Leslie Sansone - Walk Away the Pounds: The Breakthrough 6-Week Program That Helps You Burn Fat, Tone Muscle, and Feel Great Without Dieting

Neither this exercise program nor any other exercise program should be followed without first consulting a health-care professional. If you have any special conditions requiring attention, you should consult with your health-care professional regularly regarding possible modification of the program contained in this book.

Copyright 2005 by Walk Aerobics, Inc.

All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

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First Trade Edition: December 2005

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ISBN: 978-1-59995-207-9

If You Can Walk - You CanWalk Away the Pounds

Leslies energy, enthusiasm, and passion for walking are unparalleledher program is simple and it really works!

Jane Chesnutt, editor in chief, Womans Day

Leslies walking programs are always a big hit with our clientseasy to follow, informative, and fun!

Scott Parker, vice president of marketing, Jenny Craig

Ive been walking with Leslie Sansone for years. Her system delivers results and her positive spirit shines through. When I walk with Leslie, I feel energetic and I enjoy every moment!

Jackie Zeman, actress, General Hospital

I cant begin to express how wonderful Leslie Sansone is and how much our members love her. The excitement and energy she creates in a room is overwhelming. Her love and compassion are also very evident. The word that best describes Leslie is AWESOME.

Lily Files, TOPS Regional Director

WALKING IS MANS BEST MEDICINE.

HIPPOCRATES

THE HEART OF THE MATTER

SHE WALKS IN BEAUTY, LIKE THE NIGHT OF CLOUDLESS CLIMES AND STARRY SKIES; AND ALL THATS BEST OF DARK AND BRIGHT MEET IN HER ASPECT AND HER EYES

LORD BYRON

Walk Away Those Pounds!

Congratulations! By picking up this book, you have already made a statement about what you value in life. Youve taken one small step away from being a couch potato or a desk potato, and one step toward a life of looking great, feeling great, and taking charge of your goals. True, its only one small step, but that is how you start. In this book Ill teach you how to take more and more steps. Most of the things Ill show you are so simple that you wont even realize youre taking steps until you look back and see how far youve come. Sound too good to be true? Quite the opposite. As Ive been showing people for twenty-five years, its as easy as putting one foot in front of the other.

Walking is a miraculous thing. We tend to take it for granted, but just look at a toddler. When she takes those first wobbly steps, that look on her face is pure magic. It says, Gee, this is fun! It says, Im one of you now! And it says, This is exactly what I should be doing! We human beings are designed to walkand walk a lot. So many factors in our modern lifestyle cars, remote controls, desk jobswork against that, but youll be amazed by how many good things fall into place once you make walking a regular part of your life. Fat melts away. Clothes fit. Food tastes better. Health problems disappear. Mood improves. Sex is more fun. Energy levels soar. Sleep becomes deep and satisfying. Stress evaporates. As it is for a toddler, life becomes something to embrace each morning, rather than a daily grind. And this is all because of exercise.

If exercise can do all this for us, then why doesnt everybody get some? Well, that is the bone I have to pick with the modern fitness industry. Watching those ultrafit pros do their intense workouts has never been terribly inspiring to me. I know that kind of body requires hours of dedication every dayand who has that kind of free time? Walking is my business, but you know what? I still need to squeeze my exercise in around driving the kids to baseball and softball practice, finding the pet lizard that has escaped his cage again, putting a nutritious dinner on the table, and being at my best for the meetings, public events, and decisions that make up my work life.

And heres the secret. It isnt hard to fit exercise in, because you dont need hours a day. You dont need six-pack abs. You arent auditioning to be a stunt double in the next Charlies Angels. Just give yourself fifteen minutes a day, for starters, and all the benefits will follow: the trimmer tummy, tighter muscles, lower blood pressure, reduced stress levels, and the satisfied feeling at the end of the day, knowing that you took another step forward.

I cant tell you how many hundreds of women have written to me, telling me the stories of how they lost real weighttwenty pounds, forty, sixty, even one hundredfollowing my walking program. Youll meet many of them in this book, hear their stories, and see their transformations. Starting by walking just one mile or lessthese women walked away the pounds and kept them off. I think the reason so many women have success with my system is because it is so easy, so gentle, yet so effective. You dont have to be coordinated. You dont have to learn any complicated poses or routines. You just put one foot in front of the other and walk, walk, walk.

THE PERFECT EXERCISE

When I began teaching aerobics classes in the 1980s, I didnt set out to change the way people exercise. I just taught the dance-aerobics programs I had learned. But over time, I gravitated toward walking and developed my own program, because that was what worked for almost everyone, regardless of size or fitness level. No matter how out of shape they were when they started, people lost weight through walking and became healthier and happier in the process.

What is it about walking that makes it more successful than other exercises? Part of it is the simplicity. Everyone can walk. Its so easy, in fact, that some people are skeptical about whether you can really get in shape by just walking. But studies are confirming what Ive suspected all along: walking is excellent exercise. According to the New England Journal of Medicine, walking just thirty minutes a day, three times a week, reduces the risk of death from all natural causes by 55 percent! Walking also keeps you in the midrange of aerobic activity, where fat oxidation is most efficient. Thats right: You burn more fat through low-intensity sports like walking than through intense activities that leave you gasping for breath, such as weight lifting or high-energy aerobics. Not only that but you also continue to burn fat after walking. And once youve been walking for a few weeks, youll have raised your metabolic rate, so that you burn more calories all the time, even when youre sitting or sleeping!

Then there are the things that dont happen when youre walking. You dont crash. You dont get injured. You dont compete against someone else.

You also dont go broke. Too many people are hesitant to start exercising because they think it will be expensive and intimidating. Many people dont want to invest in fancy home equipment and arent comfortable in a fitness club environment. Not a problem. Just lace up a decent pair of sneakers in your living room and you are ready to walk.