Walking To Lose Weight

 

 

 

This walking to lose weight program will allow you to progress from a gentle walk to a half hour jog, painlessly, in just a few months. The slow, deliberate, methodical build up described here is the way to install a habit into your subconscious mind. It is no more difficult than learning to drive, swim or brush your teeth regularly.

 

The key is in the motivation. You are probably well motivated to lose weight, but this motivation is easily undermined by discomfort and boredom. Walking to lose weight is one area where you do want your mind thinking about it regularly, so you will be monitoring your progress.

 

To do this accurately I would recommend some sort of portable listening device like an iPod or Walkman. It helps you to set the pace and is also a useful distraction during exercise. If you don't have one then a wrist watch will do as well.

Walking to Lose Weight - Step by Step

If you are overweight you have one big advantage when it comes to exercise; you are carrying your exercise weights with you. The down side is that as you lose weight you have to exercise harder. I was once 30 pounds heavier than I am now. If I was to strap on a 30 pound back pack and go for a brisk 30 minute walk that would be quite a workout.

 

If you think that walking to lose weight may not seem very demanding, you will be surprised. An average person takes around 4,500 steps a day and not very convincing ones. You're going to start by adding an extra 3,000 steps a day and build up from there. It is actually very easy and it is only going to take you half an hour.

 

A pedometer would be very useful to keep a track of your progress, but it is not essential. Your average pop song plays at about 120 beats per minute (the same as a ticking clock) so if you walk while listening to music on your iPod or Walkman or some such device you will be taking 120 steps per minute. Over 25 minutes this amounts to 3,000 steps (25x120=3,000). You may have to find some appropriate tunes with the right tempo as you don't want to be slowing down and speeding up constantly and adding another crazy element to the local park life.

Walking to Lose Weight and Visualizing

But, you are not going to spend that half hour just walking. You are going to be practicing some powerful mental exercises as you go. If you are unfamiliar with visualizations or need to remind yourself then go briefly to the Visualizations page now.
As you walk you are going to run through a series of different short films in your imagination.

 

  • 1. Ideal Body See yourself with your ideal body. See your friends, even strangers reacting positively to you. You're looking great. Very trim.
  • 2. The Olympian See yourself power walking. Strong and determined like an olympic athlete. You cut an awsome figure. People around you want to step out of your way and watch you power by. You feel like an ancient Greek god, almost as if you could step over a mountain. You are no longer walking to lose weight, you are an olympian.
  • 3. Power Lunch You are sitting having a large salad and fresh vegetables on a beautiful hillside, looking out to sea and a distant sunset. You feel very calm and peaceful. Your back is straight. The food is wonderful, you can feel the energy flowing from the food as you eat. You have a sense of being in control, of commanding everything that you see.
  • 4. Perfect Circulation Imagine your heart beating strongly and steadily. You are speeding through your own arteries inside your body. The blood is flowing fast and smoothly. The cells around you are healthy and strong, they wave as you pass by. You have the sense of a perfectly working mechanism. All is in harmony. All is functioning smoothly and efficiently.

Cycle through these for as long as you are walking. You could perhaps switch visualizations as different music tracks play. Find your own pace for these. Develop the images. You could make them slightly different each time. You are after the feeling of actually being there. If you find something that works for you, stick with it.

 

The walking to lose weight program should have you walking off at least a pound of weight every week. This is addition to any other dietary or habit changes you are making, so keep it slow.

Building It Up

There are two ways to start building up the Walking to Lose Weight program. Introduce both slowly. It is your subconscious mind that you are trying to impress, not your neighbours.

 

  • 1. Increase the Distance You can add an extra minute of walking every day, if you have the time. You will be adding an extra 120 steps every day. Keep adding up to a maximum of 50 minutes total walking time, that amounts to 6,000 steps in total.

     

  • 2. Jogging

    This is a gradual transition. You are going to start by jogging the last 30 seconds of your walk. That's all. Then every day you will extend this by 30 seconds, so day 2 you do 1 minute, day 3 you do 1 minute 30 seconds and so on. If this is too fast for you then add only 10 or 15 seconds per day. Keep the change slow, keep it steady. Don't suddenly do more one day because you feel like it. Keep in the comfort zone. We are making an impression on your subconscious, not on your body's energy levels.

    You are going to jog two steps where you walked only one step before, still in time to the music. You will soon realise that adding 30 seconds per day is quite fast. On a 25 minute walk you will jogging the whole route after only 7 weeks. You will also be taking 6,000 steps in thet 25 minutes. Pretty impressive. If you have gone for the 50 minute walk you could be doing a 12,000 step run after only a little over 3 months (or 6 to 9 months if you have opted for the slower build up).

You understand how little changes can build into a major change. The most important thing is that you are consistent and do it every day. An occasional day off will not interrupt the habit you are building, but don't miss more than one day a week. If you really can't jog one day still do the walk. If you are walking, just do a few hundred steps. The important thing to make sure that the habit is installed is that you do something.

 

You should easily shift from walking to lose weight to jogging or even running for fitness and enjoyment. Done properly and methodically any habit can be installed into the subconscious mind.

Thresholds

After about 3 weeks you will find that your subconscious will start to accept the new behaviour much more easily. This is the threshold for habit forming.

 

After about 8 months you will have this pattern for life and you will have to make an effort to change it. Don't, of course. Walking to Lose Weight is also about fitness and when the excess weight is gone it is still going to be an important part of your life.

Motivation

I talk to a lot of people who put their lack of exercise down to bad experiences at school. If you are having problems motivating yourself, then you should look through the Motivation Program (Just click on the menu). There are some useful suggestions and ideas there.

 

I will include a specific section later on exercise motivation, so check back in a few months. There are also some CDs amd mp3 products in the pipeline to help with the Walking to Lose Weight program.