Welcome to Walking.org

Walking.org is the complete resource for walking, health and diet, created by Les Snowdon and Maggie Humphreys. Since the early 1990s, Les and Maggie have been at the forefront of initiatives to promote the benefits of walking for fitness, weight-loss and long-term health. Their books have been international bestsellers and they have been interviewed and featured more than 200 times in the press, in magazines, and on radio and TV. Their books are the ultimate guides to fitness walking, healthy eating and stress-free living. You can view and buy their books online – find out more about their walking books.

Les and Maggie are also the creators of www.edontheweb.com, an online reading club for children aged 5-11. Ed is a lovable blue owl! Each month in Ed’s Reading Room, recently published books are selected for the different age groups as Ed’s Books of the Month. There are also reviews, specially written literacy activities to accompany each book and author interviews. For further details about Ed’s Reading Room, contact Maggie on 01753 730019 or email her at mgh@edontheweb.com.

Why We Love Walking by Maggie Humphreys

Fitness walking is easy, safe and inexpensive. It’s aerobic, it burns calories, and it’s an ideal fat-burning activity. It conditions the heart, improves muscle tone and strength, relieves stress, and can help with back pain, osteoporosis, respiratory problems, diabetes, arthritis, cardiac rehabilitation and a variety of other health problems. Walking is an injury-free way for the over 50s to keep fit, and fit kids are fitter when all the family walks together.

Like millions of other people, we used to be overweight and unfit and we were tired of trying every exercise and diet routine under the sun – jogging, cycling, swimming, squash, skipping, exercise bikes and a dozen other exercise and diet routines available in print and video. We were part of the 90 per cent of people who continually fail. We were tired, bored and we had made little progress in losing weight and getting fit. Until we discovered fitness walking.

We had always loved walking, but we had tended to walk at weekends when we had more time. Discovering fitness walking was like finding the Holy Grail of fitness. Instead of waiting for the weekend, we decided to get out and walk four or five times a week, starting at our own front door and doing a circuit around the block and back. And we set out to walk at a brisker pace, stepping up our speed to 3.5 to 4 miles per hour.

Within a month we were regularly doing 30 minute walks several times a week, and we had more energy to get through the day. We felt fitter and more alert and with the healthier diet we had begun, the pounds were beginning to drop off. The rest, as they say, is history. We put our fitness walking experiences down on paper and they became a popular bestseller.

What Walkers say about Us

We hope that this website helps walkers from enthusiasts to novices to enjoy the benefits of walking. Here are some comments that walkers have said who have followed our fitness walking plans:

• ‘The walking was excellent. After a week you felt so good, much fitter with endless energy. You wanted to get up in the mornings and get going.’ – Teresa
• ‘I loved the walking. I had great energy.’ – Julie
• ‘I was always tired before I started walking.’ – Val
• ‘I have had more energy. I feel better because I am walking.’ – Barbara
• ‘Two months ago I could not run up a hill with my grandchildren. I can now. Climbing stairs was difficult. Now it’s easy.’ – Beryl
• ‘I have more energy now than I’ve ever had.’ – Jan