Heart Healthy Walking Challenge

So, with February being the month we pay homage to our ❤️, we thought it would be a great time to put up our first challenge!

According to the CDC, heart disease is the leading cause of death in both men and women. We want to help fight against this statistic by challenging you to walk every day in February!

According to several healthcare professionals we’ve spoken with, you should aim to walk 10,000 steps a day to reduce your risk of heart disease and get more fit. Unfortunately, most of us don’t even take more than 4,000 steps a day. (I only average about 5,500 a day) We think we can do better than this!

BEFORE STARTING ANY NEW EXERCISE ROUTINE, PLEASE CHECK WITH YOUR HEALTHCARE PROVIDER.

1. Once you are cleared for this challenge, get a step tracker. I use the free tracker in my phone and the free app MyFitnessPal to keep track of my calories and steps. Tess uses her FitBit. There are many other options in the market place though so pick what works best for you.
2. Use a tape measure to record your waist, hip, and thigh measurements. (Keep it somewhere safe)
3. On February 1st, 2016, start walking every day with your tracker. Walk with a purpose, like you have somewhere important to be. 10,000 steps is about 5 miles or 9 kilometers. You don’t have to do all of it at one time. I usually do mine in 20 minute bursts.  
4. Let us know how you are doing each day by taking a picture of your tracker and sending to us. Also, add your daily total in a comment for this post. We will be adding ours too.
5. At the end of February, we will award a small sampler prize pack to the top people in the following categories:
   • Most Steps overall
   • Most improved step count
   • Most inches lost (yep, break out those tape measures again!)

REMEMBER TO DRINK TO STAY HYDRATED. APPROXIMATELY HALF YOUR BODYWEIGHT IN OUNCES. EXAMPLE: I weigh 176lbs so I should drink about 88oz of water each day.

Have fun!