What if I told you I knew the secret to managing your weight, lowering your risk of type 2 diabetes, and controlling your blood pressure? This secret can also decrease your risk of heart attack, boost your good cholesterol, and lower your risk of stroke. It can also decrease your risk of breast cancer, help you avoid the need for gall stone surgery, and protect you against hip fractures! Wow! This secret is amazing!
The list goes on, this secret prevents depression, colon cancer, constipation, osteoporosis, and impotence. It can lengthen your lifespan, lower your stress levels, relieve arthritis and back pain, strengthen muscles, bones, and joints, improve your sleep, and elevates your mood and sense of well-being.
Do you want to know the secret? Would you run right out and buy it if it were a pill? You don’t need to buy anything – it’s FREE!
Walking! Walking is the secret! Walking is the number 1 way to lowering your risk of type 2 diabetes! Walking leads to all of the above benefits and best of all most people can do it.
I heard a sad statistic; on average, adult Americans walk only 5,000 steps a day. Young American children walk between 12,000 and 15,000 steps a day, at least they are on the right track.
Look, we don’t have to knock ourselves out with sweat dripping workouts. Yes, those are good for strengthening our hearts, but if we would just move more we would see some tremendous results. I know you have heard it before – park further away, take the stairs, etc. It is true – it all adds up.
Our goal should be at least 10,000 steps a day, which equals 5 miles. That might sound like a lot, but when we start taking two trips to get the groceries out of the car instead of loading ourselves down like pack mules, we’ll get there quickly. (You know you’ve done it – I have!)
Find extra steps. One night this week I decided to walk around the inside of my home every time a commercial came on television. AAAHHH!!! I walked for over 25 minutes – there are TOO MANY COMMERCIALS! However, I didn’t get out of breath, I didn’t sweat, and I didn’t get exhausted. I just walked. During that television program I could have sat on my duff and burned 60 calories or by simply walking during the commercials I burned 155. It’s not going to burn off a candy bar, but every bit helps. Learn more about how I lost 125 lbs.
So lace up your shoes and take the 10,000 step challenge. Move, move, move and intentionally eat!
If you want another way to lower your risk of diabetes, high blood pressure, and heart attack then you’ll want to check out How Yoga Can Help You!
