Walk Talk Series
Day 70 – Graduation Day
“Walking is the great adventure, the first meditation, a practice of heartiness and soul primary to humankind. Walking is the exact balance between spirit and humility.”
~ Gary Snyder
“Above all, do not lose your desire to walk. Every day I walk myself into a state of well-being and walk away from every illness. I have walked myself into my best thoughts, and I know of no thought so burdensome that one cannot walk away from it. “
~ Soren Kierkegaard
Today’s Walk: Victory Lap Fat-Burning Walk:
- 45-90 minute walk in the fat-burning zone at 60-70% of your maximum heart rate.
- Warm up with 5 minutes at a very easy pace Find a safe spot with a wall or pole to do a 5 minute easy stretching routine
- Now resume your walk at a comfortable pace
- End with 5 minutes of gentle stretching
You did it!
You have gone through 10 weeks of walking, exercise, and nutrition. I hope we have gotten you on the road to a healthier and longer life.
Where do you go from here?
How do you plan to keep up with the new healthy habit of daily exercise and better eating habits? We’ve covered the best tools to get on track and keep progressing: setting goals, tracking your progress, celebrating successes.
Remember the tools you can use to help you build and keep your walking habit.
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.
1. Schedule it. If you treat walking as an automatic “must” on your daily list — like brushing your teeth or taking your vitamins — then there’s no debate about whether you will or won’t do it. Before long, it’ll be a rock-solid habit.
2. Get a buddy. Having a friend (human or furry) waiting for you to take a walk gets you out there day after day. Your walking “buddy” doesn’t even have to be somebody you see. It can be a pal with whom you check in every day, by phone or online. If your pal doesn’t get your daily “I just walked” message, he or she knows to give you a get-going poke. Don’t have a buddy? You do now. Talk to other walkers.
3. Add some fun. Dying to play Boggle on your smartphone? Head outdoors or hop on the treadmill, and think up words while you walk. Addicted to recorded romance novels? Listen to them only while you stride along (just don’t run into anything when it gets steamy!). Whatever makes walking more fun for you, do it!
4. Keep track. A walking log, a pedometer, even a little notation in your calendar — it’s all good. That’s because keeping track of your miles and goals increases your odds of sticking to your plan.
5. Reward yourself. We’re all for bribery when it comes to exercise. Give yourself a walking goal of, say, 10 miles per week for a month, or 60 minutes a day for a week — and if you’re successful, treat yourself to a massage or a gotta-see-it movie or a new MP3 player for your walking tunes or recorded books.
Reflection
Now that you have developed the walking habit, has this lead you make other healthy changes to your lifestyle? Are you eating better? Has your walking enabled you to do things you didn’t think were possible before, like participating in a race or walking event? Maybe training for a race is the next step.
All of us from Dr. Kuri & Associates hope that this program has been a help to you in developing a walking program and establishing healthier habits.
