Build the Walking Habit

It is time to commit yourself to better health, fitness, and a body you love. To make this a reality, we have tools you can use to help you build and keep your walking habit.

There are four facets to setting up a new habit for a lifetime.

• First, clear and realistic goals.
• Second, keeping yourself on a schedule so that the habit sticks.
• Third, monitoring your progress and rewarding yourself for success.
• Fourth, keeping it interesting.

The essentials of a good fitness goal are:

• Realistic:The goal should be challenging, but realistically achievable. Don't set you sights too low, but also don't set yourself up for failure.
• Measurable: Your goal should be stated in a way that can be measured. How many miles a week? How many pounds or inches to lose? What 10K distance time? Finishing a marathon by what date?
• Dated: Set dates by which you will attain the goal and intermediate goals along the way.
• Written down: Your goal should be made concrete so you can review it.
• Track your progress: Keep your goal in sight and see what steps you are making towards attaining it.
• Celebrate success: Along the way when you reach new milestones, it is time to celebrate. And when you achieve your overall goals, don't hold back - reward yourself.

Setting realistic and measurable goals:You will have to know how fit you are now and what is possible. For weight loss, do not set a goal of losing more than 1-2 pounds a week or 5-10 pounds a month, and plan for plateaus along the way. For increasing speed and distance, plan for increasing no more than 10-15% a week in order to prevent injury and allow muscles to repair and build. Visit our Fitness Toolbox for fitness analysis and our Weightloss Toolbox for calculators for basal metabolic rate, calorie burning, meal planning and more.

Dating Your Goals:One of the best ways to set a date in concrete is to apply it to a major walking event. If you want to be able to walk a certain distance or have a speed goal, find an upcoming walking event and register for it. Walking Event Calendarsand Marathon Calendars. Not only will this make the goal concrete, it will also reward you for attaining it, especially if you register for an event at a great destination you've been wanting to visit.

Repetition is the key to building a habit. Making a schedule and tracking it is essential to your walking program.

How often to walk:

• A minimum should be 3-4 times per week (every other day).
• If you a training for speed or distance, your faster/longer days should be alternated with easy/slow days and you can walk 6 days a week with one day of non-walking.

When to walk: You must find the time of day that best suits your schedule and lifestyle.

• Many people find walking first thing in the morning to be best - they don't procrastinate or get too busy and just skip it as they do later in the day.
• Others incorporate a walking workout into their work day by walking at breaks or lunches or right after work.
• Still others walk in the afternoon or evening and clear their mind after a hard day at work or at home.

Partners

• One of the best ways to make and keep a schedule is to do it with a walking partner. One of the best motivators to get out the door is to have somebody waiting for you.
• Don't limit yourself to humans - dogs are some of the best and most motivating partners.
• Human walking partners can be found through walking clubs or weightloss groups.

Training Schedules:

• Absolute Beginner to get you from the couch to walking comfortably for 30 minutes at a time.
• Weekly Workouts to improve your speed and fitness.
• Marathon Training Schedules
• Weight Loss Walking Schedule

Recording your walks is the best way to maintain a walking schedule. We have online and offline tools you can use.

Map and Measure Your Route

Google Map Pedometer: Use our online map to draw and measure you walking route and calculate your walking calories. You can bookmark and save your route.

Walking Journals

14-Week Daily Walking Journal Buy Direct
Use the daily log pages to track your walking minutes, steps, distance, and speed. Journal your workouts, nutrition, ideas and achievements.

Blank Walking Journals Buy Direct: Buy one of our blank walking journals to record your walking stats and walking memories. Each wire-bound journal has a colorful walking-themed cover and 80 blank sheets of premium 60 lb book weight unlined paper.

Free Printable Walking Logs

Print out these calendars for to track on paper - distance, time, speed, steps.

• Monthly 2006 Walking Logs: Printable in .pdf format.
  Dec. 2005
• Weekly Walking Log
  Print out this weekly log to use to track your walks and progress. Adobe Acrobat .pdf file.
• Daily Walking Journal
  Use this as a daily walking journal or for memories of each walk. Adobe Acrobat .pdf file
• Food Diary and Walking Log
  Track your food habits and your walking and exercise. Adobe Acrobat .pdf file.

Walking Excel Spreadsheet

Tracks and totals your walking time, walking distance, steps.
2005 | 2006 (157K download)
Each day, enter your miles, time, steps and any notes. Calculates total mileage per month, time per month, minutes per mile and minutes per kilometer, and total steps.

Walking Programs

IVV Individual Achievement Award Program
Walk sanctioned volkssport 10K walks and earn awards at milestones.

Webwalking USA Program
Our free program to chart your walking steps, minutes, or miles on a virtual walk across the USA on the American Discovery Trail.

Online Resources

President's Challenge
Log you walks, pedometer steps, and other physical activity online and earn awards. Logging is free, you can buy the optional awards. You can track your physical activity with other Walking.About.com readers. When you join, add us as a Group. Our group number is 12099 and Group Name is Walking.About.com.

MyWalks.com
A simple, free online log for your walking steps, minutes, and miles

America On the Move
Free online log for pedometer walkers. Join using code RWA742 to be a part of our Walking.About.com group.

Tools

Fitness Toolbox for fitness analysis, cardio training, strength training, stretching and more.

Weightloss Toolbox for calculators for basal metabolic rate, calorie burning, meal planning and more.

Positive rewards at milestones along the way will keep your walking habit fresh and your goals in view.

Milestones to Celebrate

• Weight: Each 5 pounds towards a weightloss goal or 5% decrease in body fat.
• Distance: If your goal is to reach a certain distance, divide that goal into quarters and each time you achieve a quarter-goal, celebrate. For example, when training for a marathon, celebrate being able to walk 10K/6 miles, 21K/13 miles, 31K/20 miles.
• Time: If your goal is to increase walking time, divide your goal time into quarters and celebrate each time you have achieved another quarter towards your goal. Example: If you want to be able to walk for 2 hours, celebrate being able to walk 30 minutes, an hour, and 90 minutes.
• Speed: Celebrate every minute you take off your mile time.
• Schedule: Each week that you stick to your walking schedule, plan a reward and celebrate.

How to Celebrate: Your reward must be something that you value, yet you don't want it to set back your goals. No cream puff for losing 5 pounds or a week off for taking a minute off your mile. Here are some ideas:

• New walking shoes
• Walking apparel: a new T-shirt, hat, shorts, walking pants, socks, etc.
• Workout bag
• Walking wallet or hip pack
• Water bottle/holder
• Walking music/workout tape
• Bath time fun with scented soaps and candles, soft music, good book.
• Heart rate monitor or pedometer
• Subscription to a walking, fitness, or health magazine
• Entry into an upcoming walking event.
• A trip to the beach, mountains, or resort for some walking with a new view.

Involve Others: Joining a walking club or participating in an online club, bulletin board or forum can give you encouragement and a way to celebrate along the way.

• Walking Forum: Our bulletin board to meet other walkers online, share your questions, progress, advice.
• Walking Clubs
• Walking Email Greeting Cards Our free email greeting card selections include congratulations, thank-you, welcome to new club members, anniversary, friendship, get well, birthday, etc. Start sending them to friends and family and suggest they send them back.

The Ultimate Celebration: When you achieve your overall walking goal, be sure to really celebrate.

• Tell everyone about it on our Walking Forum.
• Have a party with friends and family
• Reward yourself with that high-ticket item you've been saving for last - the heart rate monitor, pedometer, full walking gear outfit, walking vacation, camera, etc.
• Set your next goal