Here are some of our top tips to help you get the most from your walks, and to walk your way to weighloss…

Move more, eat wisely

Taking part in a weekly Walking class or Workout Walk is a great way to remind you of your fitness goals too, and how much fun it can be to achieve them! Besides, they will make you feel much better, mentally and physically. Our members regularly tell me they sleep better on the day of our walks, knee and back pains are vanishing or getting much less, and they feel energised for the rest of the day. Last Tuesday some of our regulars were talking about how they felt they had more energy because of the weekly walks, and how that meant they felt like moving more.

Not a surprise then, that lately I am regularly bumping into Fit and Happy Outdoors members either Nordic Walking or working out on the outdoor fitness machines in the park!

Beware the compensation effect

Everyone knows that to lose weight, the amount of calories you eat needs to be less than the amount of calories you burn each day. So, move more, and making smarter food choices. Cutting down on processed food and soft drinks and adding more pulses, fruits and vegetables to your diet.

There’s little point in going to the gym five times a week if you’re going to undo it by eating a poor diet and consuming more calories than you’ve managed to burn.

But studies show that people who go to a gym often cancel out the calories they burn by eating more. Probably because they feel they have to reward themselves for all the hard work, or because they felt they needed some extra energy?

How the “outdoor gym” can help

It is not just something I have noticed in myself and my clients: Research shows that moderate exercise like walking can be really effective for weight loss since it doesn’t trigger the appetite hormones, which can lead to you reaching for the biscuit tin after a hard workout.

The beauty of Nordic walking is that even though you are exerting yourself more, as you use more muscles and you walk faster because of the poles, you will not feel as if you are working harder. This is because the poles actually aid in propelling you along your way so that you still feel comfortable and not out of breath.

Nordic Walking in a beautiful green park or countryside not only helps you to get fit, it also relaxes your mind. Looking at a flower on the way, enjoying the smells and listening to the birds will improve your wellbeing and socialising and laughing while you are walking helps you feel good.

A vigorous walk will make you feel healthy and alive. And that feeling can really spark you to live healthier in other parts of your life too.

So instead of beating yourself up for being too fat, you might start feeling proud of what your body can do and how strong it is. And then you might just start craving for more fruit and vegetables to enable you to stay that strong and healthy!

Wouldn’t that make losing weight much easier? If going on a regular walk would actually WANT to choose the more healthy option, eat more fruit and vegetables and eat and drink less sugar?

Nature is best, that counts for drinks too.

Sports drinks contain salts and sugars. The idea is that they replenish what the body has lost through sweating. But many of them are packed with sugars – which means they are often super high in calories. We usually don’t sweat so much during our walks, so for most walks, (tap) water is not only better for your health, it is also much cheaper than those sugary sports drinks!

And if you plan to do an extra tough training or a very long walk? Surprisingly maybe, but chocolate milk and plain milk are really healthy choices. They have all the minerals and protein you need after a workout and they have actually been proven to work better than all the expensive and sugar packed sports drinks!

Another good drink is coconut water, but make sure you choose one with no added sugar, especially if you want to lose weight.

Build muscle to burn energy

Strength training is not only necessary for body builders. Your muscle tissue uses up more energy than fat tissue. This means that if you increase your muscle mass you’ll be burning more calories – even while you’re at rest.

Nordic Walking done properly is a fabulous strength training, which is why we are always looking at your technique during our sessions. You will strengthen not only the muscles in your legs and bum, you will also train your abdominal muscles, your lower back and muscles in the side, as well as your arm muscles. Without even once touching a dumbbell, or a boring gym machine!

And to get you even stronger, you might have noticed that we like add some strength training in our sessions. No machines needed. Just our poles and the odd park bench!

Intervals training boosts you efforts

Research shows that interval training—workouts in which you alternate periods of high-intensity exercise with low-intensity recovery periods—increases fitness and burns more calories over a short period of time than doing the same thing with the same intensity for your whole workout time.

We do that by walking up and down hills, alternate walking as fast as we can and walking at ‘normal’ speed, having fun with silly walks, our Nordic Walking ‘gears’, and our Workout Walkers love them: Our 4 minute high intensity interval training. Yep, you heard that right: 4 minutes! In that time we will make sure you give it your all, they are super effective and you will feel soooo good afterwards! The exercises are slightly different each time, although we have our favorites, and we will always base them on your current level of fitness, so that they challenge you, but you can still do them with good form.

Even if you are not exercising: Move around every hour

Long periods of extended sitting will crush anyone’s metabolic rate in a hurry, so make a concerted effort to get up and move around every hour.
A simple solution like an alarm on your phone can provide an easy reminder. Get yourself a cup of coffee or a glass of water or do some stretches. An added benefit of drinking a lot is that it will make you get out of your chair to go to the bathroom…

Remember why you’re doing it

This is the fun bit: start dreaming! What will you be able to do when you are fitter and back to a healthier weight? Enjoy spending time with your grandchildren? Or go on that holiday in the mountains with your friends? What will you look like? What clothes will you be able to wear again? Why not put one or two pictures on your fridge, that remind you of that dream. That way, you will see it every day; it will bring a smile to your face and remind you to keep going!

All health content on fitandhappyoutdoors.com is provided for general information only, and should not be treated as a substitute for the medical advice of your own doctor or any other health care professionals. Always contact your GP if you have any concerns about your health.