• Schedule regular walks in a PDA or calendar. This helps to ensure that you have a set time every day for walking.

• Check with your doctor to make sure a walking program is safe for you.

• Start slowly if you need to—just get started. “Just get up and walk around the block,” Richardson says. “Somewhere between three and four miles an hour should be your goal, but if you have to work up to that gradually, it’s better to walk slowly than to do nothing.”

‘Walking is easy and inexpensive’
Like Wallace and Richardson, community members Carol and Bob Davis, who moved from Troy, are firm believers in the benefits of walking.

Bob Davis walks an average of four miles a day, while his wife walks one.

“We do it five times a week. I usually walk after dinner,” Carol Davis says.

The couple often walks together in the evening, either inside or outside, around the campus’ perimeter.

“It’s good exercise,” she says. “Walking is easy and inexpensive…you just put on a pair of tennis shoes and go.”

Carol Davis isn’t a big fan of cold weather, so being able to keep up with her walking indoors at the community is important.

“Even if it’s raining or snowing, we can still walk indoors here,” she says.

The couple often visits friends for a minute or two during their nightly journeys.“

We stop and talk to people we know…it’s like one big happy family here,” she says.

Besides walking, Carol and Bob also do weight training three times a week; Bob Davis also enjoys golfing and square dancing.

Even though Bob Davis does about 20 miles of walking on campus every week compared to her five, Carol Davis feels great about her walking routine.

“One mile is good enough for me. I feel good afterwards,” she says.

It’s never too late to start walking
With health benefits galore, inspiration from new Wellness Coordinator Matthew Wallace, and an endless supply of comfortable walking spaces on campus, indoors or out, it’s easy to see why so many community members exude vibrancy as they take their surroundings ‘in stride.’