National Walking Month

As the sun starts to come out more, the hotter the days get. It’s time to get those sun hats and hiking boots out that you’ve been storing away for so long through winter as we celebrate National Walking Month!

National Walking Month can be celebrated in many different ways. Maybe it’s walking your kids to school or taking a two hour hike, it doesn’t matter how long or short your walk is, every step counts!

Finding the motivation to walk

You may be someone who finds it difficult to find the motivation to go walking. Well don’t worry as I can assure you that you’re not the only one. Some great tips to get a little motivation to go walking might be to find a partner to go with, reward yourself for reaching milestones and find new routes and have fun exploring those new routes.

What are the benefits of walking?

By walking at least 20 minutes you could help improve cardiovascular fitness, strengthen your bones and muscles and help to reduce stress. Walking can give you the time and space to relax and let your worries go away for a short while. This can be really beneficial to clear your mind and have a different perspective on things that you may have been worried or stressed about.

But, you don’t have to do it on your own. Get your family to join you on a walk. Now I can appreciate that for some parents it’s easier said than done. So why not make it even more fun for them. A great idea could be to create a quiz for your kids to find different animals, plants and objects during your walk, or even better let your kids be creative and create their own quizzes.

Walking with your family can also come with many benefits. It gives everyone a chance to spend some quality time with each other, it keeps everyone active and helps improve sleep for both adults and kids. If that doesn’t make you want to go on a family walk, I'm not sure what will!

How can you help raise money this month by walking?

CCLG (Children's Cancer and Leukaemia Group) is a fundraising group who support and raise money for young children who have Cancer. By taking part this May you can help support children with cancer and the money will go towards helping children and their families.

You could take part in the #try20 challenge. This might be of interest to you if you like a challenge! We’re challenging you to walk for at least 20 minutes each day this May.

Or why not try and walk to school this month instead of driving (if you’re able to). By this you’re helping your kids to become more energetic and ready to start the day. Also by doing this you could donate what you would have used on travel costs to CCLG.

If you would like to read more or donate money for CCLG you can do this through National Walking Month - #WalKThisMay (cclg.org.uk)