5 Ways to Make Your Walk More Fun

M aybe it’s your new year’s resolution, or maybe it’s your doctor’s recommendation, or maybe you just want to be more active. But you just can’t seem to find the fun in walking! Worry not. Here are 5 ways to make your walk more fun, which will definitely keep you going for a long while!

Create a Walking Bingo Game for Yourself

Humans love accomplishments, and even more, love setting goals for themselves and hitting them. There’s one thing you could do that would not only make you feel in charge but also recharge your battery with a passion for walking. Make a mental (or physical, or digital!) list for yourself of things you must find/spot/do during your walk. For example, your list could possibly look like this:

• Step on a crunchy leaf
• Spot 5 cats
• Identify 3 dog breeds correctly
• Hop over a rock
• Walk into a puddle

Depending on the duration of your walk and your comfort level in your neighborhood, you have an endless list of things you could do! As proof of completion, you can take a photo of yourself doing the tasks and compile them all into a nice scrapbook page.

Explore New Locations

Walking the same route over and over again for more than a week will likely make your muscle memory remember the route, and you possibly won’t pay attention as much as you would on a new path. You may even feel that walking is repetitive and boring.

So spice it up! Find a new route for yourself. Maybe walk down the hill you always eye but never pay heed to, or maybe visit a new block in your neighborhood. Walk to that park you heard your co-workers discussing the other day. The spontaneity and excitement of the relative unknown will keep you on your feet (pun intended) throughout the entire walk!

Join a Walking Group

When you have people watching you or joining you, not only are you motivated, you also feel accountable. You know you’re not going to slack off if you have a friend or walk buddy with you, and a little healthy competition never hurts anybody. In fact, you might even feel more excited to walk! It’s a great way to socialize, to catch up with people you may not see otherwise.

Furthermore, for people with chronic diseases, walking groups can form a sense of company within the group. For example, for people with arthritis or depression, walking with other people can allow them to feel less alone, and perhaps even discuss their progress with their disease. Listening to success stories of those in their circle is likely to help them feel like their walks are more fun, and that they should continue walking.

Compliment People 

Another fun activity that you can adopt in order to make your walk more fun is to start passing simple, non-suggestive, and non-descriptive compliments to people who you pass by. This is, of course, a territory that is a bit risky, so be extremely mindful of what you say to other people. Examples of respectful compliments are:

• Your hair looks amazing!
• I love the color of your shoes!
• Your outfit looks good!
• You have a cute smile!

Avoid commenting on people’s skin condition, body type, or anything that’s out of their control. Complimenting passersby and seeing their wonderful smiles will keep you chirpy, and sometimes they may even compliment you in return.

Reward Yourself

If you walk without a purpose or a goal, walking will inevitably become boring for you. And if you do have a goal, but you do not appreciate or acknowledge yourself when you hit your goals, you will start feeling disheartened. So go ahead and make a list of rewards you can get yourself if you successfully walk 4 miles a day every week!

Have you been eyeing a pair of sneakers? Get them! Or maybe it’s a dress. Maybe it’s nothing related to shopping, maybe you want a day off that you’ve been saving for a while? It’s okay, get it. You’ve earned this. You deserve to treat yourself every once in a while.

So What Are You Waiting For?

It may be hard to push yourself out of bed or your lounging chair, but walking has numerous benefits that pay off in the form of good health. If you feel you may be detached from the concept of walking, this list of 5 ways to make your walk more fun should definitely help.

• This post is tagged in:

• health
• travel
• Exercise
• fitness
• fun
• walking