WALKING is an aid to health. Every other week another report comes out that proclaims its benefits. A brisk stroll every day can help prevent heart disease, stroke, dementia, cancer, type 2 diabetes and asthma, boosts vitamin D and gives you energy, experts say.
It's logical that exercise should be beneficial and I walk regularly on medical orders. After a check up a few years ago, the nurse gave me a look that condemned fried breakfasts seven days a week and suggested I get my walking boots on instead. Which was fine. It's on the National Health so it didn't cost anything. The walking I mean; I bought the boots myself.
One website said a daily walk can add between three to seven years to your life which, at my age, has to be an incentive. But there is a difference of opinion about how to walk and how far. Is a brisk walk better than a slow stroll?
My wife occasionally accompanies me and is more of a stroller and, if I'm not careful, I tend to leave her behind as we take a woodland path. I am wary of this as, some years ago, Maria would take our dog Lucky for walks in the woods. At the time, she was experimenting with similar but alternative names for the beast, which we inherited, and famously took these same paths shouting out for "Nookie!".
The animal eventually responded but so did a flasher and she and the dog both ran home at Olympic pace. The name remained Lucky for safety reasons.
I went online for advice and was surprised to see one health site recommending walks with budgies. Good grief. Did I need a bird in a gilded cage to reap the benefits of exercise? Then I realised I had misread it: it was walks with buggies, for young mums.
A beneficial walk should be between 20 to 30 minutes, some say. Others declare a target of 10,000 paces a day. But how far is 10,000 paces? And do I have to do more because I have short legs? According to thewalkingsite.com, 2,000 steps is a mile, so a healthy target is five miles. Oo-er, mum. That sounds like a long way. Except a daily total also means the paces you take around the house and garden and back and forth towards the bar. A few times up and down stairs as well, would help.
Counting them out loud wouldn't work, of course, so I've invested in a pedometer on a strap around my neck to keep track for me. Twelve quid from Amazon seems a small price to pay for immortality.
Oh, didn't I mention? Another expert, albeit from America, claims walking 10,000 paces a day can trigger an anti-ageing process and help repair old DNA.
How far do I have to walk to be 32 again?
It's logical that exercise should be beneficial and I walk regularly on medical orders. After a check up a few years ago, the nurse gave me a look that condemned fried breakfasts seven days a week and suggested I get my walking boots on instead. Which was fine. It's on the National Health so it didn't cost anything. The walking I mean; I bought the boots myself.
One website said a daily walk can add between three to seven years to your life which, at my age, has to be an incentive. But there is a difference of opinion about how to walk and how far. Is a brisk walk better than a slow stroll?
My wife occasionally accompanies me and is more of a stroller and, if I'm not careful, I tend to leave her behind as we take a woodland path. I am wary of this as, some years ago, Maria would take our dog Lucky for walks in the woods. At the time, she was experimenting with similar but alternative names for the beast, which we inherited, and famously took these same paths shouting out for "Nookie!".
The animal eventually responded but so did a flasher and she and the dog both ran home at Olympic pace. The name remained Lucky for safety reasons.
I went online for advice and was surprised to see one health site recommending walks with budgies. Good grief. Did I need a bird in a gilded cage to reap the benefits of exercise? Then I realised I had misread it: it was walks with buggies, for young mums.
A beneficial walk should be between 20 to 30 minutes, some say. Others declare a target of 10,000 paces a day. But how far is 10,000 paces? And do I have to do more because I have short legs? According to thewalkingsite.com, 2,000 steps is a mile, so a healthy target is five miles. Oo-er, mum. That sounds like a long way. Except a daily total also means the paces you take around the house and garden and back and forth towards the bar. A few times up and down stairs as well, would help.
Counting them out loud wouldn't work, of course, so I've invested in a pedometer on a strap around my neck to keep track for me. Twelve quid from Amazon seems a small price to pay for immortality.
Oh, didn't I mention? Another expert, albeit from America, claims walking 10,000 paces a day can trigger an anti-ageing process and help repair old DNA.
How far do I have to walk to be 32 again?
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