3,000 steps. This rarely happens any more now that I wear a pedometer and know how to bring up the steps. On those occasions though, doing a little bit more around the house is not likely to have much effect on the exercise level for the day, so a long walk is mandatory.

This is something I can do with pleasure because I know that the time is not wasted. Listening to work related podcasts or inspirational information. Planning. Take the quiet time for reflection. Consciously review with a broader perspective not possible during the detail of day to day. Think out an issue.

A one hour walk is about 6,000 steps. On the other hand an easier option when working from home is to do a Walk Away the Pounds DVD. The 3 miles session takes 48 minutes and is 5,500 steps. Of course it is a lot harder than taking a walk because of the arm and leg movements and use of the weights, however ignore these and it is good brisk walk.

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