Any walkers here??
Any walkers here?? I have been walking for exercise for about 2 years now. I love it!! Is there any tips here from walkers to make walking more exciting?? I have an MP3 player to listen to any other ideas?? For these two years though i haven't really been that serious about it but since the birth of my son 6 months ago i am wanting to walk to lose more weight (since he was born). I have lost almost 40 pounds most of this was due to breastfeeding!! yEAH!! I gained almost 30 pounds during my pregnancy so i really have lost the extra 10 just watching my calorie intake and walking a bit. I am now walking 45 minutes in the morning and an hour at night or vice versa depending on when i can get in the most time. I can walk a mile in about 19 minutes. I am trying to increase my walking time about 5 minutes more each day is this good??? How many miles do you walk daily?? Is there anything i can do to increase myweight loss any secrets??
Clarice
A couple ideas:
1) Find new places to walk. Bring a map or a GPS unit with 'pedestrian mode' capability, or just a phone, in case you get lost. Explore!
2) Hike occasionally. Pick trails that have ups and downs, which will increase the number of calories you burn.
3) Toss in a jog here and there, or powerwalk. You don't even have to go very far with it. Anything that increases your heart rate a bit will help.
4) Add weight to your clothing as you lose weight; this will keep your muscles strong and make you burn more calories than you otherwise would.
5) Podcasts. In the gym, I prefer to listen to music, but when I'm on a walk I prefer to listen to talk. It's more distracting, I guess, if the walk is boring at all.
6) Walk with a friend.
THanks lionpaw!! :) I appreciate your help!! I do walk with my husband and kids at night. Sometimes i strap on the baby carrier and put the baby on me and walk too i heard that more weight on you burns more calories?? He weighs probably around 17 or 18 pounds im thinking now. What about walking with hand weights??
Clarice
get some mbt shoes. i loved mine. they got worn out from overuse just about everyday, not to mention i wore them in the pouring rain in the country. they dont do everything they claim they do, but it makes walking more challenging but kinda bouncy fun. and you do work the muscles slightly different in the legs. and your arms swing a bit more. not to sure about hand weights but pushing one of those prams for running mom's i hear is a good workout. especially the bigger your baby gets.
i'm happy to see there are others that are walkers!! i am a walker too although no baby :)
i try to walk about 3-4miles per day and right now am averaging about 17-18minutes/mile. i'm hoping to go down to around 15minute/miles or less soon!
i also just use an ipod so far... i like the idea of podcasts though!
You don't have to walk FAST to burn calories... one mile in 20 minutes burns exactly the same number of calories as one mile in 15. It's just that the faster you go, the more of a workout your cardiovascular system will get. A shopping trip that lasts a couple of hours burns a very satisfactory number of calories without even breaking a sweat! It's more important to walk regularly than to walk fast.
A book I read on starting walking had a great suggestion. Get a map of your immediate neighbourhood and draw a circle around your house with a 1 to 1-1/2 mile radius. Any shop, recreation area or other location inside that circle is a place that you should be walking to instead of driving. I don't walk to get the main groceries - that would be far too much to carry - but if I've forgotten anything or I need anything else extra during the week, I'll walk over and get it. And I walk to the post office, the library, the church, the petfood store etc. All you need is a hat to keep the sun off, a water bottle, a backpack or a sturdy shopping bag that's easy to carry (I use a nylon mesh beachbag that hangs nicely over my shoulder, weighs next to nothing, and holds a ton of stuff), and an mp3 player is a must.
Also, mapmywalk.com is a great site for keeping yourself motivated - you can save your walks and keep a journal of everywhere you go, how many miles you've covered, how many calories you've burned this month etc.
Since you have the little one I'd get a good back pack carrier thing and put the baby in it and hit the pavement - wouldn't need to add weights to your clothing and as the baby gets bigger - more weights LOL
I loved walking but had to stop when the shin splints and plantar Facistis got so bad - so be sure to have good walking shoes for the terrain your walking.
If you live in a hilly area hit the hills. Take a variety of routes and keep finding new and more challenging routes if possible.
I use the Nike + shoes along with the sensor and ipod. (A little pricey to start out.) You can program your weight in there and you always know how far you walked, how long you walked and how many calories you burned no matter where you went. I love it! I walk about 4 miles a day in 1 hour. My daughter just started going with me and our goal by the end of the summer is to be able to run those 4 miles and then shoot for doing our first 5K together. Our ultimate goal is a marathon but that is a ways away.
i do walk every day, although i do not measure how fast ti is etc. i try to walk to shops etc, also on purpose walk during my lunch hour-it can be slow, or just window shopping, anything is better than sitting for the whole day:)
Hi! I also have been walking for exercise. I have a nice gravel road down from my house that gets used often ( I've watched wheat riping and now harvested, deer that watch me and wild turkeys on this path.), or the high school track, also nature trails. I listen to my MP3 as well. If you like books, but don't have a lot of time to read, visit libravox.org and download books in the public domain for free and enjoy them as you walk. I wish I could say mine was baby weight but my "baby" turned 17 a week ago. i'm 51 and began my weight journey at 317, now I'm at 265.5 hoping to get down to 180 or so by the time my son graduates next May. Good Luck with your walking.
April
Wow!!! 
Thanks, ks5857, for that free library link-- Awesome!!! 
I walk, too... I've recently set a really high goal... 500 miles by a Very Special date-- August 16th, (I left a wheelchair behind that day, 16 years ago), and 1000 miles by another Special date-- my 29th Anniversary on November 17th... 
I believe the Challenge will be FUN-- which is what really matters! I wear a inexpensive pedometer to, "Make every step Count," lol! 
Due to consistant Treadmill and road walking results, I know I use about 1700 steps per mile, so I count routine walking as 1 mile per 2000 steps, and avoid the 'lesser distance' issues of smaller steps... I walk at least 10 miles a day, 6 days a week now, on my cushioned Treadmill with TWO fans on me, lol! I went 3.2 miles per hour till the last couple days-- made it to 4 mph without any shin pain! Higher Inclining has helped a lot, once my calves adjusted... South Mississippi humidity is simply tooooo hot for long outdoor walking... 
So, far I've passed 150 miles since May 29th, with a week out for going too fast and getting shin splints-- ouch!-- and another week away on a trip... and I've broken my weight loss plateau...
I walked a few hundred miles years ago, and found it much harder to get established at 45 than it was at 29!!!
I LOVE it, too... keep going! With 2 years, you sound like you are doing good. That's really Inspirational!
I love walking:-) I go everymorning at 5.40 am and I speedwalk for 45 min to an hour and a half- It's really cool where I live because I can walk up the hill and then I'm in a "walker friendly" envirmonent with no cars - just walkways inbetween fields, gardens and lovely houses. And I feel really safe because there are faces of people jogging and walking their dogs that I see every day.
I walk at least 5 times a week- weekdays I do approx 6-7.5 km (3.7-4.6miles) and on weekends almost 9km (5.5miles)
I have an IPod and I bought the Nike attachement. Which records my stats etc. THen I log onto the Nike site when I get home and upload all the info onto my account. It's pretty cool to have a really good record of my achiements and improvements etc. At the moment I am also participating in three challenges which keep me motivated:-)
Another walker here. I walk 8-10 miles a day.
I agree with one of the previous posters in that a pair of MBTs will help to make the walk a little more challenging. They have a slope to the heel which makes for a rolling motion when you're walking and forces you to engage your core muscles for balance. They're pricey but far more effective than any other other physiological shoe in the market. I've been wearing mine for over a year and almost all my cellulite is gone, my tummy is flatter and my posture is vastly improved.
I think it's a good idea to set your playlist in the ole MP3 player to a tempo that will keep your pace. I find that if I am listening to slower, more relaxing tunes, I tend to move slower. By doing that, I am nowhere near my target heart rate.
Which brings me to the other point -- a heart rate monitor is a worthy investment. You can walk for miles for little effect if your heart rate is too low. Plus, most of them have a calorie counting function that will help in getting better approximations of how much you are burning. The estimates on this website are too vague and won't take into account any added weights you are carrying or breaks in your pace when you stop for a breather, etc. Polar makes some of the better monitors and they have several different ranges for every budget.
Something interesting I've found -- I spend far less on food when I am buying my groceries as I go. So on my walks, I will pop into the grocery store for whatever fresh ingredients I need for that day's meals. Not only am I getting the freshest produce possible this way but I am also avoiding the costly exercise of having to dump anything that goes off before I have a chance to get to it. I still do regular, big shops for heavier or frozen items that wouldn't do well in my backpack on the walk home, but this little daily shopping exercise has helps to burn calories, spare petrol/emmissions and save money.
i walk to work and back each day which adds up to about an hour. sometimes i'll do an additional 45 min route round my local streets in the evening if i've stuffed a big dinner and feel heavy. i call it my 'constitutional'. lol. i used to cycle to and from work but i've found walking has helped me lose a lot more weight than the cycling ever did. plus it is a pleasant walk through the park and it is summer - not sure how i'll feel about it in winter!
I love walking and the more you like it, the more you want to do it. I seriously need to get me a pedometer to measure how far I walked. I do know that yesterday, I walked over 6.5 miles. I need to get my iPod fixed, so that I can listen to my music.
