These boots were made for walking
And that's just what they do
One of these days these boots are gonna walk all over…
Well, that's up to you.
However, these particular boots regularly tromp across the
North York Moors, usually the bits closest to home on our morning dog walk (we
are so lucky and don't let us ever forget).
They also take us to the village Post Office some lunch
times to pay in the few cheques we receive and to purchase vital supplies like
milk; if it's not too busy (or my head is frazzled) we might just take the long
route - over the moors and across the river before back into the village
calling in at the Post Office and finally heading back to the office, in other
words a three mile detour!! And in the process tick off four of National Walking Month's #Try20 tips to add 20 minutes of walking to your day.
I'm not sure we need any tips to help us add more walking to
our day, research by the University of Liverpool published last month showed
that dog owners are more likely to get the recommended 150 minutes exercise per
week exceeding non-dog owning people by an average of 2000 steps and 13 minutes
per day. However, we do spend far too
long sitting starting at computer screens - don't we all? - so anything that
encourages us to move is good thing, which is one of the major aims of National
Walking month organised by Living Streets (who celebrate their 90th year this
year). They have plenty of suggestions
to make it easy to build a little extra exercise into your day, from taking the
stairs or a two minute walking break every hour (I like the idea of that one)
to taking a walking meeting (works really well for bouncing creative ideas
apparently - maybe not so good for discussing the end of year accounts or
anything that requires lots of paperwork) as part of their Walking Works programme which aims to embed the culture of
walking into workplaces. More information here.
Later this month (20-24 May) is Walk to School Week. Living Streets say: "Each year we
develop a new five-day walking challenge aimed at primary schools - the perfect
activity to take part in during Walk to School Week. This year the challenge
will get to the heart of walking and how it can benefit the whole community as
well as improve individual wellbeing." More details here.
BTW: I'm not the only one with boots, Office Dog Dido has
her own as well, to help deal with some dodgy toes. Last month she starred in the Shooting Times
with her boots. See her in her boots.
Further reading
Information about Walking Meetings on Medium here.