52 Ways to Walk: The Surprising Science of Walking for Wellness and Joy, One Week at a Time

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I was always taught to walk before a meal and not afterwards. I now know that both are good for me. Studies have shown that walking before breakfast, within one hour of waking, burns off more fat than a walk after a meal. A walk after a meal aids digestion. Even a 10 minute walk after dinner can lower blood glucose spikes resulting from over eating and it will also help you to sleep. Annabel Streets delves into the science and romanticism of walking and explores the good things that can happen with this one small act’ – Reader’s Digest

When the sun shines down on the water you get twice as much light, so you get twice the serotonin boost’: Annabel Street. Photograph: Kate Peters/The Observer There is a TON of information in this book about the benefits of walking, and walking in various ways.

Does what it says on the tin! Walking is good for you in 52 different ways. Walk slow, fast, at night, in the morning, after meals, alone, with a friend, in the rain, singing, meditating etc etc x 52. Annabel Streets is searching for a conifer. It is a bright, early March day and we are looping around the gardens of Fulham Palace in southwest London. She spots what she is looking for: a large spreading yew tree. We stand looking up at the clusters of leathery, spiked leaves and breathe deeply. “Every day I stand under an evergreen tree now,” she says. “I have become obsessed with terpenes.” This short, enthusiastic guide extollingwalking’s mental and physical benefits, and will motivate you to get outside and move, step by step, all year.”— AARP

Landscapes with running water have a restorative effect on the mood of the walker. The mind unwinds and the brain relaxes, helping us to feel tranquil and energized at the same time. Tote along lightweight binoculars for watching wildlife along the river and wear sunglasses to protect eyes from glare off of the water. 52 Ways to Walk – Week 17 Follow a River How I Intend to Use the Book Things I liked about this book: So many ideas to think about walking in a new way and to keep the simple act of walking from being boring. Ideas to engage all the senses, different times of day, terrain, moods, duration, health benefits, etc.Sigh. The science is shoddily presented and the tone is completely ableist. Too bad. I like occasional facts and I love walking but, uh, no.

But in adulthood, she fell into a pattern familiar to many of us – days spent hunching towards a computer, evenings prone on the sofa. Working out in the gym, but using the car to get there. The combination of desk job and driving made her body “rounder, softer, achier, stiffer, stooped” and her mind anxious and unsettled. She made a resolution to do as much as she could on foot, getting a dog and proper wet-weather gear for extra motivation. Walking strengthens our bodies, calms our minds and uplifts our spirits. We know this intuitively, and recent years have seen an explosion of scientific and evidence-based research to substantiate that. pa... annabel streets djelomično je u tome i uspjela. iako nam je svima u podsvijesti "hodanje je dobro za tebe", još je bolje ako imaš iza sebe neke znanstveno potkrijepljene činjenice o dobrobiti tabananja. od 52 načina koje ona predlaže, neki su iskoristivi i dobrodošli podsjetnik na važnost disanja, ispravnog držanja, prikladne obuće i odjeće, hidracije bla, a neki su posve čudnovati i djeluju kao nategnuti način da se popune stranice (hodanje pjevajući, plešući ili crtajući). There are many areas of health – mental health, emotional health, gut health, etc. Can walking really help them all? We have turned on to a path that follows the Thames. Reflected sunlight gives a chrome cast to the river. “It’s magical,” says Streets, looking out at the refracting glitter, “and when the sun shines down on the water like this it means you get twice as much light, so you get twice the serotonin boost and serotonin is what makes us happy.” This is a typical blend of the scientific and the romantic found in the book. For Streets, a waterfall doesn’t stop being inspiring and wonderful when you know that the presence of negative ions, molecules of air and water charged with electricity, are the reason for your lowered heart rate and reduced stress. Studies on the potential effects of the full moon – covering everything from a higher rate of women going into labour to increases in violent crime – are inconclusive, but Streets feels that adds to “the eerie, enigmatic qualities of a moonlit walk”.With hearing, I was fascinated to discover some of the science behind the sounds we hear so the most relaxing sound for most people is actually the sound of water … but the most uplifting sound is actually birdsong.” I wonder if sometimes it’s about perception,” she says, about walking alone. “At home we know all the horror stories and all their locations, but when we’re elsewhere we don’t have that knowledge. We don’t know about the horrible things, so we think we’re safe. And nine times out of 10 we are. We look at women in the past who’ve done big journeys and think they’re intrepid or brave, but they also didn’t have daily news stories about what could go wrong.” Terpenes are the trees’ own immune system,” says Streets, “and when you walk underneath them you breathe that self-protection mechanism. There are studies showing that the blood pressure of people walking under evergreens was significantly lower than that of the people walking in a control group.” Fascinating ... C onnected both to old wisdom and new scientific frontiers of discovery ' Lauren Laverne