National Walking Day occurs in April every year, and there are so many benefits to beginning your walking journey. Take advantage of the warming weather, and experience these five transformations that will take place in your life!

Reach and Maintain a Healthy Body Weight

Thirty minutes—it’s the length of your lunch break, your favorite sitcom, and all of the time you need to add a fun and healthy hobby to your routine. Walking for 30 minutes each day will burn approximately 150 calories each day. Depending on the pace and duration of the walk, you can burn even more. Combined with a healthy diet, adding this simple activity to your daily routine will help you to both reach and maintain a healthy body weight.

Prevent or Manage Medical Conditions

Regular exercise, including a daily walk, reduces your risk for a variety of chronic conditions. Taking the time to squeeze a stroll into your schedule can actually help you prevent conditions like type 2 diabetes, many types of cancer, dementia, depression, anxiety, and heart disease. If you have any of these conditions, adding a walk into your routine will help manage them, reducing their risks and improving your overall health.

Strengthen Your Bones

Milk isn’t the only way to build strong bones – so is regular exercise! Adolescent bodies are constantly breaking down and regenerating bone, but when the body stops growing (around age 30) so does bone mass. Activities such as walking and consuming enough calcium will keep our bones strong well into our later years, but without these healthy habits, we run the risk of developing osteoporosis. This “silent disease” is caused by a lack of calcium in our diets as well as a lack of exercise, which keeps bones strong. Even though one in three women, and one in five men will develop this disease later in life, they often won’t even know they have it until they break a bone. That is why it is so important to keep our bones strong and healthy in our younger years, and to maintain those healthy habits as we grow older.

Improve Your Mood

Daily exercise releases endorphins, your body’s “feel-good chemicals.” This improves one’s overall mood throughout the day. Walking outdoors adds another layer of mood-lifting side effects. In addition to pumped up endorphins, getting your daily dose of Vitamin D from the sunlight will expand your capacity for joy. By adding this simple, yet effective workout to your daily routine, you should expect to smile a whole lot more!

Increase Your Energy Levels

It may seem counterintuitive that exercising can give you more energy, but think about a body-builder’s ability to open a pickle jar as compared to yours. They get their strength from lifting weights, just as you will become much more energized after implementing a brisk walk into your daily routine! By gradually strengthening your muscles via this simple workout, you will be able to do more with your body. Whether that means keeping up with your children easier or finally completing that half marathon your family participates in each Thanksgiving, you’ll be more equipped to take on previously challenging tasks. 

These are just a few of the ways in which walking will improve your daily life, your health, and your mood. Make the decision to participate in National Walking Day, and see just how immediately you will begin experiencing some of these awesome health benefits after enjoying a simple stroll around your neighborhood!