By Mumtaz Moosa Saley

28:10:2020

I walked every day for 30 days – this is what happened.

We all walk every day, but in the last two years, I never walked to exercise. I have always been that person who would say I don’t have enough time yet spend mindless hours on social media.

So, for 30 days I tried to walk every day for 30 to 45 minutes each day, now while many people would ask did, I lose weight. I will tell you that, I ditched the scale to see what would happen if I didn’t care about weight loss or not as my goal is simply to get healthy.

On an average day, I would do about 4000 steps, as I decided to do the Walkie Talkie challenge, I had committed to at least ten thousand steps a day, yes, some days this seemed impossible, so I stuck to the 30-min walks.

While studies show that walking has many health benefits, I’m the sceptical goat that won’t believe it until I try it out myself.

Now let me paint a picture here, for the last two years, I became inactive until recently when a family member noted that during the five days of Hajj you do 20 000 steps a day. From last year I promised that I would start small and build my way up. A year ago, my sleep patterns were also crazy, insomnia and I were old friends that would mean tired mornings and restless nights.

Fast forward 30 days later.

I have the best sleep now. (I never thought this would be possible).
The back pain I had suffered from over the last four years is seemingly manageable without medication. My heart rate and anxiety have calmed down. More so, when you start putting the work in, you also begin to make healthy food choices.
Also, whilst I sound like an old lady, it’s safe to say my joints no longer make sounds when I walk. My energy levels have increased.

My suggestion to you is to make it family bonding time.
“Rather invest in yourself today than have health issues you could have avoided later.”