Lose Weight By Walking Your Dog

Some of the best exercises you can do to lose weight are also the most fun, like walking your dog.

With each New Year everyone makes their set of goals they want to accomplish and without a doubt nearly 100% of people out there will put weight loss at or near the top of that list. Instead of thinking that you need to kill yourself in a gym or starve yourself to lose weight, set practical goals that are more fun.

We all need some level of physical fitness in our lives. No you do not have to train like you are preparing for the Olympics, but you do need to stay active. It keeps the blood flowing throughout your body and the oxygen to your brain as well as so many more benefits other than weight loss.

One thing that I found to be helpful for me is walking my dog. I get up about five in the morning, I drink my eight ounce can on v-8 juice, take my multi-vitamin, put the leash on the dog and away I go.

We walk a specific route in my neighborhood that is a little more than a mile long. The morning walk is more leisurely. We take our time; I let him sniff the trees, poles, neighbor's cat, that sort of stuff. This is the type of walk that “wakes” me up. It's enough to get the blood flowing to start my day, but not too crazy where I feel exhausted.

When I get home from work I walk him again. This time we do two laps. The first is similar to the morning walk. A nice slow, even paced walked. On the second lap, we pick the pace up. Not too fast, but brisk. This gets my heart pumping a bit faster, and of course the exercise is also good for him.

I will take him (and myself) for a final walk in the evening right before bed. This will be a half lap; unless I am feeling really energetic then it will be a full lap. I consider this my cooling lap. Again gets the blood flowing but does not make me feel like I went through an entire workout. It also gives my dog a chance to get out and do his thing one final time.

If you don't own a dog that is fine, get a friend or neighbor to walk with you. The important thing here is you get out and actually do it. Soon you will start feeling better as you work towards losing that weight.