Melanie Toye’s walking for health

Image by Anna from Pixabay You know in this #walkingforhealth blog I have created, I have said from the very beginning you don’t have to change your diet to lose weight, as long as you walk.  I lost 14 kilos just from walking and not changing my diet.  And as much as I love eating take out and the convenience of it, in the back of my mind I think, well if I am eating healthier, I will have more overall energy and a longer lasting health benefits for my mind and body. It’s a win / win. So I do still eat take out. But this week, I challenged myself and I bought mainly vegetables: pumpkin, mushrooms, purple onion, snow peas, bok choy, cherry tomatoes and some diced beef and I made a stir fry. I changed it up each day, with different type of noodles and sauce. The first few days I just had veggies and noodles. And it was filling! Which to be honest I was scared of. Would I go to bed in a few hours and feel hungry? Nope! And then I added some meat for the next few days to change i...

Image by Dariusz Sankowski from Pixabay So I’m still getting used to making a walking routine and that’s because my every day can be different every day.  So it’s about trying to plan the day ahead, the day before.  What are your plans for tomorrow? How will you fit walking in?  Especially if your day tomorrow is working from home or just planning being at home. On those days, I really want to just sit all day and be a lazy potato because the comfort of my home is great. And I could really do a lot of sitting downs things like craft and hobbies to reading or crocheting while watching tv. So many opportunities to sit.  So I challenge you to every night think about when you will walk tomorrow. Also, don’t forget if your work gives you morning tea breaks, use them to walk as well! A twenty minute walk can be around 2000 steps. That all adds up to your day of walking.  You might find that waking up an extra thirty minutes early each day gives you some steps to walk...

Image by Pexels from Pixabay If you haven’t thought of a goal or a reason why you are walking it may be harder to stay motivated for longer. So it is important to have a long term walking goal.  For example here are some questions to help you work it out:    What is your goal? Why are you walking?  What is the outcome you seek?  Why have you chosen walking as your activity?  How often will you be walking to achieve your goal?  When did you want to start walking and when do you want to finish?  Are you walking to achieve something?  Who is going to keep you accountable towards your goal?  To help you see someone else’s response, I will share with you mine:  What is your goal?  My goal is to walk 10,000 steps a day. Why are you walking? I am walking to lose weight and overall a healthier version of myself. I want to build stamina to also dance and put less pressure on my joints because of weight loss from walking. I want to wear...

Image by 丽 李 from Pixabay To be honest, I feel like I have put on a bit of weight and I always appreciate having a starting weight so I can see progress of me losing weight.  I have tried to fix my scales but at this stage it says I am 50kgs. Which I definitely am not.  That’s ok. So instead of just not exercising until I get scales I am going to do something better. I am going to walk every day 10,000 steps. Because I know walking will help me lose weight no matter what my starting weight is.  I definitely feel the importance of knowing the starting weight because you can quickly measure how much you are losing and how often. I don’t really like weighing myself more than once a week but I have done a weight loss app that wanted me to weigh every day. But I would rather see a kilo lost after a week then a hundred grams after a day.  But what it comes down to is consistency. Consistently walking 10,000 steps every day including Sunday. I found when I took a day off w...