Glenn with his local Heart Foundation Walking group

A great story of transformation through walking from Heart Foundation Walking:

Glenn McLennan was diagnosed with Diabetes in 2010 and by 2011 had his first operation on a foot. Unfortunately, complications set in in 2016 and by January 2017 both lower limbs were amputated.

12 months ago he joined his local Heart Foundation Walking group.

Walk Organiser Alison Gentles said, “He liked what he saw – a happy, friendly group and the flat surface because we walk at the shopping centre,” said Alison.

Glenn enjoys the social side of the group with the coffee catch up after the walk. With the support of the walking group, specialists and his local community; Glenn has a positive outlook and is committed to living a healthy lifestyle through walking and good nutrition. Glenn hopes his story will send a positive message to the younger generation about the importance of regular exercise and healthy eating.

Join a Heart Foundation Walking group to take positive steps to help reduce stress, have a healthier body, build stronger relationships, and most of all, be happy. With 128 groups across South Australia there’s sure to be one close to you.

Throughout October we’re celebrating walking with #walktoberSA

Article via Heart Foundation.

Want to improve your mental health?
Go for a walk.
People who exercise have 43% fewer days of poor mental health.

It’s a common piece of advice: that exercise is pretty good for your mental health. A huge study published in the journal The Lancet Psychiatry has found that literally just walking can improve your mental health.

Individuals who exercised had 43% fewer days of poor mental health in the past month than individuals who did not exercise. All exercise types were associated with a lower mental health burden (between 11.8% and 22%).

The study of 1.2m people appeared in the Lancet Journal on August 8th 2018.

A great story of transformation through walking from Heart Foundation Walking:

Fifteen years ago, Bob Ueckert lost his ability to walk after suffering a stroke. At the time, he weighed more than 160 kilograms, had high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and due to his stroke, was paralysed on the entire left side of his body.

Bob underwent rehabilitation to learn to walk again, lost more than 80 kilos, and found a new lease on life.

Over the last few months he has been participating in the Heart Foundation’s Prime Minister’s One Million Steps. He wasn’t even a quarter of the way in before hitting the magic one-million step mark.

Walking for an average of 30 minutes a day can lower the risk of heart disease, stroke, and diabetes by 30 to 40 per cent, with evidence showing the benefits of walking also extend to the brain – improving learning and memory skills and reducing the risk of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.

The Prime Minister’s One Million Steps is about supporting the 52 per cent of Australians who are not active enough to improve their health by walking. Although the current round of the progrm has stopped, you can still use the app to track your steps, receive challenges and have the chance of winning a weekly prize.

Heart Foundation National CEO, Adjunct Professor John Kelly, said it’s never too late to join the Prime Minister’s One Million Steps.

“Any level of walking is better than none at all, but more is even better, particularly when it comes to reducing your risk of heart disease,” he said.

“Whether it means a 10-minute walk today and a longer walk tomorrow, whether it means getting off the bus, tram or train one stop earlier, every bit counts, and people who do the least amount of walking are the ones with the most to gain.”

Throughout October we’re celebrating walking with #walktoberSA

Article via Heart Foundation.

Walking faster may lead to a longer, healthier life.
To improve your health you’ve got to huff and puff and step up the pace until you’re out of breath.

Walking at an average pace was associated with a 20 per cent risk reduction for all-cause mortality compared with walking at a slow pace, and walking at a fast pace was associated with a 24 per cent risk reduction.

For people aged over 60, the benefits increased: an average walking pace was associated with a 45 per cent reduction in cardiovascular disease risk, and fast or brisk walking, a 55 per cent reduction.

The study by Sydney University analysed more than 50,200 walkers. Their most valuable message is that you’ve got to huff and puff and step up the pace until you’re out of breath, because that will lead to improvements.

And another study in Canada has confirmed what many people already believed: Walking for older people, even less than the recommended guidelines and only at moderate speed, can add years to your life. The 13-year study followed 140,000 people with an average age of 70.

Experts have calculated some best practice guidelines for time spent walking weekly. It’s about 150 minutes of moderately intense activity, or about 30 minutes five times a week, with about half that — 75 minutes a week — as a minimum.

But the study has found that even if you’re not meeting the minimum, the act of walking is still extremely valuable.

“Even a little walking might help you live longer. It’s been called a perfect exercise, it’s easy, cheap, doesn’t require special equipment and it doesn’t even have to be fast walking. Most of the participants said they walked about four kilometres an hour.”

Feeling stressed out?
Go for a walk.
The positive effects of a single exposure to nature make us feel happier for up to 7 hours.

We have long been aware of the positive effects of walking in nature can have on our mental health and wellbeing, and a study has found the positive effects of a single exposure to nature make us feel happier for up to 7 hours.

That means that walking to work in the morning, or taking the dog for a stroll first thing, can really leave you feeling happier all day.

The study by Urban Mind, including King’s College London, found that the benefits of experiencing nature on mental well-being are time-lasting and interact with an individual’s vulnerability to mental illness.

Walking can transform your life, by improving your physical health and social connections. Bernie Victory talks about how getting involved in a charity walk led to losing weight, feeling healthier, and making new friends. He has found walking to inspire him to travel both locally and overseas to walking destinations.

“I find that the group I walk with, they’re a group of people with a huge range of skills. I think that’s one of the great things about walking, you can be together as equals within an enormous number and enormousness range of people, and it’s a great equality.”

Throughout October we’re celebrating walking with #walktoberSA

Transcript:

I’m in a walking group that doesn’t actually have a name. It’s just a loose collection of people that are strung together by a weekly email, but there’s about 200 people that get the email, and on every Saturday there’d be somewhere between 20 and 50 people walking.

I find that the group I walk with, they’re a group of people with a huge range of skills. I think that’s one of the great things about walking, you can be together as equals within an enormous number and enormousness range of people, and it’s a great equality.

The way the walking works is there will be a walk, and there’ll be coffee at the end of the walk, and at the end of coffee someone will say “Has anyone been to Mt Hayfield?”, or “I want to go to Borneo, and do the death march,” and I just recently came back from the Bungle Bungles, and to find places in Australia that I didn’t know existed, that were just so beautiful, and just so stunning, I was in awe for days.

Every coffee leads to another walk, and every walk leads to more contacts and more connections.

It was 2003, and I had decided to do the Kodaka Track. It was a fundraiser for work, and it came at just the right time, because I got very unfit over the last twenty or so years, and I was significantly overweight, and I knew that if I was going to do the Kodaka Track I would have to walk, I’d have to train. Doing the Kokoda with people, who six months before could barely get out of bed, and wouldn’t get out of bed, to see them reach a level of fitness, and to finish the track, and that sheer moment of joy, that’s always a moment of great inspiration.