"Life walking" is more than walking for exercise and fitness objectives. It's the larger ideal of using walking to change your life.

The objective for this New Year is simple: Get moving. Dont wait. Time is running out on your sedentary lifestyle. What can you do to make this year count for your weight loss goals - and your life walking? Two simple things at least:

One: If youre the type who is doing absolutely nothing right now, please start to do some walking regularly. Any walking at all contributes to physical activity and well-being. If youre already modestly active, then do a little more every day and youll feel great. You will lose weight but gain something else - a life walking!

Two: Walking is the numero uno activity you should focus on. Sure, there are millions of other choices for exercise, but we all know of people who are waiting till they find the "best exercise". How many of them are in fact wasting more time looking, rather than finding? That kind of ultra-perfectionism in choices leads nowhere.

If youre like the rest of us, the so-called "formal exercise" may not be part of your inclination or even your must-do agenda. But life walking can be. Remember, even if its just to and from the front door, you are already a walker. You have been a walker since you took your first steps as a baby. All you have to do is more of it.

It's a strange fact that in 2005 we have to tell people to walk more. But humans have spent so many centuries reducing their need to walk, that it's now become necessary to tell people they have to "return to life walking".

The industrial age, the automobiles we have, the tele-commuting we now do, the dial-a-life we now ring for everything - and the zillion other similar "conveniences" we have added to our lives ... these have all now become the collective cause for the greatest "inconvenience" we can have hoped to have - disease!

Every passing year, technology encourages us in the life of a "Sit Where You Are And Be Served, Oh Master!" kind of existence we have built for ourselves.

Fine. Let's look at the bright side. We no longer have to walk for the conduct of our lives. We have to now walk for life!

I would like to stress that you should make walking a part of how you live every day, not make it an exercise project. Its not a chore. Its not an obligation either. Its not even something to consciously think about. It's become an imperative!

One year from now how actively would you be able to say you have lived life?

Say, youre downstairs and need something from upstairs: Would you yell for someone to get it for you, or would you be sure to bound upstairs and get it yourself without a second thought? Not because you have to, but because it feels good to move again - a long-forgotten skill and thrill revived.

When you actually start looking for chances to move, not ways to avoid it, youll know you have come full circle. By then, your body will surely reflect this weight loss and dynamism too. Importantly, your life will also feel lighter.

"Movement is in your nature. Just put it in your routine." is what Mark Fenton says in his book "The Complete Guide to Walking".

I'd add: Instead of pursuing mere weight loss, remember there's a bigger revival crying for your attention - today, decide instead to regenerate the life walking!