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

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Highly recommended for lovers of walking and nature, as well as those seeking a holistic fitness plan. 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 One of the joys of 52 Ways to Walk is discovering that there’s a scientific basis for much of what we’d call common sense or folk wisdom – and so much of it is rooted in leaving the house and going for a walk: getting the sun on your skin can help your immune system, and there’s nothing harmful in getting covered in mud. In fact, it can help your gut health. Full Book Name: 52 Ways to Walk: The Surprising Science of Walking for Wellness and Joy, One Week at a Time

There’s more and more studies and data showing that pollution, particularly the smaller pollution PM2.5, is particularly bad for us, it’s been linked to all sorts of things from Alzheimer’s to brain fog to respiratory disease. In the author’s own words, this is A love letter to walking. I really enjoyed this fascinating book and I learned a great deal. It’s full of scientifically based advice on the best ways to walk for the benefit of physical and mental health and well-being. Walking allows us to experience chance encounters with others. Greeting the people we meet with a smile while walking in a neighborhood makes us feel better and return home happier. Walk in the Rain As a young adult, Annabel bought her first car and enjoyed driving it around her little town. She also accepted a desk job. Soon she noticed changes in her body and wellness level. Night walks can be good. Especially if there’s a full moon. The average person sleeps 20 minutes less on a full moon. Our ancestors would have used the moonlight as an extended day – we’re designed to be out in it.This book covers much of the science of walking together with the health benefits and research undertaken. Due to medical issues I've not been able to walk as much as I usually do these past few months (typically 5 miles in the morning and another 2 or so in the evening), and as I'm currently recovering from surgery, I'm not quite up for a brisk uphill climb in the rain just yet. But I did spend most of the time listening to this book pacing up and down my hallway/kitchen, and am so very much looking forward to being able to get out walking again very soon! It sort of puts so many things into perspective so you feel both sort of enlarged, in a mysterious way, but also feel shrunk down, you’re this tiny ant in this huge, huge cosmos. I wanted to show people all the reasons there were to walk,” she says. “Even in the darkness, even in the rain, there will be something that part of us will respond to, whether that’s physiological or emotional or cognitive. I didn’t want to be the person who was just telling everyone to get their 10,000 steps.” There are many areas of health – mental health, emotional health, gut health, etc. Can walking really help them all?

Each chapter in the book is an opportunity to discover a new way of walking. The chapters roughly coincide with annual weather conditions, colder at the beginning and end of the year, and some universally recognized events. Just because many of us have been walking for most of our lives doesn’t mean we’re doing it in the best way. So what is the healthiest way to walk? I spoke to Annabel Streets, author of 52 Ways to Walk: The Surprising Science of Walking for Wellness and Joy, One Week at a Time.

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. 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.” Of course I’ve always walked for the sheer pleasure of being outside and enjoying nature, but I did enjoy the insight as to what scientists find happens to the body when we walk. To quote Psalm 139:14 “I am fearfully and wonderfully made”. God master designed the human body to benefit from walking, enjoying nature, slowing down( so we can enjoy the earth He created), and developing kindred spirits.

As a person who walks for both physical and mental health, rather than a particular destination, Annabel Streets' 52 Ways to Walk: The Surprising Science of Walking for Wellness and Joy, One Week at a Time is both an inspiration, and a revelation. I knew that walking made me feel better, especially during these super trying times, but I wasn't sure why, nor how I could make a walk around my neighborhood more interesting. I always think a walk is best if you leave everything behind—certainly leave your phone behind—and there’s something so liberating about having so little with you … walking is completely liberating, you don’t need anything, you don’t need to know where you’re going, you can go wherever you like.” Most woo walk that I actually want to try: Walk with negative air ions, which can be found near waterfalls, other flowing water, in the mountains, on a misty spring morning, or after a downpour. A delightfully original love letter to an activity humans were designed to do throughout the course of each day. Modern life has rendered walking an optional pursuit, but Streets makes a compelling, evidence-based case for the benefits of a daily stroll… A gift for walking enthusiasts as well as those who need a little nudge to put on their walking shoes, 52 Ways to Walk will render redundant all of the usual excuses by presenting creative, weather-conscious options for every type of walker.”— Shelf Awareness 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 DigestThere is a TON of information in this book about the benefits of walking, and walking in various ways.

Writer and keen walker Annabel Streets has been researching the science behind walking, and has found walking can expand your mind, build muscle, boost your immunity, improve your vision, burn calories, help you sleep, reduce anxiety, improve your memory and lift your mood. Annabel grew up in a carless family. Her father never learned to drive and her mother failed her driving test seven times. The family lived in remote places without access to public transportation, so if they needed something, they walked to obtain it. Ways to Walk was born out of Annabel’s reconnection with walking and the desire to encourage others to rethink walking and reclaim it from their molecular memories. 52 Ways to Walk – Week 1 Walk in the Cold How to Use the Book

Urges readers to put on walking shoes, offering a weekly, new perspective on walking, no matter where you live’ Greg recently brought home a book from our local library, because he thought it might interest me. And does it ever interest me!