Thursday’s Thoughts: Do this one thing to improve your health.

Good Thursday, my friends and family! I hope to find everyone healthy and happier than the last time we talked. Sometimes keeping positive in this world is tough. We have to keep going forward. Maybe a turn here and there but keep going forward. 

This week’s topic is the most underrated exercise you can do for free! There are so many benefits and, to my knowledge, no downsides. It’s something that you can do by yourself, with your partner, or your pet. You can get a book or your favorite music. You can call someone you haven’t connected with in a while. All you need is 20 minutes a day. You know it’s Walking. Not to belittle it, but it’s a thing most of us can do anytime and anywhere!A single activity that we as humans do every day. We are the only creatures in nature that walk upright. Yes, some birds walk upright but have a counterbalance with their spine. What I’m trying to get across is “JUST DO IT” and reap the benefits. Here are just a few Benefits of walking 20 mins a day:

1. Cardio Health: Increase heart strength and endurance. Increase your blood flow to bring all the nutrients and vital supplies to your body.
2. Metabolic Health: Help reduce insulin resistance. It helps with increasing the way you metabolize your food into energy. 
3. Muscle and skeletal system: Aids in reducing muscle loss, increases bone density, and overall strength and endurance. 
4. Balance: Balance is provided by proper gait on uneven surfaces. Remember, you don’t hop around; you walk on one foot at a time. Proprioception has increased. Vestibular stability will increase.
5. Healthy Weight Maintenance: Increasing calories burned will aid your weight loss program. An additional benefit for you is an increase in weight due to the build-up of muscle mass while increasing your walking programs to a more strenuous pace.
6. Better Sleep: Walking in the morning directly improves your circadian rhythm. 
7. Increased Immune System: Regular walking can benefit your immune system by helping immune cells perform effectively – increasing blood flow, reducing stress and inflammation, and strengthening antibodies.
8. Brain Health: Increases cognitive performance and decreases the chance of Dementia. 
9. Mental Health: Decreases stress and anxiety and increases mood and well-being.

All you need is 20 mins per day at a comfortable pace. Down the road, you can increase your pace and move to more challenging terrain, hills, and uneven surfaces. The point of this is, Please get out and try it! t’s a great way to get healthier and reduce stress. 
Please feel free to share this with a friend or send me their email and I will add them to our weekly email. Have the greatest day of your lives today!
Ben