While much of the country has started seeing what they call “winter weather”, we around San Antonio are still blessed with mild outdoor temperatures year-round! With highs in the 50s and 60s during the winter, we’re able to enjoy the outdoors and a break from the heat we experience the rest of the year. If you’re interested in a San Antonio weight loss clinic, look no further than the wonderful parks and natural areas we have at our fingertips. Hitting the outdoors allows you to experience numerous benefits, many of which come from the simplest, least expensive form of exercise: walking.

Walking is underrated; after all, most of us do it several times a day without thinking about it.  Despite this, walking remains one of the best forms of exercise for people of all body types and those suffering from various health conditions.

Health Benefits

Just a 30-minute walk will burn 140 calories, which may not seem like a lot in the scheme of things. Walking is considered on flat terrain at 3.5 mph, a leisurely activity. If you bump up your terrain to one of the hiking trails in the area where you’ll encounter slight hills or other
smaller obstacles, you’ll burn 185 calories in a half-hour.

Walking creates many more benefits than burning calories; this slow-paced, low-impact activity helps prevent or manage many conditions affecting women. Walking a trail or path is a great cardiovascular exercise, although it’s not as potent as running or jogging. Type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and high blood pressure may all improve — or you’ll be helping to prevent them — with a walking regimen.

How to Improve Your Walking Workout

While walking itself is a simple activity many people can handle, you can boost the benefits and your health by giving yourself realistic goals. Some women may find walking for long times difficult. However, you can set goals by adding baby steps to your regimen. For example, if you can only handle five minutes at first, try five minutes for a week and gradually bump it up by two minutes.

For those of us healthy enough for longer walks or hikes, boosting your workout is as easy as picking up the pace. Walking a little faster, working up to walking a little farther, and adding a second walk to your day all improve the health benefits your body will experience.

Where to Walk

Nearly all of San Antonio’s city parks have trails, ranging from .25 miles to the nearly 3.5-mile concrete trail at Apache Creek Park. Guadalupe River State Park, located about 30 miles away, offers 13 miles of trails that take visitors by scenic overlooks.

The beauty of walking is that you don’t have to go anywhere – just get outside and go. Hitting the outdoors is easy: walk around your block, go downtown and walk around, admiring the beauty of our city, or go to your favorite shopping area where you can visit favorite shops – BONUS: a little added weight from a shopping bag can help burn calories, in case you see something you can’t live without while walking by storefronts!

Connect with San Antonio’s premier women’s center for more information.

With so many fad diets creeping around, it’s sometimes hard to understand where the truth lies in what makes a healthy diet.  Give up this, eat more of that, this is OK but not that much – it’s endless.  Weight loss remains on the mind of women and isn’t going away.  The trends in weight loss and body image have finally started to distinguish between “skinny” and “healthy,” with more information being brought to the forefront regarding healthy lifestyle and body type.

Food is a Portion

Still, finding a good fit isn’t always easy.  Healthy eating is a part of a healthier you, not the whole.  Lifestyle plays a factor.

Foods affect much more than your size – a healthy diet can help prepare your body to overcome or prevent health problems.  From skin issues to heart and bone health, and so much more.  As we age, women are more susceptible to several health problems.  While changing our diets late in the game may not be a miracle worker, it can definitely help put us on the right track.

Recommendations

The Office of Women’s Health, part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, states that “Heart disease is the number 1 cause of death for American women.  Stroke is the number 3 cause of death.”, and that “heart-healthy eating is an important way to lower your risk” of these diseases.  

It’s no surprise which foods made the “naughty list” for the OWH:  added sugars, processed foods, too much sodium, and cholesterol.  Foods on the “good list” include whole grains and whole foods, beans, legumes, and fruits and vegetables.

Reducing your intake of sugars, processed foods, and high-cholesterol animal products is just the start to a healthier you.  Even dropping a small percentage of your bodyweight if you’re overweight reduces your risk for heart disease and other health issues.

Support

While adopting healthy eating habits and a healthier lifestyle are a start, you may feel as though you need additional support and a push in the right direction.  It’s never too late to start trying to improve your health, and we’re here to help you achieve those goals.