Across the UK it is Walk to Work Week, which encourages people to (you guessed it) walk to and from work!  Not only that, it asks people to log their steps/minutes/miles online and compare their miles with other people in their work place.  You can join a team or go it alone, either way it is a fantastic initiative to get desk-sitters to use their bodies!

Now that sitting has been dubbed the ‘new smoking’, it is more important than ever to keep active where you can.  If you have a meeting to go to, why not walk there? Have to go to another floor in the building, why not take the stairs rather than the elevator?  Make sure you take breaks where you get up and walk, be that to the toilet or to grab a cup of coffee.  All of these things make a massive difference to your health.

Not only is it better for your own health if you walk more regularly, it is also great for the environment.  It means one more car off the road every day! 

The Walk to Work Week Website is a brilliant motivator too.  You can check how many calories you used up (which it joyfully converts into how many blueberry muffins you have you have burned), how many times you have gone round a 400m running track and how many kg of CO2 you have saved by walking.

If you can do this for one week, what is to stop you from doing it the week after?  And the week after that?

I am fortunate in that I live just under 2 miles away from my place of work, which means it is very possible for me to walk in and get a good 25/30 minute walk before and after work.  In just 2 days I have logged almost 8 miles, 1.4 muffins, 31.5 times round a running track and saved 1.65kg of CO2.

If you walk to work, why not sign up and contribute to the global goal of walking around the equator as many times as possible!  If you don’t walk to work, maybe try it one day this week and walk to the next meeting you have to go to instead of jumping in the car.

Durham University has clocked up over 87 miles in the past 2 days and it is only going to get better!  Come and join us at walktoworkweek.org.uk!

--Amelia
Retail Intern