Walking for Wellness

Walk Maryland Day is October 10, 2018. Walk Maryland Day is a day to celebrate the official state exercise - walking! It's also a way to promote awareness about how walking improves our health. October 10th is also Walk to School Day. Help the entire community come together to promote health and safer routes for students to walk and bike to school. These are great events to help people be active and start walking in your neighborhood.  Think about ways to be active every day, not just one special day.

Why focus on walking?  Well - walking is a great way to be active, you can do it anytime, anywhere, and it does not require special skills or equipment. The health benefits of walking may:

• Reduce the risk of diseases like heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and cancer.
• Improve blood pressure and blood sugar levels.
• Increase energy level.
• Decrease stress.
• Help prevent weight gain.

If you are new to walking, or haven’t been active in a while, start off slowly. Try 5 -10 minutes to start. Work up to 30 minutes per day. If you don’t have 30 minutes at once, get creative and break up your activity into shorter sessions. For example start the day by parking or getting off the bus/train 10 minutes away from your job and walk briskly to work.  At lunch, walk for 10 minutes around where you work, inside or out. End the work day by walking briskly for 10 minutes back to your car or station.

Still not convinced you should stop reading this and go for a walk? Check out this list of 100 reasons to go for a walk.