Hey, it’s national “Start Walking Day!”. The American Heart Association has a program called “Start Walking Now” and today is the day it begins for this year.

If you’re American, you can download it here: National Start Walking Day You can’t download it if you’re not American (at least, I couldn’t – if you figure it out, let me know!)

If you’re not American, you can download my freebie on the right and get started with that.

Or, keep it simple, and just head out the door. Hey, it feels like Spring in Calgary (finally!!) That, in itself is worth getting outside and taking a walk for! Can’t waste the beautiful weather – never know when the next snow dump will arrive!

Have a great day walking!!

Darlene

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So, the new year has begun. How are all those resolutions you set? Are you succeeding with any of them?

It’s difficult to succeed in making healthier choices in life. We all know we need to slow down, eat better, exercise more, spend more time with God and our families. Yes, it’s all there in black and white in our heads, but it’s just so hard to walk those choices out.

Over the years as my desperation to change has risen to a fever pitch, I’ve learned a few tricks that have helped me, so I thought I’d share them here in the hopes that they’ll help you, too.

1. One habit at a time – I know your list is long, but choose one habit at a time. If you try to tackle them all, you’ll fail at them all. If you tackle one at a time, you’ll master the ones you work on.
2. Keep it Small – Reduce your goal to the smallest possible steps and tackle one small step per week.

So, here are some ideas you might try:

Getting in shape: Let me suggest that you buy a pedometer instead of a gym membership. Measure your steps normally for a week, find your daily average, and increase that daily average the next week by 100 steps. Continue to increase your daily average week by week. When you’re up to a couple thousand add an easy, refreshing 10-minute walk. Increase the walk by 10 minutes every month. Once you hit 60 minutes, increase your speed.

Eating better: Don’t buy the latest diet book, simply start breakfast with a selection of fresh fruit, begin lunch with a bowl of vegetable soup (broth based) and dinner with a large tossed salad. Each week drink one more glass of water a day until you’ve reached a minimum of 8 glasses. Once you’ve mastered that, start eliminating the bad stuff – but keep one day a week as a splurge day.

Spending more time with my family: Instead of instigating something like a family night out of the blue, make a choice to stop, turn, and look when your child speaks to you – in other words, practice listening. Then start asking questions about things they like to do. Participate wherever you’re invited. Soon the family times take care of themselves.

Improving my relationship with God: I don’t think most of us need another study, a new prayer system, a new Bible, or a program. I would simply recommend a journal, a pen, and some time. As in the above goal, start with listening. It might be pretty quiet for a while, but God is speaking, and if we learn to hear Him, the rest falls into place.

These probably sound ridiculously simple, but I think you’ll find if you start here, doors will open up, and new possibilities will present themselves.

If this is the kind of thing you’re looking for to reach those resolutions, download my free, 8-week “Introduction to Praisewalking” ebook over there on the right, and get started!

Try it and see! Keep me posted on how it works for you!

Darlene

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Getting healthy should be a journey, not a destination.  We should be constantly checking and tweaking our lifestyles to get the most benefit out of our diets and exercise program.

However, we don’t need to obsess.  Just keep some “healthy attention” on what’s going on, and try to get maximum benefit from minimum effort.  That’s my goal, anyway.

One way to do this is to keep track of your steps and constantly come up with creative (though not necessarily ridiculous) ways to increase them.

This can get tedious, though, so I like to use tools and different prompts to help me along.  Here are some of my favourite:

For tracking my steps I use the iStepLog app for my iPod Touch.  This connects to the very cool 10,000 steps website that encourages you to sign up for different challenges, like “The Camino de Santiago” that you can walk virtually.  You also get cool certificates that let you know when you’ve reached 1,000,000 steps.  Lots of fun!

About.com has a cool forum where you can post the number of steps walked to reach a group goal, or the number of walks you take each day and such.  It’s also fun, and there’s lots of interaction between members.

On the right hand side of this blog you’ll also see a sign-up form to get a free e-book with 45 ways to increase your steps.  Take a look!

Do you have any ideas for increasing your steps and/or keeping track?  If so, post them below in the comments so everyone can benefit.

And if you found this post helpful, I’d be grateful if you click the “like” button below:

This post is part of our ongoing “N.A.V.Y. Challenge” on Facebook. Why not pop over and take a look? If you like what you see, join us, and invite your friends along as well! We’d love to have you!

Be A Star! Post your comments below and join in the conversation (or get it started!) and then share this post with your friends using the different share buttons on the blog. I'd sure appreciate it! Thanks!

Who is Darlene Hull? Click here: www.darlenehull.com to find out!

Do you have an active lifestyle?  How do you determine that?

Can you be “active” when you spend most of the day sitting at a desk?

Does going to the gym for an hour 3x a week qualify?

There are many definitions for “active” and they’re not that easy to measure.  There is one fairly accurate measurement, though, and that is the number of steps you take each day.

According to Dr. Yoshiro Hatano, a Kinesiology professor in Japan who has researched the benefits of walking, and monitoring steps walked with pedometers, for years, the “magic number” seems to be about 10,000 steps – or the equivalent of walking about 5 miles a day.

So how many steps do you take each day?  Do you know?

On days (like today) where I spend the majority of my time on the computer writing and researching, I take around 2000 steps.  Not very many!  On days where I’m working at Gymboree I take about 6,000 – a tough workout to be sure as I climb on the various bits of apparatus and dance with kids all day – but not enough.  On days were I actually follow through on my walking program in addition to everything else, I easily reach 10,000.

I wouldn’t want you to strap on a pedometer today and just go for those 10,000 steps without preparation, though.  You’ll burn out in less than a week, and your pedometer will be relegated to the ever-growing pile of unused fitness equipment.

What you need to do is strap that puppy on, and just “live normally” for a week without worrying about it.  Every night before you go to bed, record your steps.  That’s it.  If you miss a day, don’t worry about it.  Start again the next day.

At the end of the week, tally up all your steps, and divide by the number of days you measured.  That’s your daily average.

Now, beginning the next week, attempt to add 100 steps to that daily average each day.  So, if your daily average was 1750 (because you spend most of your work day in a cubicle and most of your evenings in front of the TV) try, in week 2, to take a daily average of 1850 steps.  A small improvement, but very achievable.  Achieving it will make you feel great, and motivate you to keep going.

The trick is to make sure that that 1850 is a daily goal.  Don’t sit on your butt all day for 6 days and then walk 20 miles on the weekend.  What you want is a steady, active pace, each and every day.

Try it out.  Tell me how it goes.  Post your questions and challenges below in the comments section, and I’ll get right on them!

Don’t forget about our “N.A.V.Y” challenge” happening over on Facebook! Sign up for free and invite your friends along!

Be A Star! Post your comments below and join in the conversation (or get it started!) and then share this post with your friends using the different share buttons on the blog. I'd sure appreciate it! Thanks!

Who is Darlene Hull? Click here: www.darlenehull.com to find out!

A couple of years ago I got a call from the Heart and Stroke foundation.  A lovely man was on the other end, and asked quite apologetically if I would be able to canvass for them that year (in February).  The routes were very small, he assured me, and I’d have two whole weeks to get it done, and my own street was available if I’d like to do it.

He must have caught me at a weak moment, because I said yes.

“What?!” he exclaimed, in shock “You’ll WILL?!”   He must have been having a bad day, because you would have thought I’d just handed an eight-year-old boy his first puppy.

We laughed about that, and he told me the person in charge of my area would be in touch.

A few weeks later I got a phone call, set a date to get my packet and some brief training, and I was “in”.

The scheduled canvassing weeks arrived.  I spent one evening going door to door completing the route for the first time.  It took a little over an hour, and everyone was very pleasant, and most were willing to donate even a small amount.  I took note of the addresses where no one was home, and the following Saturday I visited those homes again.  This took another 45 minutes or so.

I came home, added up my totals, and walked over to the route supervisor’s home and turned in my packet.

All done.

This year, not only did they call me again, but now the Canadian Diabetes Association has asked me as well (there must be a shared database of willing volunteers) and I canvassed for them this past Saturday.

It really is a simple way to force yourself into a walk, and it’s a worthy way to help those less fortunate.  A route is usually fewer than 50 houses and you can often get one in your very own neighborhood.  It’s not complicated, and it’s GREATLY appreciated.

Why not give it a try?

I just added 2,000 steps to an otherwise lazy day!

Darlene

I’ve been participating regularly in the “10,000 Steps” community over the past couple of months. They have some fun and motivating ways to keep you walking, one if which is the “Million Steps Challenge”. Every Time you log 1,000,000 steps they send you a certificate. I got mine on the 16th. My next one is due in December.

It’s kind of fun! Check them out :”10,000 Steps“

Darlene

HAPPY CANADA DAY!

Jenolan Caves to Hill End
Your Blue Mountains journey begins in Jenolan Caves. Jenolan Caves is home to the oldest discovered open caves in the world, approximately discovered in 1835-49, featuring numerous Silurian marine fossils and calcite formations. From Jenolan Caves walk to Gulgong a gold rush town which was founded in the 1870s and then on to Mudgee in the Cudgegong River valley, which is now a wine producing region. From Mudgee continue on to Hill End which was established in the 1850s as a gold rush town. Hill End is also classified as a historical site by the National Parks and Wildlife Service.

The GREAT NEWS is that you can join me, because I’m only walking “virtually” using this very cool website:

You just create an account (choose to join the step log on the bottom left), then go to the “I-challenge” link, and sign up at whatever level you’re comfortable at.  With the training I’m currently doing, I’m going for the second level.  I should be able to accomplish that.  Then get yourself a pedometer and get walking.  Every day log your steps and the rest is done for you.

Pretty cool, eh?

So sign up, find me as a friend on there, and we can walk together.

Happy Walking, Happy Canada Day!

Darlene

PS: I’m still looking for sponsors for my walk on the 5th of June – can you help? Just click the badge below and you’ll go right to my page

Well, how are the resolutions coming?  Have you broken them all already?

Did you try to do the “drop 40 pounds in a month” diet, along with the latest “Best Abs/Butt/Thighs in only 3 minutes a week” fitness plan, on top of the decision to improve your housekeeping, love your kids more, spend less money, pay off your debts, and dress complete with makeup every morning all starting on January 1?

I’ve tried that too.  So far, it’s hasn’t worked for me.  I guess I try too hard to be a hare, and end up losing the race.

I’ve been doing a lot of study on the art of Kaizen (sorry about the sales letter, but it explains it for our purposes better than anything else I’ve found on the web!)

So this past year I’ve been researching and testing the most efficient habits for weight loss, fitness, and great mental, physical, and emotional health.  I’ve shared some of those discoveries here already.  I’ve also been constantly tweaking and improving my PraiseWalking Primer – a program that helps you take the “Tortoise View” of developing habits via the Kaizen method.  Every two weeks for eight weeks you get a specific area to focus on, and small, very doable habits to practice one at a time, so that at the end of eight weeks you’re creating great nutritional, fitness, and mental/spiritual health habits that last. I’ve now completely re-vamped this program to make it even easier and more comprehensive!

AND . . . I’ve been testing a weight loss program with my husband, and we’ve both had GREAT success with it, in spite of “life” interrupting us with coffee dates, dinner guests, celebrations, and other diet pitfalls.

SO . . . The long and short of all that is that I am releasing BOTH the diet plan AND the PraiseWalking Primer FOR FREE (yes, you heard that correctly – not a single penny!) and you can download both of them instantly by clicking the banner below.

So if you’re a tortoise, trying very unsuccessfully to be a hare, or if you’re a complete wash-out for your wellness resolutions, or if you’re simply tired of the roller coaster and want something stable that actually works and makes you feel GREAT, download your copy right now and get started!

No point in waiting until NEXT January to get it right, now, is there?

Happy walking!

Darlene

Time to share another cool tool for keeping track of your fitness/weight loss. Today’s tool is the Omron HJ-720ITC Pocket Pedometer with Advanced Omron Health Management Software!

This is SUCH a cool pedometer, as it not only is one of the most accurate pedometers on the market, it also has cools software for tracking your daily goals and achievements. The PraiseWalking system (especially the first level) is all about being able to accurately count your steps, and keep track of your progress. You don’t want some cheap, inaccurate pedometer to track something as important as your improving health! Having said that, the Omron is really not that expensive, and if you’re lucky, Amazon will give you a deal on getting both the pedometer and the hear rate monitor, which is a key tool for level 4 of PraiseWalker.

Here are the things I like:

• you can wear this in a pocket, on your waistband, in a purse, or anywhere else as long as it’s perpendicular to the ground – in other words, it can’t be on its face or back
• it shows you all your steps, and it keeps track of which ones are actually aerobic steps which are considered as steps walked more than 10 minutes continuously
• large display, clock, detachable belt holder and security strap, so it’s hard to actually have it fall off and get lost
• it re-sets itself every morning
• the software is incredibly easy to use
• it’s robust – it would be pretty hard to break this sucker!

I’ve been using this for almost a year now, and I’ve been delighted with the ease of use and its many features. This is my number one choice for a pedometer.

We have mice.

They’re desperately cute the first time you see them popping their little heads out of the stove burners (?!), but not after they’ve been caught eating your food and pooping all over your kitchen.  Perfectly disgusting creatures.  We’ve tried spring traps (they lick them clean of peanut butter without setting them off.  Cheese is just as bad), poison (they think it’s a nutritional supplement!), glue traps (they can get out of these! – though it’s pretty hard to extract the dog when he’s decided to play with a captured mouse!), sonic devices, essential oil of peppermint, and anything else we can find.

Ever seen “Mouse Hunt“?  Trust me, I’m about ready to hire the guy with the bazooka!

Anyway . . .

My family and I have been reading the book “The Hiding Place“.  In there, two sisters from Holland who run an underground for escaping Jews are arrested and eventually sent to Ravensbruck.  There they find deplorable conditions, but Betsy, the older sister, is anxious to discover how to serve God there, and they decide – based on their Bible reading that morning – that they will serve God by being thankful for everything.  Corrie, the younger sister – and much more like me – decides she can find ways to be thankful for many things, but NOT for the fleas which were rampant in their living quarters.

They discover that in spite of desperate conditions and the fact that they are watched every moment of the day, they are, for some strange reason, given a wide berth when they’re in the main room of their quarters, and discovered that the guards avoided them because of the fleas.  Now Corrie could truly give thanks for them.

I was thinking of this as I was deep cleaning the kitchen, trying once again to rid the place of mice and their filth.  I was angry – I not only hate mice, but I’m not too keen on cleaning.  To have to do it over and over because of THEIR mess does not make me a happy person.

However, I did decide to praise God for them, because I could see that they were forcing me to be a more diligent housekeeper – which is a good thing.

The exercise so inspired me that I cleaned the whole house vigorously for FIVE HOURS!  My house has never been this clean all at once!

So if you’re gonna visit – come now.  The house is sparkling, and I think my cleaning products have gassed the mice – I’ve not seen any today . . .

Darlene