Tuesday, August 28, 2007

The Easy Walk to Become Fit

You've all heard of these new exercise inventions shown in TV shopping. And they all have the same marketing slogan: That you don't have to work hard to stay fit. I don't believe in any of their products. Besides, my mom had bought plenty of their products, and they all ended up at our garage.

But I do know of one form of exercise that is in my opinion easy, and effective. A couple of years ago, I had plenty of time for exercise. That's because I used to teach in college, and I practically own my time. But ever since I moved to a software developing company, my time to have my weekly exercise routine became slim. And this was the start of me gaining more weight than ever.

I knew I needed to do something about it. And this is the easiest and effective exercise I'm doing until today, and I lost so many pounds. The amazing exercise is walking.

Yes, that's right, it just walking. You can convert time spent in bed to time spent in walking and enjoying your surroundings.

I started by walking to work, back home, and walking at the mall. If you tend to spend more time watching TV, then just limit it and go ahead and stroll along the neighborhood. A friend of mine once asked, how am I able to walk the whole 6KM going home from work. I simply said, its just an hour and a half walk. Your practically doing it twice during weekends when you go to the mall. If you spend 4 hours window shopping, imagine how many kilometer you have walked. I also suggest, to get a backpack, stuffed some things you might need like water and an extra shirt. Additional weight will add up to the calories burned.

To give a more concrete benefit of walking. Say if you are just 150lbs walking at the mall for 2 hours and you are just strolling with a speed of 2.5mph, then you would have already spent 516 calories. If your weight is higher than 150lbs then you would have spent more than 516 calories. But of course, you don't normally just spend 2 hours walking in malls, most of the time you spend around 4 hours, or even the whole day strolling around.

2 comments:

Nora, the golden girl said...

During the first week that MOA opened its doors to us shoppers, I brought my 2 kids and aunt there just to see the new place of attraction. We spent the whole day walking around MOA, stopping only to eat lunch and merienda. We also stopped for about 15 mins. in Toy Kingdom, 15 mins. in Kultura and 30 mins. in National Book Store.
That was during the period that I weigh myself every morning when I wake up. I couldn't believe that I lost 6 lbs. just by walking around MOA!

Tech Spec said...

Hi Nora, its nice to also hear stories like what you had about the benefits of walking. Walking also opened so many doors for me, such us running. Eventually I got curious to try running for a change.

I still do lots of walking during my spare time. Sometimes I choose the stairs if going 2 floors up than the elevator, or I still find it easier to walk from Market Market to my work place than waiting for a cab.