Just Walk

For years, I've been seeing blurbs on the covers of checkout-stand magazines promising "secrets" for walking off pounds. I'll admit it--I usually flip open the magazine to see if they've really got something. Some of the "secrets" I've seen include short bursts of power walking, arm action and strapping on weights. And I'm sure that all of those things have health and weight loss benefits.

However, I'm here to tell you that there's no secret required. Over the past few months, I've taken to walking 2-4 miles per day on a regular basis. I shoot for 25 miles a week, though I don't always make it. I don't incorporate weights. I don't have a walking technique. I don't plan my walks for a certain time of day or place them a certain distance from my meals. I just walk.

And, in fact, I'm not dropping pounds like the magazines promised I would--so if weight loss is your goal, maybe you should pick up a few of those magazines and figure out which tips to incorporate. But I have dropped two clothing sizes in about two months, without losing a single pound. And though I know the number matters to some people, I am a lot more interested in my lean body mass, my health and how my clothing fits than I am what the scale says. So for me, the big secret is this: just walk. Every day.

It takes between 45 and 90 minutes a day depending on how far I walk, and I would have been the first to say that I didn't have time for that. But it's all a matter of priorities, isn't it? Surely there's a television show or a Facebook game you could swap for that walking time, if you want to be healthy and slip back into your thin clothes.