Walking off the baby fat

Do you know the most popular form of exercise? It's walking and it's no surprise --it can be done anywhere, has no learning curve, needs no special equipment and can be done at any level of fitness. Walking helps take off the fat because it burns a decent number of calories (approx 80-100 per mile, more on hills) and tones the major muscles of the legs.
The best way to start walking more is to measure the number of steps you take with a pedometer and then add on whenever you can. By keeping track it becomes a competition with yourself to increase the number of steps you can take in a day. Several years ago we tried this at the office where I was working. Many were shocked by the small number of steps they were taking. It led to many people going out for a walk after lunch just to up that number.
While I am pretty active during the week - taking aerobics, lifting weights, spinning and doing the elliptical trainer at the gym - walking is my favorite weekend activity because the whole family participates. My husband and I put the kids in strollers and walk about 3 miles to a playground and then back again. The path we take is wooded and serene. While 6 miles of walking may be too much if you're not currently active, keep track of your steps using our new walker tracker page and you'll see the amount of walking you can do jump in no time. (It's about 2000 steps per mile.) Finding a great destination and beautiful surroundings helps, too.

Long daylight hours for walking

Now that the days are long, we've been doing a lot more late day family walks. Actually, we've kind of been forced out of our house each evening. You see we're trying to sell our house and realtors keep calling to show the place after 5 PM. With lack of a better idea, we've been sticking the kids in a stroller and going for long walks to the playground. And you know what? My husband and I are getting a ton more exercise. Pushing two kids, plus a stroller up the hills in our development is quite a workout. We come home drenched in sweat. Maybe once the place sells, we'll keep up the walks (at least that's the hope).