Prevention Magazine’s Walking Calculator

I’m not sure if this is good news or bad news. A dose of reality for me, I’m afraid. I’ve been browsing Prevention Magazine’s website, which is packed with helpful ideas, and I checked out their walking calculator.

You type in your weight and how many minutes you plan to walk, along with the type of walking: such as walking for pleasure, walking with children, walking with dog, race walking, hiking, backpacking, birdwatching, etc.

I normally walk with my dog — and now I’ve learned that walking for a half-hour with my dog only burns 95 calories. YIKES! That’s nothing. That makes me think twice about eating that bag of chips.

I’m happy to tell you, though, that today I ran all my errands in my Target jogging suit (which is actually kind of stylish), and one of my errands was stopping off for my half-hour workout at Curves. I did it. I worked all my muscles, listened to music, talked to women twice my age and younger — and had a blast. They tell us at Curves that a half-hour workout burns 500 calories. More than walking my dog — but hey, a dog’s gotta stay lively too. :)