20-Minute Fat-Burning Walk | 44

You ever have those days where you're running on what feels like dollar-store batteries? You're doing all the right things like eating okay, walking, sleeping (sort of), but the energy just isn't there?

This 20-minute walking workout helps you shake off that blah, brain-foggy feeling and rebuild real energy… the kind that sticks around long after you're done.

We chat about:

• A sneaky-simple way to build steady, all-day energy
• How to get your body to burn fat instead of burning sugar 
• A mini mood lift that helps you feel calmer and a little more like yourself again
• Silly stories

If your get-up-and-go got up and left, grab your shoes and let's get moving.

P.S. You'll hear a bell halfway through. That's your cue to turn around if you're walking outside.

Topics also include 80s music, 80s aerobic workouts, unitards, walking with a book on my head, cat bloopers, swimming like a Norwegian. 

And hit,  Follow, so next week's walk is ready when you are.

Instagram: @yourwalkingpodcast

Facebook: @yourwalkingpodcast

Transcript

Helen Ryan: 0:00

Does it feel like someone swapped your super high quality batteries for those terrible dollar store ones? You know, you go to bed and maybe you get a full night's sleep and you're

still running on 20% by 10: 0:08

00 AM. Yep. Hello? That's me. So today I'm going to show you exactly how to find that magic pace, that magic speed, that will teach your body how to build a bigger energy tank, and then to stop you from feeling like you have those crappy discount store batteries. And at the end, hopefully you'll feel more energized and ready for the rest of your day. That's our goal today anyway. Stay tuned to the end where I will share some bloopers from this week's episode. Take a deep breath in through your nose and exhale through your mouth. It's a little bit of a longer walk, and we're going to trade that meh energy for the, I can handle my day'cause I'm a rock star, type of energy. And there's a bell at the halfway point. So if you're walking outside, you can turn around and head back. You can also do this workout inside. You can march in place or a piece of equipment, like a treadmill or a walking pad. We are warming it up now. Take a deep breath in through your nose. And exhale through your mouth. And I always forget to tell you that this is Walking and Talking with Helen. They're walking workouts on all major podcast platforms and it's also streamed on YouTube. No video, just the audio. That's a light pace. So when I say breathe in, you want to breathe in deeply through your nose. You want to relax your stomach, let the lungs really fill up, and then breathe out through your mouth. Drop your shoulders, unclench your jaw. It's a level where you could easily chat be cause this is just a warmup. Smooth, easy steps. Rhythmic. So the type of walk we're doing today is what we call an endurance walk, but don't let that name scare you. It's like endurance - go - stamina - ha! This is a more of a steady state walk. Once we kind of warm up and we reach speed, that good speed for us, that's not too hard, but enough to feel like we're working out, then it's going to teach your heart and your lungs to work smarter. And the more you do these kind of walks, the easier everything else in your life tends to feel. You get more energy, you feel stronger, you think clearer, and you're not really exhausted after your walk or your workout. So when I used to teach spin, we taught the original spin, the Johnny G. And we had three different levels. We had endurance. We had all terrain, which was intervals, and then we had strength. And the all terrain was incredibly hard. I would be really tired after class. The strength was hard, but I liked it because I'm a climber. You know, can't take the mountain out of the girl, can take the girl off the mountain, but can't take the mountain out of the girl. And then the endurance rides were great because we felt refreshed afterwards. We felt so strong afterwards. We had a great time and we would know in advance what we were doing. So that really helped us pick and choose what we wanted to do with our schedule and our workouts based on what we were feeling that day. So we weren't always forcing ourselves to do something that our bodies didn't want to do. So this is going to be in that endurance zone where afterwards you're going to feel great and you're going to feel strong. Okay, we're going to find that next level going to go a little faster. We're going to be reaching that steady state, and it's the one that keeps us going without completely wearing us out. We're going to settle into it. And this is a pace where that magic happens. The magic, the sorcery. And I'm going to tell you that I'm focused on doing more of this steady speed, magic, or sorcery right now. You know, all the stuff they tell you about how walking is great for your blood pressure and great for your cholesterol, and it is great for all of that. And I just got a very loud wake up call about that. Because, yes, I got my lab results back and my blood pressure's great. Well, those weren't part of the lab results, but my bad cholesterol, the LDL was high and my good cholesterol, the HDL was low. And they said the ratio was just like almost okay. So they didn't have to put me on statins. I don't understand what the ratio means. I haven't looked that up yet. My doctor suggested I think about more lifestyle changes like these kind of walks, and also eating a little bit better because, I've been living a lot on quick processed foods. I'm tired, I have Hashimoto's disease. My thyroid levels are actually low. I'm really super busy. The business is busy and you know how that goes. So I'm like, hey, let's have some crackers. And we have so much cheese in the house., How much cheese does one person need in her house? How much saturated fat does one person need? I don't know. So on my list, maybe cut back a little bit on that saturated fat. I am redoing the labs again in seven weeks, and I am determined to impress my doctor. I remember when I used to teach spin all the time and I asked my doctor if my labs were braggable and my doctor at the time said that they were. So that is my new goal, going back to getting braggable labs. And this type of walk, this is the first step to get there. The more endurance type walk really helps overall with all of that. Another deep breath into your nose. Really fill up those lungs and exhale. Okay, we're going to level it up one notch, so it's time to add a little speed to this. We're moving with intent, but we're still staying in control. And as we pick up our pace, let's think about our postures. You're going to stand tall, kind of through the top of your head. You know, some of us, when we were young, we wanted to be models. So we'd practice walking with a book on our head. So I practiced that for hours. I walked around with a book on my head, nevermind that I was five feet tall and not model material. So let's pretend that we're balancing that book on our heads. It's kind of a silly visual, but it works. Just don't be stiff. You want to kind of be neutral, natural, , nice and tall. So you have a book on your head, you don't want it to fall off. Keep your pace. This is the sweet spot. And here's the cool part about this sweet spot pace. This is where your body finally stops panicking and burning off the sugar from your lunch and switches to burning the stored energy instead. So it's the best way to get the metabolism going without totally frying yourself. Sometimes with the harder efforts that we do, we just feel really tired and really fried. So this kind of workout, the endurance type is really great because we just stay strong and we stay focused and we work, but we don't kill ourselves doing it, and it really helps our bodies in so many ways. Feel for any tense spots. You want to feel if your shoulders are tight. If your hands are tight, if your toes are gripping your shoes, you're going to keep your breathing going. Because yes, we should be doing bursts or intervals, that's really good for us, especially as we get older. But sometimes you want to do more of this type of an endurance workout, an endurance walk. We're holding onto that intent pace. You're not out of breath, you're just working. You're in the rhythm. We're going to stay at this speed. One thing that's so great about this type of steady, longer movement or walk, is it's like an oil change for your joints. Of course. I always talk about how exercise and walking is like an oil change for your body and your brain, and you get fresh oxygen all over. But this is like an oil change for your joints. All the movement pumps fluid through your knees and hips, keeping them happy and strong. Keep them lubricated. Because a lot of times we sit too much. I know I sit way too much and the blood kind of pools and I feel stiff and uncomfortable and so this type of walking really helps keep those joints working the way they're supposed to. And as we're holding this pace, let's try a quick breathing trick. It's great for calming our nervous system even when your body's working. When I taught spin, even though I taught hard spin classes, I always made sure that people would come out of class feeling calm and happy. Even when we worked super hard, we wouldn't feel stressed about it. It was important to me that our bodies weren't stressed in a bad way. It was only positive stress. And so this is kind of what we're doing now. We're putting a little bit of positive stress on our bodies. And we're keeping our nervous system calm though at the same time. We're going to try to make your exhale a little bit longer than your inhale. So depending on your stride length, take a deep breath in for four steps and breathe out for six steps. Or you can just count to four a little bit slower. You're going to breathe in for four. And breathe out for six. And you can use that trick also when you're feeling stressed. In general, if you know you have to make a stressful phone call or just before you go into a stressful meeting, use that same breathing tip so you breathe in for four. And you exhale for six. You're going to relax your hands. There's no secret oranges to squeeze. Keep your shoulders down. A lot of times we store tension in our jaws and we don't realize it. So make sure your jaw is soft. Your tongue is soft. Nobody's looking at you. Keep your breathing going. We're getting to the main part of our walk. We're going to still hold that steady, doable pace. This is like the get things done later gear. This kind of a walk, this is your momentum, this is your you can keep going type of movement. So right after this you can do chores, you can do yard work because this will help rev up your energy and keep you going and not exhaust you. This is a tempo where you can talk. It's getting a little hard. You feel like your body's working, but it's not stressing out. Speaking of the right tempo. This reminds me, I was thinking about the story the other day that back in the eighties I was teaching aerobics and I had this bright aqua unitard, well, I also had a pink one, but I had a bright aqua unitard with these high cut, they weren't shorts. There were almost like bikini pants? Like high cut black bikini pants outside of the unitard. Obviously you have a little belt on top of those pants. It was like layers upon layers. And then we had the leg warmers, of course. And when I very first started teaching at the very first gym, we actually had a record player in the group exercise room. We didn't even have a tape deck, so I would have these 12 inch extended play singles and I would have to bring them with me to class. So I would put on a record and we would do, let's say the warmup and then I'd run over and I'd swap out the record and put, yes, I know this is actually how I had to teach a class and I had to put on the next record and do whatever, like legs or whatever we were doing, and then run back over and put on the next one. And that itself was a workout. And I don't know how I even did it, because I taught for years and years and years , you know, in between my 15 year break. And now I would get stressed out. I was young, I was an introvert. I was 18. How was I managing this? How was I managing to swap all these records out in the middle of class? It's dumbfounding, but you know, actually kind of proud of myself, I guess. And then we suddenly got a tape player and I could put all the music on one cassette. We had a pitch adjustment so if the song wasn't quite right, I could just bring up that pitch and make it a little bit faster. I could slow it down a little bit and just find that right tempo to work out and the intensity and the feeling that I wanted everybody to have, and that's what we're doing right here. We're finding that tempo that helps us feel good while we're working out. And we don't need to wear those aqua unitards with the little bikini pants on top. I just wish I had pictures of it. And of course, the permed hair, the Flock of Seagulls hair. Deep breath into your nose and exhale through your mouth. This type of an endurance walk is training our body to deliver that steady energy on demand. You know when people say, oh, I have energy all day. Oh, good for you. No. This is the type of workout that helps you get to that point.' You will have more energy all day because you're not exhausting yourself and you're constantly fueling your body with oxygen. You're going to roll your shoulders backwards now. Going to roll those shoulders forwards. Creak, creak, creak, creak. It's always one shoulder creaking more than the other. Shake out those hands. Can squeeze your glutes a little bit, settle into that pace and feel how good it feels to move at that pace. A little bit of work, not a lot of stress. So during this brisk, consistent pace that we're doing today, you should be able to talk but not sing. Although I did learn in spin that I could sing. Of course my heart rate was off the chart, but you're going to maintain that moderate intensity. This type of workout reduces your stress overall, and it really helps boost your mood and boost your energy. Because you're not feeling angry and and tired, like, when I do burpees - I don't do them anymore, but let's just pretend I do. I used to do burpees and I would feel all angry and tense afterwards. Well, this is not going to leave you feeling angry and tense. This is going to leave you feeling happier and more relaxed and more chillaxed. You got a workout, but you're not ready for CPR. It reduces your stress because the rhythmic nature of the walking helps lower your stress level and also boosts fat burning. We used to call it the fat burning state, a fat burning workout, the aerobic state when I did aerobics. But it is a fat burning state because your body starts to use that different kind of fuel system. It also helps you for recovery days. So let's say that you do go to the gym and you like to work out harder, but you want some days where you just want take it a little bit easier. You still want to work out, you want to prime that pump. You want to teach your body to use the fuel a little bit differently, and these are great to really help you on those recovery days. It also gives you some variety. One thing I like to say, and I wrote this in my book many years ago, is that you're surprising your body and you're shocking your body. A lot of times at the gym, I would see people do the same thing day in and day out, and your body adapts to that. Your body gets used to that, and you want to surprise your body. So if you do all endurance training like this, you're not going to see a lot of change over time. But if you do X amount of endurance training, this is not algebra. You do X amount of endurance training, and then you do some burst and you just vary it up and you surprise your body. So your body does not know what to expect. You want to keep it on its toes, and that's how you see real change overall, both in the way your body looks and the way that your body feels. Just change things up all the time. Going to stay with that same brisk pace. Check in for any tense spots. And with this type of training, you can still improve your aerobic capacity without the risk of injury. If you're always working in HIIT, high intensity interval training, you're going to eventually get tired and your form's going to slip, and then you're going to get injured. So this type of workout is great to really prime that aerobic pump and make you stronger without constantly stressing your body and putting yourself at risk. Keep your breathing going now. If we go way back to my aerobic days again we did high impact and then high low combo and then low impact and then eventually step. But what I gravitated to naturally was kind of what we're doing now, is no matter what it was that I did I would start with a warmup and then we get to like the plateau of the steady state, and then we'd stay there through different movements, maybe peak it a little bit and stay there. And then we bring it down into the cool down. And that just worked well for so many people. They felt stronger. A lot of times with something that's very hard, like HIIT, you can't do it. It's really hard and then you feel like a failure. But with this kind of a walk, you're going further, you're going stronger, but you can do it. And so that's like a little win for you. You're going to feel more energized. You've built up that momentum like we talked about. You can keep that momentum going. You know, when you get back from your walk, you can do your chores, do yard work, whatever you want to do. You've got that ball rolling. You're going to keep it rolling because you're not going to be completely wiped out. As I like to say, energy is a one thing that we can spend, and spend and spend, and we keep getting more. So if you try that with your money, like I could just go out and spend and spend and spend, but more money is not automatically going to come back in my bank account. I mean, if you found a way, let me know, but that doesn't work for me. Feel for any tense spots again in your body. You didn't wear yourself out today, you recharged. You are going to feel better, you're going to feel strong, hopefully in a better mood. Mean you might be in exceptional mood already, but I always feel better when I exercise. When I take that time and just moving my body, and sometimes when I don't do it, I just really miss it. And with these kind of workouts, you can almost build up a craving, like your body needs to do this movement. And you can also swim in the summer when it's warm. You can do a 30 minute swim. I I do breast stroke because I, I don't remember how to crawl. My ex-husband used to make fun of me in a funny way, he said, you know, Helen swims a breaststroke because that's how they swim in Norway. So they can look at the fjords. And I'm like, no, no. That is absolutely not true. But I do like, I mean, I like to look around. So maybe there was some truth. I don't know. Slow it down a little bit more. Feel for any tense spots again. Shake out those hands. Find ways to keep moving in your day. Try to schedule a few of these be cause technically we need about 150 minutes a week. And I know that sounds like a lot of some kind of exercise, but it's really not that much in the scheme of things. And if you fit in a couple of these, maybe two a week, you've got 60 minutes right there. So you're almost halfway. We're halfway there. Oh, living on a prayer and just if you fit in some quick workouts or some quick walks, 10-15 minutes throughout the day, then suddenly you've got your 150 minutes. Or if you have a walking pad, you can watch TV and you can go for a nice walk. Slow it down a little more now. Roll those shoulders backwards. Roll those shoulders forwards. Shake out your hands again, relax your feet. Keep that breathing going. Do me a favor and tap, follow or subscribe, so that way next week's walk is waiting for you and I will see you next time.