Walking is one of the most popular forms of physical fitness. More people than ever are now walking. Walking provides us with many benefits including great exercise, savings on fuel, less highway congestion, less pollution and a great way to lose weight. If you’re just starting your walking fitness program, there are certain tips you may want to keep in mind so you’ll be off on the right track.

Start off Slow

One of the biggest mistakes many beginners make with walking is that they try to do too much too soon. They attempt to walk more miles than they’re conditioned for and are often dressed inappropriately for the activity and the weather. The result is usually sore and painful feet and total exhaustion, which often discourages them from walking again or at least for a while.

When you’re just starting, walk out the door and just take a short walk for 5 to 10 minutes and come back. You can do this a couple of times a day for the first week. Each week thereafter, add 5 minutes to the walk and keep doing this until you’ve reached your goal. Few people realize how important it is to maintain good posture and walk tall. Keep your abdominal muscles and buttocks as tight as possible with your head held high and your shoulders back and relaxed.

Take Care of your body

Drink plenty of water before you, during and when you’re finished walking. Make sure you allow your body a chance to warm up before you start walking by doing a few simple stretching exercises. Even if you don’t plan on walking far or feel walking is easy, you still need to warm up your muscles and joints to avoid injury and soreness. It’s equally important to do some “cooling down” stretches when you’re finished walking. The importance of stretching both before and after your walking cannot be overemphasized and should be an important part of your fitness walking program.

Develop a Pattern

One of the hardest things about getting going with a fitness walking program is being consistent and sticking with it every day. When you first start your program you should walk every day, starting slowly and working yourself up to the pace you want. If you have a heart monitor, it will be helpful because you’ll be able to walk at a speed that will allow you to reach your ideal heart rate. If health benefits are your reason for walking, you should walk for 30 minutes each day. A good pace to walk is what is known as a “talking pace”, meaning although you may have elevated breathing, you can still walk and carry on a normal conversation.

A good body building diet means that you will not just gorge on any kind of food that is laid in front of you. That means do not even think about ordering the Joey special (two pizzas) and calling it carbohydrates. The rule is, “do not eat anything that comes out of a box”, sorry guys pizza is out – check!

In order to build muscles successfully, you need to eat healthy and we all know that processed foods aren’t healthy no matter how good the can or plastic wrapper looks. Experts on body building believe that a good body building diet consists of fresh and wholesome foods and veggies.

1) Whole foods
Whole foods are great for helping you achieve low body fat. There is no use spending all that time at the gym (or wherever) and not have your six packs showing. There isn’t any point doing all that work and not showing off your muscles. The vitamins and minerals found in whole foods also help with muscle recovery; make sure you eat whole foods 90% of the time!
# Veggies – broccoli (did someone just say yuck?), don’t be a baby; broccoli is one of the best veggies (isn’t exactly very tasty but it should be included in your body building diet). Other veggies include, spinach, tomato, carrots and salad;
# Fruits – Apples (we all know what the doctors say about apples), bananas, pineapple, pears, oranges;
# Protein – Eggs, meat, poultry, milk, fish;
# Fats – (yes, fats) good fats such as fish oil, olive oil, flax seeds, real butter and nuts.

2) Got Protein?
Proteins are known to have the highest thermic effect. You really need to have 1g of protein per pound of body-weight each day in order to build and maintain muscle. That is equal to 160g of daily protein intake – that is, if you weigh 160lbs or 72kg. Ensure you eat whole proteins with every meal. Include the following in your body building diet:
# Poultry – chicken breast, turkey, whole chicken, duck;
# Eggs – Eat the yolk because it is packed with vitamins;
# Red meat – steaks, ground round, deer, buffalo;
# Dairy – drink lots of milk, yogurt, cottage cheese, whey, quark cheese;
# Fish – Tuna, mackerel, salmon, sardines (not out a can!).

3) Eat Calorie rich foods
You can eat 100g raw spinach, pasta, olive oil, oats, mixed nuts. Calories are really great for body builders and no body building diet is complete without calorie rich foods.

4) Got Milk?
If you do not mind gaining some fat, add whole milk to your body building diet. You can drink a gallon of whole milk each day (with your present food intake). You are sure to gain about 25lbs in a month if you combine this with squat sessions.
And lastly, make sure you eat more, because food is not only meant for energy, you need it for muscle growth and recovery. Eating frequent meals will also help you boost your body’s metabolism, which in turn helps you lose fat rapidly