Recently, I listened to a webinar about walkable communities. I thought about my own experiences, about wellness at the college, and what we could do to promote walking and a more walkable campus. Three presenters spoke, and I really enjoyed hearing different perspectives from Sam Schwartz Engineering, the Center for Disease Control (health focus) and America Walks (community engagement).

My biggest take away was exercise improves health. One neat statistic from The Center of Disease Control was that “6 bouts a day of 2-3 minutes of stair climbing improves cholesterol and fitness in college women”.

Now they had my attention – and it got me thinking about my experiences here at the college – and where and how much I walk. The session left me with some neat ideas on how to promote walking, and how we could make the campus more inviting for walking. Some of the ideas I liked were creating a map of outdoor walkable routes, creating walking/running club (which I believe exists). I then thought about walking indoors especially as we head into winter – and walking in the mall or the stair wells.  Wouldn’t it be great to have some fitness information about how many calories I burned or how many steps I took? Could I use a pedometer to help track my success? These and other ideas could be a great part of a regular wellness routine.

So now that I have thought and talked about walking –  how about I just get up and do it! See you in the stairwells.