When You Go Walking, So Do the Pounds
If you want to lose weight and keep it off, you need to bring an Italian sense of vitality into your life and move like an Italian. People get up early in Italy and move throughout the day. Next to their healthy eating habits, the number one reason why Italians are slimmer than Americans is because of the amount of movement they get in their everyday lives.
The best kind of life-enhancing exercise I know of? It would have to be walking. Walking is the exercise of choice for people everywhere in the world. The National Weight Control Registry, which keeps track of thousands of people who have shed thirty pounds or more and kept it off over a year, has found that most successful people start out by walking on a regular basis.
You can start small, especially if you're not in the habit of walking or if you're very overweight. In fact, it's important to consult a health professional before starting any kind of diet, weight loss, or exercise program to find out what's best for your particular body type and situation. Don't push yourself too hard in the beginning. You can just commit to being more physically active every day. You could start with 10 minutes of walking, or 15, or 20, depending on your constitution. Take a walk before or after breakfast. Or before or after dinner.
If Americans would simply walk on a regular basis just for the pleasure of it, they'd be in much better shape. There are all sorts of opportunities for walking. Walk to your local market on weekends. Take your dog for a walk. Walk with a friend. Let walking take you outside to enjoy nature. It boosts immunity, lowers blood pressure, and releases those pleasure-giving endorphins that make you more vibrant and alluring. It lifts your spirits.
You can even adopt the Italian ritual of la passagiata, the ever-popular evening stroll. It's the time when Italians are out enjoying the fresh air, being watched, and watching others. If you can't get your head around that one, think John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever when he struts through Brooklyn.
My friend Kathleen discovered the joys of walking when she and a friend began walking after work. (Before that she used to do a treadmill at the gym.) She and her friend found that after just a few minutes of walking, they would feel better and would have discarded all their stress from a day of work.
They settled into a routine of walking for an hour or so at the end of the day, covering three and a half to four miles Monday through Friday and five miles on Sundays, unless it was pouring down rain. Kathleen said it was much more fun than the treadmill. Once a week they would walk to their favorite restaurant and share great food and a bottle of wine.
"One night we had too much and ended up singing all the way home!"
Kathleen said that now, if they don't walk, it really bugs them.
"You process what you eat better," she said. "You aren't as hungry when you get regular exercise. Bu you can actually eat more."
Walking allows you to enjoy a hearty appetite. The last time I was in Rome, we grabbed dinner at a sprawling cafeteria above the train station when we returned from a trip one evening. I was amazed to see the enormous spreads the Italians were eating. Almost all of them had a pasta first course, a meat second course, a salad, vegetable, bread, drink, and water. Italians dine like kings. They need to. They walk -- a lot!