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The benefits of walking as exercise are so many, it would he hard to quantify them all. But I shall do my best to prove to that there is a very strong and direct connection between walking and weight-loss. You only need to think back a couple of generations, to your grandparents or great-grandparents; they lived in a time when most ordinary people walked to work and to do their daily business such as shopping and socializing. Right up to the early years of the two world wars, motor vehicles were the toys of the rich and famous. Ordinary folk either walked, or perhaps — if they were rich enough — they rode in on horseback or in a horse-drawn carriage of some kind.
People back then did not need any walking exercise program. Their everyday life required that they walk far more than any of us do nowadays. Most of us 21st century human beings are so used to using motor vehicles to travel from door to door that we do very little walking at all. And if we go back to those earlier days, many multi-storey buildings did not have elevators or lifts to take people to the upper floors. People climbed stairs to get up and down the buildings when they had to. They were very fit back then and obesity was unusual.
Obesity is a medical condition where a person has accumulated so much excess body fat that the extra weight threatens their health, brings on a variety of diseases and complications and is very likely to shorten their lifespan by several years… possible by ten years or so.
Nowadays there is a growing epidemic of obesity in the affluent western countries such as the USA, in Europe, Australia or New Zealand. People in these places are more likely to walk much less, if at all, and have a surfeit of food available to them in just about every form the human brain can conceive. The prevalence and popularity of cheap fast food, makes unhealthy food that is high in fat and sugar and salt as close as dialing a number for home delivery or driving (usually not walking) to a drive-in fast-food outlet for a burger or a pizza or a deep-fried chicken meal.
And what do we have with that fast, convenient and calorie-laden meal most of the time? A soda pop (bottled soft drink) that is usually pumped full of sugar and or caffeine. Even the ‘lite’ or diet versions of these drinks have sweeteners that many authorities consider at least as unhealthy as the sugar they are supposed to be replacing. And don’t forget the calorie-laden desserts and other extras. Ice cream, for example, is nothing but fat solids laced with sugar. Actually, there’s so much sugar they aren’t just ‘laced’, they’re overdosed with sugar. And thick shakes are the same.
The number of obese people in the United States is now estimated to be more that 122 million people, or 40 percent. But is expected to reach 43 percent by 2018. I even read in one Australian newspaper today that Americans are not switching to smaller cars to save fuel and money because they’re too fat to fit comfortably into smaller cars… The author says that’s why SUVs rule in the USA, even with sky-high fuel prices and a hurting economy. Ref: http://news.drive.com.au/drive/motor-news/report-us-buyers-too-fat-for-small-cars-20110531-1fe7f.html
In Australia, the situation is even worse, with around 60 percent of adults classified as obese and 25 percent of the children are obese as well.
So how do we get fat? We get fat from our food intake, of course. Food is fuel, and nature expects us to burn up that fuel by using our muscles to walk and run and do hard work. After all, physical work used to be necessary for any human being to gather enough to stay alive. The human body is actually a biological machine that is built to do work, even if it is just walking around all day. But we 21st-century men and women think we’re too smart to do manual labor. So we ride around in vehicles and we sit on our backsides all day. And sure, some of us go to the gym or play sports in order to use up those extra calories we have consumed but not burned off from hard physical work. Isn’t that just a little bit crazy? I mean we put so much effort into avoiding any physical activity like walking or running that we have to pay money later to take part in an artificial activity in some gymnasium or sports club. Golf is a great activity, sure. And sports are great as well. But too many of us prefer to sit on are bums and watch other people do all that strenuous activity. And we often nibble food and drink beverages while we watch these sports.
So is it any wonder that many of us are already fat? That’s F-A-T, fat.
We may deny it, even to ourselves, and call other people hurtful if they call us by that, the other f-word. But if we’re fat and we still eat too much and exercise too little, we will eventually graduate from being fat to becoming obese. Often our friends and family are fat as well, so it is easy to think everything is perfectly alright and normal. Overweight, fat and sedentary is endemic in our rich society.
Back to US Americans and Australians as an example. We are all living in countries where food is plentiful and cheap. The number of fat people in our countries is increasing all the time because we eat too much rich food (calorie-laden) and we don’t get enough exercise. This even shows up in our armed forces where many recruits are turned away because they’re too fat and unfit. But then we both have enlisted men and women who are way overweight, and that’s a problem indeed. They got through the recruitment process only to succumb to getting too fat afterwards. The fear of being overweight is a real problem for the military and for the soldiers, sailors and airmen who have to spend their lives exercising hard so they can avoid becoming obese.
And why do we or they become obese? I will say it again, because it is so important. We get fat because we eat too much rich calorie-laden food and we don’t get enough exercise to burn the excess calories. Eventually just fat becomes obese.
In the movie Blackhawk Down, why do the US soldiers keep referring to the locals as “skinnies”? Because they are comfortable with being surrounded by ‘big’ people. And sure, much of it is muscle, and yes these men are often super fit. But if you were skinny, and if all the folks you knew were skinny as well, wouldn’t you look at us well-fed westerners and consider us to be ’fatties’? I reckon anyone would. And I’m not saying this to insult our brave men and women. I’m trying to make a point that most of us probably consider people to be normal when they’re technically overweight. We don’t see the forest for the trees, especially if we’re a tree as well!
Walking is a great way to improve your fitness level and burn off calories. We’d all like to know how many calories get burned walking for one hour or for one mile. Then we’ll sit down and do some kind of maths and plan what it takes. That’s all very nice but it’s busy time. Instead of calculating you need to get off your arse (that’s the Aussie spelling) and go walk for a mile or more if you can manage it. Then do the same every day, increasing the distance little by little. You can even do it at work by walking around the block or climbing stairs during your lunch break. Some folks around here go to the shopping mall just to walk. They’re out of the weather or the rain, and they can get a few miles in walking — not shopping — from one end to the other and back, using the stairs between floor levels. I can’t say how many calories per hour walking will burn for you. It depends on your weight and how fast you are going and all kinds of things like that. Don’t play maths games. Just go and walk off some calories. I promise you you’ll lose some weight, as long as you don’t fall into the trap of rewarding yourself immediately afterwards with a feed of food you know you shouldn’t be eating! It is so tempting, we have probably all done it at some time or another. So don’t. Please don’t.
By burning off calories, you can delay, halt or even reverse the process of overeating that slowly makes us fatter, just a tiny little bit every day. The days become weeks, months and years. And over the years that extra weight leads us to inactivity and eventually to obesity. It is a vicious circle, and it destroys the health of so many people that is is an epidemic in our rich countries. And yes, we are rich. When was the last time you went without food for several days? When was the last time you didn’t know where your next meal was coming from?
Walking is good for you. It strengthens your heart and improves your health and fitness. It has been proven time and time again to firm your physique and help you lose pounds of ugly fat. You just have to do it again and again, so it becomes a good and healthy habit. And they’re the habits we need to have.
Anyhow, that’s enough from me. I know I need to get out of the house and go for a good healthy walk right now. I know only too well that if I put it off, then one excuse leads to another and it won’t get done. Then I will have wasted the day as far as walking and keeping my weight down is concerned. I suggest you do the same. Go for a walk right now. Your body will thank you for it.