After your meal

After your meal … take a walk. Or better yet, take a walk to your meal.

To stay healthy you must be active.

A good introduction to exercise and health is found in the book “Younger Next Year” by Chris Crowley and Harry Lodge.

Our bodies are designed for living as humans did 100,000 years ago. That’s why we follow a Perfect Health Diet. And it’s also why we have to be active.

“Biologically, there is no such thing as retirement, or even aging. There is only growth or decay,” Lodge writes in the “Younger Next Year” book. Having a sedentary lifestyle is “the most important signal for decay.”

“In the absence of signals to grow, your body and brain decay, and you age,” Lodge says.

What can we do? “It starts with exercise,” Lodge continues. “Exercise — the physical work of hunting and foraging — has always been the single most powerful signal we can send that life is good; that it’s spring and time to grow.”

Walking is the near-perfect exercise. That’s part of the reason for the popularity of the 10,000-step programs and fitness trackers like the Fitbit Charge HR. The Fitbit is a fancy pedometer that has some bells and whistles that can help you stay motivated. A pedometer-based walking program is an easy way to get started doing regular exercise.

The pedometer is like your personal trainer. Studies show that people who use a pedometer are more active. You don’t need a $150 Fitbit to do pedometer-based walking. A basic pedometer that you can put in your pocketbook or bag or clip to a belt is all that you need. The Omron Alvita Ultimate does that, it is accurate and durable and costs about $22. Use it every day, write down the daily number, after seven days add up the total, divide by 7 and get your daily average. Soon you’ll be averaging 10,000 steps a day.