Walk This Way

Something that we do everyday without even giving it thought is one of the best exercises and best ways to lose weight. Yes, Divas, WALKING. We learned to walk as toddler with lots of determination. First we started crawling and once that was mastered then we moved up to the next level, walking. Of course walking did not come easy then. Some of us had lots of falls, unsteady knees, and then let’s not forget the “plop” we made on the floor as we got unsteady and fell. Ahhhhhhhhhhh, I was a genius even at the toddler stage or so my mother tells the story. (I am sure I have shared that with you before, if not, I am telling you now). According to my mother, I never crawled. One day she sat me on the floor and I just got up and started to walk, just like that. No trial an error, no scrapes from the falling, none of that nonsense. I just mastered the skill right from the start.

Ok, let’s stop gabbing about me and my brilliance and get back to my intent for this blog. It is then no wonder that to this day, I find walking the favorite exercise out of everything that do for fitness. If you have been following my postings, you may recall that I have mentioned that I have a vast collection of exercise DVDs. Within my hoard, I have 18, (no I am not a pack rat) yes, 18 Leslie Sansone “in home walking” DVDs.

For those of you that have never heard of Leslie Sansone, she is the queen of walking, literally. She has created dozens of indoor walking exercise DVDs/videos. Some of the titles are Walk Away the Pounds, Walk Away Your Hips and Thighs, Walk Away Your Waistline and the list goes on and on. Leslie has DVDs geared towards teens and older adults as well. The DVDs can range from 1 mile up to 5 miles and come with chapters so you can do all the miles or chose to do only a few.

What the workouts consists of is marching, (walking in place) kicking, side steps, grapevines etc., all to the beat of music. She can make you work up a sweat with a 10 minute mile to some kick butt fast paced music. Leslie has even incorporated strength training in her workouts to help you build muscle with rubber resistance training. (OMG, please stop thinking that rubber resistance training is training to resist the use of condoms, don‘t make me laugh). You can choose Faith Walks as well with Christian music.

If you are interested in learning more about Leslie Sansone, check out her website. There you can find an array of her workouts and get to play clips from the DVDs, just to see what I am going on about. www.Amazon.com is also a great place to find her DVDs at great prices.

If you would rather walk outdoors, grab Fido or Twinkie, or whatever it is that you have named your pooch and take a walk. Researchers (here we go again with the people that get paid to do the cool jobs) have found that people that walk their dogs 20 minutes a day, lose an average of 14 pounds a year.

So whether you do in home walking or walk your pet (remember he needs exercise too) get up and walk. It is easy, you have already gotten over the learning curve, and one of the cheapest forms of exercise.

TTFN
Diet Diva 4 Life

Warning, This Can Be Habit Forming

Up late, as usual, watching infomercials or as they call them these days “paid programming”. No, I don’t want the Colon Cleanse, I eat enough fiber, and no, I don’t want to buy a course to teach me how to sell on EBay, I do that already for free without your course thank you. But of course what always catches my eye are the exercise infomercials, oh sorry “paid programming”.

I sat through Slim in 6, Michael Thurmond’s Six Week Body Make Over and Kettleworx. They all were including, free of charge of course, a six week workout guide. I began to wonder why six weeks. Why not two, three or four weeks?

The idea behind the six weeks is that any activity, performed over and over and over again soon becomes a habit. Experts (how do I get on one of these expert panels, anyway?) have discovered that it takes six weeks of repetitive action to successfully form a habit. I guess this also applies to things that are bad for you so if I were you, I would not start any filthy repetitive activity that I don’t want to become a habit.

Now if you did not happen to be up late watching infomercials (damn, there I go again calling them infomercials) and did not get sucked into buying any of the fantastic exercise programs or the zero percent body fat models that were the “after” results of the program didn’t seal the deal for you to add another expense on your already close to maxed out credit card, then this means that you do not have the free six week workout guide that comes with said program.

Oh well, here is a trick, and I promise I don’t have many tricks in my magician’s hat anymore, but this trick is to take a regular calendar and choose a date that you want to begin your exercise program. Mark a BIG X on that date and an even BIGGER X on the date that is six weeks from that date. Make sure that you do your activity at least 3 times a week for the six weeks. Each week, mark that week off to show how much closer to your six week goal you are getting.

After you create your habit even if you take a break from it, you will find that picking it up again, is much easier than if you hadn’t established it at all, though taking a break from exercising I am not recommending (remember, you started this to become healthy not just to lose that stubborn ten pounds and then quit). This will be like riding a bike, even if your bike is buried in the garage under tons of crap, if you pull it out, you will get back on it and ride it like a pro.

TTFN
Diet Diva 4 Life