WALK ANYWHERE AND FEEL BETTER

Take your walking program indoors during the colder months. You'll avoid weather interruptions and other challenges to regular exercising. Eliminating those stumbling blocks will help you maintain consistency and get closer to achieving the recommended 30 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity on most days.

Although "location, location, location" is the watchword of success in real estate, it doesn't matter for healthy walking. When you walk at a comfortably quick pace inside an office building, school, fitness center, shopping center or your own home (you'll learn how in a minute!), you get the same benefits as when you walk outdoors.

"Take a look at wherever your setting is and ask, 'How can I be active in this setting?'" There's good reason to get moving. Moderate-intensity physical activity, such as walking, reduces women's overall risk of death from all causes. Walking also lowers your risk of developing Type 2 diabetes, coronary heart disease and breast cancer.

What about weight loss? In combination with diet, walking can take off excess pounds while also building your cardio-respiratory fitness. Even for obese individuals who don't attain their ideal weight, such activity—when done regularly—reduces the risk of health decline.

To make your in-home walks interesting and fun, check the library, video store or online for walking DVDs and tapes. When you pop these in, you get pace-setting music, advice on technique and timed walk routines with a variety of movements. Walking in your house is free, but you can also buy a home treadmill machine for about $500 and up.

Marching the mall

If you can resist the smell of warm cinnamon buns wafting through the air, you might enjoy mall walking. Many enclosed shopping centers open early just for walkers and some stay open a bit later for the same reason.

Malls attract walkers because the centers are temperature-controlled and have smooth floors, filtered air, security, bathrooms, easy parking and—yes—a place to get coffee or a snack afterwards. Those amenities might explain why research shows that, compared to men, women walk faster in mall settings than on traditional tracks. Some malls have organized walking clubs, although many mall walkers form their own social networks without the management's help.

Tips on indoor walking

• Add extra indoor walking opportunities. When you go to the supermarket, walk around the outer aisles of the store first before you begin shopping. Do the same at warehouse clubs or giant discount stores. Then walk up and down each aisle. At work, walk to speak with co-workers instead of sending email.
• Use a pedometer. These clip-on step counters help encourage you to walk. Keep a log of how many steps you're taking daily. Increase gradually.  Aim for 10,000 steps per day!
• Don't forget the stairs! Vary your walking workout by climbing the stairs at home or work. Even short amounts of extra stair-climbing improve cardiovascular health. Start out by adding just one or two extra trips up the stairs each day, then increase. Walk up escalators instead of standing and riding. Exercise at lunchtime with a friend by walking the stairwells at work.
• Practice inefficiency. Take one thing up the steps at a time. Make four trips instead of one.
• Walk while you talk. Use a cell phone or wireless headset and walk around the house as you carry on conversations.
• Call the mall. Check with the management office at your local mall to find out whether the shopping center opens early, or stays open late, for walkers. If you have a choice of malls, pick one with wide halls so you can move briskly even when shoppers are there.