Love Walking

www.dumblittleman.com 

Make it a point to prefer walking. Here in Manila, that may mean ignoring the need to ride tricycles or pedicabs most of the time. Or even preferring walking to riding public jeeps or bus. The usual habit is to ride even if you just have to walk a few meters away. That's the Mother of all obesity to me--being overweight starts there.

I love walking to my destination especially if it's just a matter of a few meters away. Sometimes, I even intentionally ask the public jeep or tricycle to drop me a few meters off so I'd walk the rest of the way. I notice lots of passengers who want public vehicles to drop them off exactly where they need to. This is understandable with old folks and those with disability. But if you're able, what's a few meters away? Love walking and it'll give you only good health and fitness.

Even on hot summer days. There are shaded sidewalks or you can walk through malls and enjoy some air-conditioning. If by chance there's nothing to shield you from the sun, bring an umbrella. I do that now and then. But well, in extreme cases, I hire a pedicab or tricycle.

Learn from primitive men, or at least from men about 50 or 100 years ago. When I was a kid, I hardly saw obese Filipinos, especially those living in the province. They loved to walk--my grandma loved to walk and hated riding in cars or cabs. And they were mostly slim people who died of old age. I had a grandpa, Lolo Siso, who still carried a 50-kilo sack of rice at the age of 100. He was a carpenter-farmer. Once, he was even hit by a running jeep and survived it.

People then were stronger because they loved to walk. They were always mobile--doing heavy tasks manually like clearing and tilling acres of land, walking great distances--walking up several floors through the stairs or even going up mountains, carrying heavy things, and doing things the hard way without the modern conveniences we're used today.

The unwillingness (or laziness) to walk a few meters to their destination but always preferring to ride--this is the main culprit of people's health and fitness problems today. We don't love walking as we used to and losing our patience and discipline for it--gaining more weight in the process.

While there's time to catch up on fitness, here's a FREE video on effective home workouts.