February challenge:
★★★Go out for those daily (or almost daily)walks, but just for 12 minutes … and see how that feels.★★★
At the beginning of this year, the #walk1000Miles challenge beckoned me to sign up. And the temptation was simply too great to resist. The mile tracker looked enticing, the medals looked gorgeous, and our walking community’s chatter about this challenge simply filled me with so much excitement.
But I had to admit to myself, I was a long way off from being able to just come close to this target. So I adapted the challenge to my needs. Shorter walks, and I added into the challenge my runs and rows. Whatever keeps those gremlins from appearing at the threshold of our house doors, right?
For some of you, including my own hubby, walking 2.5 miles per day is a regular daily activity. However some of us, including myself, we feel we need something smaller… or shorter. So the challenge this month is going to be something much more humble. It is to walk just for 12 minutes daily…. Or almost daily…because life sometimes gets in the way of living right?
So 12 minutes….
It seems, according to Annabel Street’s chapter on 12 minute walks, that only this short duration 80% metabolites are changed for the better. And metabolites are small molecules that affect our metabolism, how fast we heal, how we turn food into energy, inflammation and all sorts of other things, such as the propensity to develop diabetes or liver disease or breaking down fat stores.
All that after 12 minutes of vigorous walking.
(Information from the seventh chapter of the book “52 ways to walk” by Annabel Street, “Take a 12-min walk”)
★★★So our challenge this month is to go out for daily walks, but just for 12 minutes … and see how that feels. (And if you need a couple or recovery days here and there, then that is ok.) ★★★
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For reference, our first challenge from January is here
January Challenge - Walk in the Cold
Day 1 of 5 Minute challenge - 3x daily!
