I hope the answer to that question is yes. Because if it isn’t, making walking a fitness activity is going to be really hard.

One of the biggest fitness lessons I’ve learned over the years is that a commitment to exercise doesn’t stick if it’s an activity I don’t enjoy. I have multiple failed attempts at a gym membership. Each time I was convinced I would stick with it, but each time ended the same discouraging way.

I didn’t like all the effort needed to get to the gym and I really didn’t like exercising with other people around. Intellectually, I knew that no one was watching me, but I could never relax. Exercising when your predominant emotion is self consciousness is never a recipe for success. Although, I’m not sure that self-consciousness is actually an emotion, you know what I mean.

Recently, my wife’s brother and his girlfriend were down from Maryland for a visit. They stayed with Ava’s dad and what they did on Saturday was a great reminder of just how powerful it is when you enjoy a fitness activity.

They left around mid-morning and walked to the beach which is about three miles from where Ava’s dad lives. Once they arrived, they walked along the ocean’s edge for about an hour. They might have kept going, but realized they had to match the distance they walked to return home.

Their walk back was through the center of town so they stopped at a restaurant for something to eat. While there, a couple people texted them and asked if they wanted a ride home, but they declined saying they’d rather walk. And, so they did. They ended up putting over eight miles on their step trackers. But, more importantly, they had a great time!

This is what can happen when you enjoy walking. Your fitness activity becomes a real part of how you enjoy life. Imagine the fun circle that creates. Because you enjoy walking you walk more. Because you walk more your fitness capacity increases allowing you to walk even more.

The beautiful thing about walking for fitness is you can ease into it. You don’t start with eight miles. You start with a ten-minute walk. Every day. As your fitness capacity gradually increases so does your enjoyment.

To help you create a walking fitness habit, I’m now doing a daily ten-minute podcast. I record this during the first ten-minutes of my morning walk. It’s a podcast of action as we walk together holding each other accountable for creating and maintaining a lifestyle of fitness.

You can check out the most recent episodes (including today’s) HERE.

If this is something you’d like to have every day, simply follow or subscribe where you get your podcasts and each day’s episode will be waiting on your phone when you’re ready to walk.