I made walking more a huge priority over the past couple of years and it’s helped me in so many ways! I wanted to share some of the inspiring data that shows the tremendous health benefits women get from walking more, which become especially significant in our perimenopause and postmenopausal years. Plus, I’m sharing details on how I’ve been able to get more steps in at home, and how walking supports our hormone balance!
In this episode I’m exploring…
⭐️ The benefit of walking on our blood sugar and fat storage
⭐️ How walking impacts our digestive system and supports good gut health
⭐️ How walking helps beat sugar cravings
⭐️ Fun tools you can use to get more steps in around the house
⭐️ How walking supports our immune system
⭐️ How bone density is improved for menopausal women with walking
⭐️ How your step count and speed can affect health benefits
Links to follow up from this episode:
- Links for walking pad and weighted vest ideas
- The Body Fuel System meal plan
- My Dinner Plan eating system
- Rock Your Life home workout studio and women’s fitness program for women in their cycling years, in perimenopause and post-menopause
Episode Transcript
New TabBetty Rocker (00:16):
What’s up, rockstar Coach Betty Rocker here. Thanks so much for joining me today. It’s great to get to spend some time with you. As you’ve probably noticed this season of the podcast, I’m really focused on women’s health throughout our life stages. And with that in mind today I wanted to share some of the research around the benefits of walking, which just has so many health benefits for us as women throughout our entire lives. So here are some stats on walking more that I find really inspiring and they even prompted me to get an inexpensive walking pad that I use daily in my house. Of course, in addition to going outside for walks, which you know, I just find that I walk more when I have the chance to get on my walking pad if I’m say watching a show or looking at social media. And I’ll have some links on the show notes page on my blog for today’s episode.
(01:12)
If you wanna see the walking pad that I have and also some of the other ones that I like. A walking pad is just like a low powered treadmill that goes about four miles per hour and it’s pretty compact. Um, mine slips under my couch to just stay out of the way though I almost never put it there since I use it so much. I’m actually walking on it right now. Well, I’m recording this episode ’cause I thought it would be fun to, you know, walk and talk to you. So let’s talk about why I’m walking more these days than ever and why I think it’s such a great intentional practice for all of us. Walking as a little as five to 10 minutes after a meal can actually reduce your blood sugar and lower your insulin levels. Remember keeping our blood sugar stable really helps reduce fat storage.
(02:01)
And like we’ve talked about in some of our recent podcasts together, as our estrogen levels decline in the perimenopause and postmenopausal years, we’re much more sensitive to the insulin response in general. And it can make us more susceptible to things like insulin resistance, which is that condition where our insulin can’t help the glucose from our food we eat, get into our cells and that creates this really dangerous level of sugar in our blood and that can lead to a lot more increased fat storage. It can lead to things like obesity and set us up for diabetes. So we always want to be aware of the sugar in our meals and especially mindful of it as we get into those menopausal years. But I think it’s really helpful to know that just walking for a bit after we eat can have this really beneficial impact on regulating our blood sugar.
(02:52)
So getting in the habit of going out for a walk after a meal is a great idea and you know, if you can’t do it every meal, just think of my all or something mentality and see if you can do it after one meal or maybe after two meals of your day. If you have a dog like I do, you know, you can kind of time your meals to theirs and take them for a walk and that’s a really easy way to do it unless of course it’s too cold or it’s raining. And then my dog will only go out for a second