10,000 steps.

Here's a little fun from Nancy Sinatra since we're talking about walking:

Walking is an easy way to get your 20 minutes a day in.  There are recent studies that have shown that walking 10,000 steps a day will greatly improve your health and fitness.

This is from thewalkingsite.com:

"Maybe you have heard the recent guidelines about walking 10,000 steps per day. How far is 10,000 steps anyway? The average person's stride length is approximately 2.5 feet long. That means it takes just over 2,000 steps to walk one mile, and 10,000 steps is close to 5 miles.

A sedentary person may only average 1,000 to 3,000 steps a day. For these people adding steps has many health benefits. I have outlined the basic 10,000 steps program, but also added a commentary below.

A reasonable goal for most people is to increase average daily steps each week by 500 per day until you can easily average 10,000 per day. Example: If you currently average 3000 steps each day, your goal for week one is 3500 each day. Your week 2 goal is 4000 each day. Continue to increase each week and you should be averaging 10,000 steps by the end of 14 weeks.

There are many ways to increase your daily steps. Use your imagination and come up with your own list:

Take a walk with your spouse, child, or friend

Walk the dog

Use the stairs instead of the elevator

Park farther from the store

Better yet, walk to the store

Get up to change the channel

Window shop

Plan a walking meeting

Walk over to visit a neighbor

Get outside to walk around the garden or do a little weeding

If you want to get a walking program startedcheck out the help that you can get here.

August contest winner:

Laura C. you're the winner!  What a CLOSE contest this month!  Four people were in the running and within just a couple of days of each other.  Laura went to bed before midnight and got at least 7 hours of sleep for more 28 days this month!  I'd like to know the secret to that streak!  Awesome job, Laura.  I think I know where you want your gift certificate from, email me just so I can be sure though!

September contest:

Four winners this month!! Okay...since Nancy's got our boots in the mood for walking, let's have that be our contest this month.  Log in every day to the Move it Monday post and tell us how many miles you walked.  The FOUR people who walk the farthest (most miles) this month will be our winners.  Yes, I said four people.  The top four walkers will win a $30 gift certificate to their favorite healthy place to eat, spa, or place to to shop.  So get out those walking shoes (if you have to...dust them off...) and let's get walking.

If the physical benefits of walking haven't yet put you over the edge to get out there and pound the pavement, here are some emotional incentives to get you going.  You can find the list below here:

Walking slows mental decline. A study of 6,000 women, ages 65 and older, performed by researchers at the University of Cali­fornia, San Francisco, found that age-related memory decline was lower in those who walked more. The women walking 2.5 miles per day had a 17-percent decline in memory, as opposed to a 25-percent decline in women who walked less than a half-mile per week.

Walking lowers Alzheimer’s risk. A study from the University of Virginia Health System in Charlottesville found that men between the ages of 71 and 93 who walked more than a quarter of a mile per day had half the incidence of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, compared to those who walked less.

Walking improves sleep. A study from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle found that women, ages 50 to 75, who took one-hour morning walks, were more likely to relieve insomnia than women who didn’t walk.

Walking lightens mood. Research reported in the British Journal of Sports Medicine found that walking 30 minutes a day boosted the moods in depressed patients faster than antidepressants. Why? Walking releases natural pain­killing end­or­phins to the body – one of the emotional benefits of exercise. A California State Uni­ver­sity, Long Beach, study showed that the more steps people took during the day, the better their moods were.

Besides these mental benefits of walking, it also serves as a form of meditation. An outdoor stroll can help erase a bad day as you instead start to focus on the surrounding environment. Carolyn S. Kortge began walking in the ’80s and entered her first race-walking competition in the ’90s, eventually becoming a USA Track and Field Association bronze and silver race-walking medalist. Carolyn, who lives in Eugene, Ore., was diagnosed with osteoarthritis in 2004, but continues to keep her mind off the pain in her knees and hands by walking daily.

“When you’re walking there’s an opportunity for meditative intent.  You can be silent and focus on creating a connection with your body through prayer, breathing or a phrase,” she says. “It’s a wonderful way of changing your focus.”

walking. LIFE.