If you’ve made up your mind to lose some weight, then you’ll have most likely have created some sort of exercise plan. If you haven’t exercised in a long time, or never, you may not know how to get started. It could even be a little frightening, commitment wise. But not to worry, there’s a simple way to start exercising again: walking! You need to make walking a major component of your exercise plan.

You’ll be amazed how easy it is to squeeze walking into your workout plan. Do you own a dog? Take your dog for a nice, long walk. Anything less than 10 minutes doesn’t count. It may only have been ten minutes, but after a week that equals to 70 minutes, which is quite a lot of walking. You can double this by merely taking your dog for a walk twice a day. Another thing you might want to try is walking part of the way to your office building; you can make this as long as you want by just stopping short of your workplace. You can try this irrespective of the distance of your home from work. If you’re lucky enough to put in just a thirty-minute or so walk to where you work, that’ll be an extra hour of walking each day. But then, if you ride a bus to work, simply use a bus stop farther away than the one you ordinarily use. It’s easy to add walking.

Walking is wonderful for your body and general health. This is because walking is one of the most efficacious aerobic exercises. This means it’s not just terrific for your heart, but you’ll experience weight loss too. You don’t have to be concerned about overworking your joints or muscles like when running, as you can walk as slowly as you need to. I have a skinny brother who seems to be able to gobble up anything he wants and remain thin. I asked him about it. He pointed out to me how often he goes out to walk daily, and it’s a lot more than I do. At least it now is perfectly clear. There is no good reason not to exercise, when walking is very easy.

You’re more likely to stick with your walking program if you just make it part of your day-to-day routine. Then, with a proper, healthy diet, you’ll also start slimming down as if by magic. You won’t have to be anxious about motivation, because walking is not all that vigorous, and you’ll be pleased at how much better you feel. The more you walk, the more you’ll want to walk . . . and the more quickly you’ll want to walk. If you believe you can do more – do it. Try walking at a faster pace or, if you’re feeling very confident, you could begin jogging. From there, you can progress to more vigorous workouts.

What else do you need to know? Are you inspired to begin walking? You can always find time to walk around your work complex, or the block. If not, get a gym membership and get on a treadmill. There are numerous ways to skin this exercise cat.