A Daily Dose of Walking: It's Good Medicine

Some tips to help you improve your vascular health through exercise.

1. Find different places to walk to add variety: the zoo, a nature trail, a different neighborhood or park or lake.
   
   
2. Sunrise…sunset. Just like finding a different place to walk, experimenting with a different time of day for your walk may give you new inspiration. Anyone for a moonlight stroll?
   
   
3. Once begun…half done. Make a pact with yourself. When your will power is down, promise yourself that you aren't allowed to decide about walking until you are dressed and out the door and have started your walk. Half the battle is usually getting out the door. Once you've put forth the effort to get out the door, you might as well keep walking.

Author, Mitzi Ekers, MS, ARNP, is a nurse practitioner who has been working with vascular patients for more than 30 years. She is Director of Vascular Services at the Heart and Vascular Institute of Florida in St. Petersburg. She helped start both the Society for Vascular Nursing and the Society for Vascular Ultrasound.