Walking is perhaps the easiest way to take care of your health. With just 30 minutes of walking on a daily basis, most people can improve cardiovascular fitness, reduce excess body fat, strengthen bones and enhance muscle power.

Choose the easiest way you can incorporate walking into your routine. It can be based on time or distance covered.

Just like any other exercise, walking needs to be done in the correct manner to reap its benefits. There are certain walking styles and techniques that can help a beginner to up their walking game.

There are various walking styles that people employ in their daily lives. Not all styles may be for everyday walkers but it is good to know the options available. You may want to adopt one that best suits your style and health goals:

Always remember to check your posture before going for a walk. A simple, yet effective aspect of walking, here is what you need to do:

Power walking is definitely one of the most popular ones. Almost everyone can go on a power walk and can get weight loss benefits as well. So coming up, this next bit may sound a little bit technical, but is well worth the read, especially if losing weight is what you are aiming for.

You don’t need to have a fancy gym membership to lose weight. Instead, all you really need is motivation, determination and consistency. Stick with these three and losing weight can be practically free if you put your head to it.

Before starting the actual walk it is important that your posture is correct. A bad posture will reduce the calorie burning benefits of walking. Also, it can induce more injury to your back and legs. There are four aspects of a perfect posture.

Planning out your walks beforehand can help you fight procrastination. A good recommendation is to go on a walk soon after waking up as your body burns most calories in the morning when it has no energy from food to consume.

After the walk, it is important to cool your body and bring it to normal temperature. Also, post walk stretches help release some of the muscle tension and avoid any soreness.

People who have known the struggle of losing weight understand how it is more than restricting your diet or going to a gym. Losing weight comes with a lot of mental challenge, and requires a package of emotional support and rational thoughts. Simply said, it is a mind makeover.

“I want to lose weight”. So now that you have made up your mind, what exactly is it that you plan to do? The answer to this question remains vague for many.

Always remember that losing weight is just a part of life, results will come but in time. While you keep yourself active in your struggle to lose weight, do not punish yourself by stressing over the results. Let things move at their own pace.

It is good to weigh yourself occasionally to know the pace of your progress, but developing a habit of doing so too often would just stress you out.

Oftentimes failure results from unconscious habits that get develop over the years. With a new routine comes the challenge of paying attention to every little habit that may have been considered petty before such as opening up a pack of chips whenever convenient, eating too fast, and drinking sodas with food.

A person can only have so much will power, and will likely need some sort of motivation. Finding support from friends and family is highly recommended and often one of the easiest to find.

Just as it is for most of us, it can be stressful to work on a routine that is out of your comfort zone. It is a great idea to reward yourself after a few weeks for the progress that you have made. Trust your body, eating a spoonful of full cream ice cream would not ruin your efforts.

There are numerous benefits of walking, mental and physical. It is a much easier, safer exercise than all those complicated exercises as advertised which require expensive personal trainers, gym machines and a rather large proportion of the day.

One of the very few things other than sedatives which help with insomnia is a walk. Be it a morning walk or a walk in the evening, it is known to help with insomnia and improve the quality of sleep, so that the person wakes up fresh and with a clear, active mind the next day.

Popular opinion will probably tell you that running is better than walking as it burns more fat. Truth is, both can burn equal calories, one of them just takes longer.

After discussing the benefits of walking to the body and brain, let us now take a look on the flip side. Just as walking has physical and mental perks, not walking has its own set of repercussions in both these areas.

The body of a non-walker deteriorates slowly due to inactivity. The above-mentioned factors make their body more prone to various diseases and complications.

Walking has long been associated with clearing one’s mind and getting some fresh air. Our brain requires good blood flow, sufficient oxygen and ideal glucose levels to perform effectively. A sedentary state decreases the flow of blood to the brain and makes it fuzzy.

When a person does not walk, their body gets used to sitting down and being inactive. Their muscles lose strength and their brain becomes complacent. As a result, the person finds it more difficult to get up and do any kind of activity.

You might have heard the phrase; sitting is the new smoking. This phrase is an understatement of the harm inflicted by sitting on a person’s health.

Thinking that working out for an hour each day offers protection against prolonged sitting is such a huge misconception. In fact, nothing could be farther from the truth.

The pace at which life moves these days hardly leaves a room for a fitness regime. Either people are rushing between a tough work routine or are bound to spare time for social obligations. The last on the list comes a fitness plan- and making time for the gym makes the majority of the people sigh.

You love eating, but also want to lose weight? A commonly heard complaint from all those who struggle to maintain a healthy weight.

Breakfast
Avocado Egg Toast:

Breakfast:
1 cup of any of your favorite fruit
1 cup of yogurt with no sugar
½ toasted bagel (whole grain) with fat-free cheese

There are many ways to add deserts to a meal without compromising health. To make dieting easier there are many low fat delicious deserts that can curb taste buds. Some of these recipes are: