Get Ready! National Start Walking Day April 8
You can take a stand against heart disease by participating in the American Heart Association’s National Start! Walking Day on April 8. Click here to join!
Join now to promote better health through walking. It’s more than a program. It’s a movement. Heart disease is this country’s No.1 killer. By walking for as little as 30 minutes each day you can reduce your risk. That’s what the Start! Movement is all about. Get walking – start taking a more active role in your health!
Walking Shown to Cut Risk of Colon Cancer
Regular exercise such as walking can cut your risk of colon cancer by 25%, a new study has shown, Researchers reviewed 52 studies from the past 25 years found that of the thousands of individuals examined, the most active ones were the least likely to develop the disease. The protection remained even after risk factors linked to cancer, such as diet, obesity and smoking, were taken into account.
The British Journal of Cancer study combined results from research covering many kinds of physical activity, including manual labour, jogging, working out at the gym and brisk walking.
Those who took regular exercise cut their risk of colon cancer by 24 per cent. The benefit was the same for men and women.
Every Hours of TV Watched Costs You 144 Steps!
Researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health decided to find out just how much being a couch potato affected the number of steps per day. So they asked 500 ethnically diverse men and women to wear pedometers for five days, and also to track how much TV they watched during that period. The pedometers were masked, so participants couldn’t see how many steps they were taking.
The results, which were published in The American Journal of Public Health, showed that the more time participants spent watching TV, the less likely they were to walk 10,000 steps five days a week (as recommended by the President’s Council for Physical Fitness and Sports).
The participants, many of whom were overweight, reported watching from zero to 14.5 hours of television a day, with an average of about four hours. This would be about right according to the national average, which is four hours per day. (Watching TV is now the most time-consuming activity in the United States, ranking second only to work and sleep).
Dr. Bennett, who headed the study, found that participants walked 144 steps less per day for every hour of TV watched. In other words, individuals who watched 10 hours of TV per day walked an average of 1440 steps less than those who watched no TV.
Of course, this problem could be alleviated by putting the treadmill in front of the TV. If you walked four miles on the treadmill in just one hour, you would have 8000 steps in right there!
While watching TV has been linked to excess body weight among children and adults, walking promotes weight loss. Walking doesn’t have to be time-consuming. There are many ways to fit a few extra steps into your daily routine. For example, you could:
• Take the stairs as often as possible, at home, at work and in stores.
• Walk to do shopping or other errands.
• Park several blocks from your destination and walk the rest of the way.
• Park at the rear of a well-lit shopping center parking lot or at the opposite end of the mall from where you need to shop.
• Walk your dog, or
• Walk with your child.
Action is the Law of our Being
I just found this interesting quote in an antiquarian book, about how action is needed to keep the body health. The author of this book, who was way ahead of her time with regard to health, goes so far as to state that “action is the law of our being.” So that’s why I set-up my treadmill desk. Walk on! (And here’s the quote so you can read it too–complete with reference at the end).
Action is a law of our being. Every organ of the body has its appointed work, upon the performance of which its development and strength depend. The normal action of all the organs gives strength and vigor, while the tendency of disuse is toward decay and death. Bind up an arm, even for a few weeks, then free it from its bands, and you will see that
It is weaker than the one you have been using moderately during the same time. Inactivity produces the same effect upon the whole muscular system.
Inactivity is a fruitful cause of disease. Exercise quickens and equalizes the circulation of the blood, but in idleness the blood does not circulate freely, and the changes in it, so necessary to life and health, do not take place. The skin, too, becomes inactive. Impurities are not expelled as they would be if the circulation had been quickened by vigorous exercise, the skin kept in a healthy condition, and the lungs fed with plenty of pure, fresh air. This state of the system throws a double burden on the excretory organs, and disease is the result.
Invalids should not be encouraged in inactivity. When there has been serious overtaxation in any direction, entire rest for a time will sometimes ward off serious illness; but in the case of confirmed invalids, it is seldom necessary to suspend all activity.
Those who have broken down from mental labor should have rest from wearing thought; but they should not be led to believe that it is dangerous to use their mental powers at all. Many are inclined to regard their condition as worse than it really is. This state of mind is unfavorable to recovery, and should not be encouraged.
Ministers, teachers, students, and other brain workers often suffer from illness as the result of severe mental taxation, unrelieved by physical exercise. What these persons need is a more active life. Strictly temperate habits, combined with proper exercise, would ensure both mental and physical vigor, and would give power of endurance to all brain workers.
Those who have overtaxed their physical powers should not be encouraged to forgo manual labor entirely. But labor, to be of the greatest advantage, should be systematic and agreeable. Outdoor exercise is the best; it should be so planned as to strengthen by use the organs that have become weakened; and the heart should be in it; the labor of the hands should never degenerate into mere drudgery.
When invalids havenothing to occupy their time and attention, their thoughts become centered upon themselves, and they grow morbid and irritable. Many times they dwell upon their bad feelings until they think themselves much worse than they really are and wholly unable to do anything.
In all these cases well-directed physical exercise would prove an effective remedial agent. In some cases it is indispensable to the recovery of health. The will goes with the labor of the hands; and what these invalids need is to have the will aroused. When the will is dormant, the imagination becomes abnormal, and it is impossible to resist disease.
Inactivity is the greatest curse that could come upon most invalids. Light employment in useful labor, while it does not tax mind or body, has a happy influence upon both. It strengthens the muscles, improves the circulation, and gives the invalid the satisfaction of knowing that he is not wholly useless in this busy world. He may be able to do but little at first, but he will soon find his strength increasing, and the amount of work done can be increased accordingly.
Exercise aids the dyspeptic by giving the digestive organs a healthy tone. To engage in severe study or violent physical exercise immediately after eating, hinders the work of digestion; but a short walk after a meal, with the head erect and the shoulders back, is a great benefit.
Notwithstanding all that is said and written concerning its importance, there are still many who neglect physical exercise. Some grow corpulent because the system is clogged; others become thin and feeble because their vital powers are exhausted in disposing of an excess of food. The liver is burdened in its effort to cleanse the blood of impurities, and illness is the result.
Those whose habits are sedentary should, when the weather will permit, exercise in the open air every day, summer or winter. Walking is preferable to riding or driving, for it brings more of the muscles into exercise. The lungs are forced into healthy action, since it is impossible to walk briskly without inflating them.
Such exercise would in many cases be better for the health than medicine. Physician often advise their patients to take an ocean voyage, to go to some mineral spring, or to visit different places for change of climate, when in most cases if they would eat temperately, and take cheerful, healthful exercise, they would recover health and would save time and money.
Excerpted from the book Ministry of Healing by Ellen G. White
Health Benefits of Walking
Health benefits of walking and other regular exercise:
* Reduces heart disease and cancer risk
* Benefits HDL Cholesterol Levels
* Improves the chances of successfully stopping smoking
* Boosts your immune system and energy levels
* Benefits mental health and well being
* Improves your ability to handle stress
* Helps reduce anxiety and depression
* Reduces muscle tension, heart rate, and some stress hormone levels.
“For most people the very best exercise is brisk walking.” –Neil Nedley, Proof Positive p. 409
Put some Spring in your Step: Walk Long, Walk Strong
Lori Mueller struggled with her weight for the past 15 years. She writes, “The weight just kept creeping on. I was so unhappy and tired. I continued to eat unhealthy and just felt terrible. My weight was taking a toll and I was afraid I was going to have a heart attack. At only 5 feet, I was morbidly obese.
On January 2, 2008 I started a life change. I began my plan of action by keeping a journal of everything I ate. Then I started to exercise- they were Leslie Sansone’s videos which I purchased years earlier. I started out slow- and lost about 3 pounds a week. I found Leslie’s workouts to be awesome (4 Steps – who knew it would be that easy!)
I now have friends, family and coworkers that tell me how I have inspired them into wanting a healthier life. I have never felt better! I truly believe that I am physically, mentally and spiritually in the best phase 
of my life. I look forward to working out every day with Leslie.
The rewards of my weight loss get better and better every day- my energy just seems endless! When people ask me what diet I’m on- my answer is always the same- I’m not on a diet - I workout to Leslie Sansone’s DVD’s every day in my living room! Yup, it’s that easy!
Thanks to Leslie for doing what she does!”
~ Lori Mueller
Start Weight: 222.5lbs.
End Weight: 130lbs.
To read more inspirational stories such as Lori’s be sure to check out Walk at Home.