Your active rest days are your walk days. Remember that all your walking days fall on even days. Now before you get started, make sure you have either of these tracking devices.

A pace tracker watch. Or download a pace tracker app on your mobile.

So, this is your first 10,000 steps walking session in this weight loss course. The rule here is not about you sticking to 10,000 steps. If you can walk more than that it should be fine. 

Don’t worry about your speed in the beginning. Once you get used to walking regularly, your pace will increase automatically. So, for every walking session, your challenge will be to outdo the previous ones in terms of the time taken to complete the 10,000 steps.

Below we have prepared a walking journal for you. This walking journal is to help you cultivate a walking habit. Read it before you start your walk as an inspiration.

Beginners Guide to Starting a Walking Routine

There are so many reasons walking is good for you, it’s virtually impossible to talk about all of them in one short report. So, think of this as a mini primer. Before we get into the “why” of things, here are some fun and interesting facts about walking:

• Every step you take uses up to 200 muscles.
• The average person walks the equivalent distance of five equators in his or her lifetime.
• Believe it or not, it’s better to swing your arms when you walk. Why? When you don’t, it increases the effort of walking up to 12 percent.
• Under certain circumstances, when you walk, the pressure you put on your feet exceeds your total body weight. If you run, this pressure can be up to three or four times your weight.
• Want to burn more calories? Try walking sideways. It actually gets rid of 78 percent more of the little culprits.
• Walking uphill increases cardiovascular fitness and muscle tone.
• It takes approximately one hour 43 minutes to walk off 540 calories, which happens to be the caloric count of a Big Mac. If your meal included a super-size Coke and French fries, you need to walk seven hours to burn the calories.
• If you’re trying to improve your health, experts suggest walking 6,000 steps per day. If you’re trying to lose weight, walk a total of 10,000 steps to get the job done.
• Some people get exercise via walking, even when they don’t want to. Sleepwalking, also known as somnambulism, affects approximately 18 percent of the world’s population.
• The term “walk” comes from the old English word “wealcan,” which means “to roll.”
• It’s extremely important to be constantly aware of your surroundings when you walk. Statistics indicate a person is 36 more times likely to be killed walking than driving a car and 300 times more likely to be killed walking than traveling via airplane.

Now it’s time to cover some of the many reasons walking is good for you and an excellent way to keep fit. One of the greatest things about walking is the fact that you benefit from it, no matter how much or how little you walk. Of course, the more you walk the better. But, every little bit helps.

The Benefits of Walking

Walking every day is one of the easiest and healthiest things you can do for your body. It costs nothing to take a walk. You can do it anywhere, during any season and in any weather. Not only do you reap the benefits of being outdoors taking in fresh air and sunshine, if you choose to walk outdoors, but the benefits of walking in any location are far and wide.

...to be continued on Day 4