Burning calories with low impact movement — for any age and fitness level

If you would like to choose walking as one of your ways to maintain body weight, then there are a few things you need to become more aware of.

Walking at a regular and fast pace will help you to accelerate your calories burnt, and you will be able to get a lot more out of your walk, in a shorter amount of time.

To get the most out of your walk, you do have to go the distance. Think about scheduling in 1.6km or even 112km. Yes, I know this is a lot, but think about achieving a more considerable walking distance, within these few ways:

Four ways to increase your walking distance, without eating up your day

1. Don’t drive or take a bus — get around walking everywhere that you can (and time permits)
2. Break up your walking during mornings, lunch and then again in the afternoons.
3. If you have a pet, walk them as much as you can
4. Walk the long way to get to your destination.

I can exhaust the many creative ways you can go about finding ways to increase your walking times, as well as your step count. But I’d like you to keep in mind that like anything in life that’s done repetitively, you can and will probably get bored. I have some ways in which you can combat this, which may motivate you a lot more.

Five ways to make your walk a lot more exciting!

1. Listen to your favourite music, motivational books or novels. Learn, explore and get lost in a book while you walk
2. Listen to meditation or visualisation — it will help you get a lot more grounded and calm and soothing to your soul.
3. Why not go with a friend, talk, gossip and share a lovely couple of hours in nature
4. Walk around an unfamiliar place and get lost, looking at beautiful monuments or surroundings.
5. Why not use this time to go on an extended shopping spree!

If you follow any of these steps, you won’t even notice the time passing, and it will be a lot more enjoyable and realistic for you to do. Your body will begin to crave these adventures. Walking has been my saving grace for years and cannot go a day without…