It doesn’t just take place in your doctor’s office. Health happens at home, at work and in social circumstances.
The cheapest and simplest way to start improving your health is to start walking. It doesn’t require any special fundraising or skills, just the ability to walk. Americans don’t walk as much as people in other countries.
Evolution of Girl Trek
Girl Trek started with two friends who regularly walked together and decided to form an online group. It is now a nationwide organization of 60,000 women who have walking campaigns and community leadership. These African American women are walking their way to better health. Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth walked African Americans out of slavery. Civil rights marches for freedom incorporated walking. Girl Trek ties African American walking history to the fight for better health.
Sixty-seven percent of African American women engage in little or no leisure time physical activity. Eighty-two percent are currently overweight and 53 percent are mortally obese.
Girl Trek is changing behavior by encouraging walking and talking to friends. Kids learn healthy habits by joining the walks. Women meet one another within neighborhoods, building community and relationships. Women who shed pounds are also shedding emotional weight.
Walk for Physical, Mental & Emotional Health
Rates of heart disease, diabetes and hypertension are higher in African American and minority communities. Raising awareness to get people moving can help reduce these rates.
Walking once a day can help with physical and emotional health. Reduce stress by incorporating movement into your life.
For change to be sustainable, it has to be meaningful. It should also be fun.
Listen in as Dr. Benjamin shares how you can get moving, as well as the great work Girl Trek is doing.
Regina Benjamin, MD, MBA, is the Founder and CEO of BayouClinic, Inc., as well as the NOLA.com/Times Picayune Endowed Chair of Public Health Sciences at Xavier University of Louisiana, and from 2009-2013, served as the United States 18th Surgeon General. She specializes in prevention policies and health promotion among individuals as well as large populations, especially concerning obesity, childhood obesity, and children’s health. She has special interest in rural health care, health disparities among socio-economic groups, suicide, violence, and mental health.