Melanie Toye’s walking for health

Image by Jan Vašek from Pixabay It’s one thing to walk to lose weight or keep your weight or just walk for your mental health. But I’m finding the struggle to walk because of time.  Time is so precious in our lives and sometimes finding time is difficult. So it’s about getting savvy with finding time to walk for your health. Here are 6 ways to fit in time to walk for your health: 1. If you have children and they play a sport, while they are at training, walk laps around the soccer field or walk around the outside of a basketball indoor court. Find a way to move your body like walking when taking your child/children to training. That way you aren’t just sitting for an hour or longer and then go home cook dinner and prepare for bed. You are utilising that hour to benefit you for walking for health. 2. Get up thirty minutes before your normal alarm and walk on a treadmill or go for a walk. The benefits to waking up early before you normally start the day, is impressive. First you wil...

Image by simardfrancois from Pixabay So most of us know about what goals are but do you know how to make them work and achieve them?  As I have blogged about before, I lost 14 kilos just by walking. The goal walk about 9,000 steps a day and not miss a day and you will lose weight without changing what you eat. Impressive huh?!  That’s why I created this blog to share with you my journey and help you achieve your walking for health goals. So whatever your goal is, you have chosen to walk daily to try and achieve your goal.  When setting up a goal it’s important to create a start date and if you are competitive with yourself you can set an end date or if you are more laid back and want this to be a lifestyle choice, then you don’t need to set an end date. But setting a start date is very important. And it’s really important to set it within the week of setting your goal. Because that’s when you are most motivated to try to achieve your goal. So you have your walking for he...

Image by 💚🌺💚Nowaja💚🌺💚 from Pixabay So this week, I was excited because I had a week of walking planned. Sixty minutes separated by two times. So two thirty minute walks in a day. As I walk this thirty minute path, I have noted there is a possible shortcut to get to my destination and every time I think, maybe I should look this shortcut up, I instantly tell myself, “No, because you want more steps to walk, not less.”  And then I discovered another short cut, the bus. Instead of walking thirty minutes, I could probably spend between 10-20 minutes on the bus and get there quicker. It’s so easy to use and with Queensland’s 50 cents public transport fares in Australia, you can easily justify the cost. So why not take walking short cuts?  Well that’s really easy and you can tell yourself every time a shortcut arises. It’s simple, the point of walking for health is to walk as many steps a day as needed to see a result. For me, it’s 9,000 - 10,000 steps a day at a minimum but ...

Image by John Hain from Pixabay On your walking for health journey, it’s really easy to tell yourself silent judgements throughout your journey.  Silent judgements aren’t real but they feel real. They put us down making it hard to even just go for a walk. From being too fat, too big, finding suitable workout clothes for your body, your face is bigger, your legs are thicker, you have to walk slower because you’re not used to walking. All these silent judgements we place on ourselves is ruling our lives. They hold control over not continuing our journey.  Remember it might take 1-2 years to lose the weight you are seeking to lose and it might take longer but if you keep trying that’s one-2 years that you will be your ideal weight or just weigh less! Isn’t that better than never starting the walking journey because of the silent judgements winning? And then there is the silent judgements on others. They are thin, they are younger, they have more energy to walk and live life. I w...

Image by Fajar Arif from Pixabay  I know I know. If you are like me, take out is seen as a treat. And I really thought I would never eat less take out. But I challenge you, to find a meal you love and cook it for the week (unless you have kids, kids means they probably won’t want the same meal every day). So it doesn’t have to be the same meal for the week. Plan, buy and make time to cook your meals for the week. Make sure you love eating these meals. And then don’t buy take out. Don’t even remind yourself you aren’t buying take out. Because as soon as you think about take out, it’s really easy to get swept up in the convenience and yumminess of takeout. Wait till the following week and transfer to your savings or spendings account the money you have saved from not buying take out! Trust me, this feels amazing. The first week I did this, I bought myself essential clothing items with the money I saved and thanked myself for not digging into my savings to pay for it. I simply didn’t...

Image by Tumisu from Pixabay It’s currently winter in Australia and I have been half getting into a routine to walk 10,000 steps a day and the other half of me is cold and wants to just rug up all day. I think finding the balance is important. Yes, you may want a day to just relax. But sometimes that day off could lead to a few more days off and then weeks go by and you are occasionally walking but more not.  So to motivate you, remember your reason for walking in the first place. Whether it is for your health or your mental health or whatever is the reason. Remember why. Plaster this why everywhere. Write it down! On your couch so when you go sit down you think, should I sit or should I go for a walk? And/or place your reason why on the fridge. Place it on your TV. And then think is it time to relax or should I release some energy physically and mentally first by going for a walk and then relax?  Also, think how can I fit in more time to walk?  9 Ways to fit in more wal...

Image by Alexander Fox | PlaNet Fox from Pixabay So I decided to run an errand and landed in the outer city so instead of catching the bus for a 12 minute trip, I decided to go for an hour walk in the rain. Yes, I did have an umbrella.  I was walking alongside main roads where it felt weird to have intersections because if they ran a red light I would be a flat cake on the road. I guess I seemed less trusting in the outer city area mainly because no one was around walking because it was pouring. And I have never walked this part of the city before. Thank goodness for Google maps.  And as I was walking at first I just stared at Google Maps and the street signs and also my battery charge on my mobile. I was scared the hour trip would kill my battery and then I wouldn’t be able to use Google Maps for the walk home.  Of course, if I was prepared I would have printed the street names of where I had to walk in advance but the errand was unexpected and needed to be done urgentl...