Research backs her up about the benefits of walking. In the past 5 years alone, studies have reported that regular walking can help formerly inactive types lose weight; prevent or help control diabetes; strengthen bones; lower blood pressure, “bad” cholesterol levels, and heart attack and stroke risk; cut the odds of developing breast cancer; and fend off depression and anxiety. One recent study that tracked more than 9,500 women for 6 years found that those who were physically active–mostly from walking–were half as likely to die of heart disease, stroke, cancer, and other leading causes of death as those who were sedentary. Marcus has encountered her share of skeptics, those who can’t believe that “just walking” (as they put it) can do so much. Her advice: Try it–it’s free, and the benefits of walking are amazing. Here, to inspire you to give it a try, the stories of some women who did just that. Healing Herself Name: Yvonne Young Age: 50 What walking did:Helped her lose 50 pounds, controlled her diabetes without insulin injections, lowered her blood pressure “Nurses make the worst patients–I’m a perfect example of that,” says Yvonne Young, a nurse in Lithonia, GA, a small city of 2,200 in the middle of the state’s granite belt. It had been years since Lombard had exercised regularly. She’d done a lot of hiking in her 20s but had let that drop after she got busy with nursing school and then her career. “And when I started walking again, I realized I’d lost something when I stopped,” she explains. “I wanted to reclaim that.” More than a year after her surgery, Lombard continues to log 30 minutes 3 or 4 days a week. All indications are that she is cancer-free. Nevertheless, she says she isn’t taking her health for granted anymore. “After I was diagnosed, I realized that heart disease, diabetes, and osteoporosis could be ahead of me, too,” says Lombard, who is single. “And I wanted to do things that would make me healthier. Walking was one of those things.” She made other changes as well, cutting out white bread and adding more fruits and vegetables to her diet. In just over a year, the 5-foot-9-inch Lombard lost 30 pounds, dropping to 165. This past summer, she and friends hiked the boulder-strewn slopes of Mt. St. Helens. She followed the trip with a first: 3 days of kayaking through the San Juan Islands, in the green-blue waters between Seattle and Vancouver. She enjoyed it so much, she promptly signed up for a kayaking course. In the fall, she bought herself a kayak–a reward for all she’d been through the previous year. “Kayaking,” Lombard says, “is as close as you can get to walking on water.”
