Most of us take the car everywhere. The school-run, the supermarket, the mall… even to the local store to stock up on milk and butter. Dogs have to be taken in the car in order to have a walk. It can take longer waiting in the traffic than it does throwing sticks to your pooch in the park. And when you’re there, do you sit on the bench and wish your life away? Have a rethink. Can you walk your dog to a park? Can you walk it from your door rather than ushering it into the back seat where it mucks up your windows with its wet nose? Stroll to the deli to pick up your bagels on a Sunday morning. Whatever the weather, walking is fun.
So beneficial is walking, it reduces the risk of cardiovascular diseases, glaucoma and hip fracture. If walking is combined with healthy eating, it is the correct route to weight control. It can control blood pressure by strengthening the heart, which could ultimately mean less medication for those popping pills for hypertension.
The benefits of a brisk walk would probably be too many to mention. Heart attacks would be fewer if we put on hat and boots in winter, or even a strappy little number in summer for the fashion-conscious amongst us, and took on those paths and sidewalks designed for pedestrians. Not only would we be lowering our risk of a stroke, or keeping our cholesterol levels down, we’d be living life to the full. Filling it with memories instead of reruns of Taxi or Frasier. Think of constipation, depression, stress, back pain, lack of sleep.
For an hour a day, for five days a week, take a walk and we may be halving our risk of a stroke. This is according to a Harvard study of eleven thousand men. Can we afford to ignore it? Once the habit is broken of taking the car everywhere, exercise can be built into the routine of daily lives. Soon, it will be like eating breakfast, or brushing teeth. If an hour a day for five days a week proves too much, cut it down to an Optimum Walking Pace for three hours a week, apportioned however it suits. For women, this is associated with a 30 to 40 percent lower risk of heart disease, according to the Nurses’ Health Study of 72,000 women. It’s got to be worth dressing up and going out for, with or without the dog.
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