Why something “small” like walking is great for weight loss
November 14, 2016 Ashley 0 Comments
So you just got back from a brisk jaunt with your shih-tzu this morning.
You never exercise at all. But you’re trying to turn over a new, rouge shaded leaf this fall.
“Since you’re so small ‘n slow, dragging you along’s *gotta* be building extra muscle…”
And then, flipping through the fitness pages of your interweb, you see it:
“It’s not enough to just walk the dog if you wanna lose weight.”
What a blow, am I right? Here you’re trying to initiate the beginnings of a lasting fitness path, and already you’re getting lambasted at the first step. What a bummer. Might as well give up, right? Wrong. Because I’m here to tell you that you’re getting misinformed. You take that twenty minute walk again tomorrow. And the next day. And the day. You want to know why? It’s not just because it’s “better than sitting on the couch”. It’s for two reasons.
The first is this amazing article I came across recently, detailing all these formerly portly ladies who’d chucked a ton of weight after simply beginning a walking routine. It was inspiring. One of them lost over 100 pounds in a year. And you wanna know why? Because maybe it began as a simple, quarter hour stride past the country club and back each day. But, after a while, that fifteen minutes turned into thirty. And the ambling morphed into a powerwalk. And the ipod helped them get more into the mood for body moving so that they A.) used their whole bodies and B.) got motivated to go for longer (or at all) each day.
(107 lbs from half hour walks each day! Now tell me walking’s “not enough”…)
And the way these chicks fell in love with exercise just began as a trial run (or walk, I should say).
And that leads to my second reason for getting started small. Once they fell in love with walking, sure they did it for longer. And sure they picked up the pace. But you wanna know what else they did? They fell in love with the feeling of exercising in general. As their bodies acquired the athletic bug and they realized what they could do, they wanted to start trying out other forms of cardio. (Which is great, ’cause that’s something you’ll wanna do anyway once you reach the “plateau” point of weight loss.) In fact, one of them even began boot camp and kickboxing, too.
(And she KO’d 30 lbs in the process, too.)
Looking at these stories, I can’t help but recall when I’d hurt my back and wondered if I’d ever run again. I didn’t trust my body. So, I started slow – walking in the woods. I did this every day for weeks, never planning to progress past it. But, one day, I saw a guy jogging down the trail, and got this feeling of envy mixed with inspiration. I wanted that. I wanted that for myself. So I went out and got it – the very next day. Sure, it started slow, and I had a long way to go, but – three years later – I’m also running nearly an hour a day; I even ran my first race last year. And I’m also doing kickboxing (well, Muay Thai). And I’ve also lost the weight I didn’t want. What’s more? Much like the ladies in these stories – I feel stronger and affirmed. Taking the leap trains your brain to take chances in other non-fitness areas of your daily existence (like taking that interview or going on that date) that yield a beautiful, well-rounded, exciting life. Which is why I say that – if you’re wondering whether starting “something small” like walking’s worth the effort, don’t even ask. It is. Let the innumerable tales of these people who’ve gone before you inspire you to start. Because you might be doing the walking…
But you never know where this ride called life will take you when you take a chance.