Re: Wing Walking :-)

Hi Wings,

This is a great idea.  I love to walk and the thing is its free LOL, no gym membership just a good pair of walking shoes.  Last year or maybe its really been almost two years now I started walking outside.  I drove one mile so I could mark the mile and know thats what I walked.  When I first stared it took me about 22 minutes to walk a mile but in no time after about 3 weeks I would say I got that down to about 12-13 minutes.

The thing with walking is that the more you walk the more strength you'll build up and the faster you'll go in no time at all. I got up to walking at least 4 or more miles a day but not all at one time.  I'd do a mile or 2 before work and the rest after work. I didn't really even notice that it was changing my body, I knew my clothes were looser but one day my husband and son said something to me I'll never forget.  We were all working at the same job site one day, I was walking around the house trying to decide how I was going to decorate it and they were following me around which is not something they do so I turned around and asked them what they were looking at and they both said they were looking at my butt because it had tightened up so much they couldn't believe it LOL.  They went on to tell me how shapely my legs were and that my walking was really paying off.  Wow I couldn't really believe they had noticed something like that and I hadn't but I really looked at things if you know what I mean and I found that I was really toned up big time compared to before I started walking.

But there is a down side to getting toned and fit and that is if you ever stop it you'll get so flabby in such a short time its not even funny.  I found that out the hard way.  I got really busy and started working longer hours and once you miss walking for a couple of days its very hard to get back into the swing of it and thats how my downfall started.  I figured it wouldn't matter if I missed walking a few times but the fact is it really did matter. My arms even got toned from walking due to swinging them I guess but not 3 weeks after not walking anymore I was no longer firm in all the places I had firmed up.  And that is really a kick in the a** if you know what I mean, it was a horrible feeling and that horrible feeling led me to eat bad things and its just an awful cycle to get yourself in.

I have started to walk again only this time because its so darn hot where I live and I can't really take the heat I'm walking on a treadmill.  And boy let me tell you what a difference a year or two makes when you start exercising I was shocked really. This time I can't even do a mile all at one time, when I first started again I had to do the mile broken up in three segments because I just didn't have the stamina to do the mile all at one time.  Even doing it in three segments when I started my time for the mile totaled 29 minutes and that really pissed me off. But I'm now able to do the whole mile at one time but I haven't looked at the time because I don't want to see it until I think I'm doing it at least in 22 minutes.  

After thinking about all this I'm thinking right now the time I can do a mile in isn't important.  The important thing is that I'm doing the mile at all and believe me when I say I will never stop the walking again.  When I was walking all those miles before I felt so vibrant and healthy, I ate less, I slept better and I felt better all the way around and that includes mental clarity.  

I encourage everyone to start walking, you'll never be sorry thats for sure.  That website is great Wings.  Didn't  I read in one of your posts that you are seeing a change in the way I believe it was your arms wasn't it that you could see some definition?  Isn't that a great feeling?  I can't wait until I can see my butt and legs really getting toned the way they used to be.

Oh BTW I can't run either, I can't even jog because it jars my body so much I can't stand it.  I think walking is one of the best things we can do for our bodies.  When I was walking so much before I bought one of those pedometers because they say a healthy body needs to walk at least 10,000 steps a day.  So I bought one and found out that just doing all the activities I do on a day to day basis without trying to walk the miles I was only walking around 5,000 steps a day but when I wore the pedometer from the time I got up until the time I went to bed it really helped motivate me to get in more steps.  Of course when I wore it while walking the miles I always had more steps but each day it was my goal to end the night with more steps than I had the previous day.  The one I got held each days steps in memory so that really helped me.

I also hate to exercise but the more I do the better I feel so I guess its become a necessary thing for me, but I still hate it ha ha.  Thanks to Uny for telling me I had to sweat three times a day no matter how long it took me to break that sweat and its taking me longer now so I'm exercising longer, yuck.

Good luck with your walking program, I can't wait to see how you like it.  Please keep us posted.

Oh one more thing, I love AeroSmith and Steven Tyler especially.  I've got one of their albums on my iPod for when I walk.  Great choice!  Bon Jovi is another one I walk to, great music for working out.

Willow