While on holiday recently, I got chatting about walking with a young British couple staying at our hotel. The girl was very open about her community’s attitude towards walking in an everyday way. She said that they viewed walking anywhere as a bit un-cool, not really the ‘done thing’; that the implication was that the person walking had less money or a lower status. Instead, they preferred to drive everywhere in their large cars – because they were more comfortable than walking, and more of a status symbol.

I wanted to groan – but I had to admit that it’s important to acknowledge these ideas as very common in the world in which we live. It seems to me that getting in a big gas-guzzling car to drive around the corner does make a statement – but that statement isn’t “Look at me, I’m successful”; instead it’s “Look at me, I don’t care about the environment or my waistline, I just care about what you think about how much money I have”!

Walking is cool – very cool. And it’s getting cooler – in fact, walking is the new status symbol because it makes so much common sense and implies much nicer things about the person doing the walking. Human beings are made for walking – it’s entirely natural to us. What’s more, if it’s money that’s important, we’d all certainly have a lot more if we were walking for free instead of spending our hard-earned cash on ever more expensive petrol!

So if you haven’t done it for a while and it doesn’t feel very natural to you because your body has adapted to a sitting position more than a walking one, why not join the walking revolution? It’s the way of the future and you’ll see the benefits quite quickly. All you have to do is get on your feet, put on a comfortable pair of shoes, and walk round the block. Just a short walk is fine to start with – it doesn’t need to be uncomfortable. Then do it again tomorrow, and eventually work your way up to five times a week. Perhaps you could walk to the shops with a backpack on and pick up your shopping in smaller chunks rather than one big shop a week that needs the car to carry it home? You’ll start to notice your petrol costs going down, your calf muscles toning up, and you should get a lovely self-satisfied feeling inside that you’re doing the right thing!

Feel free to boast to your friends and family about the good that you’re doing – you should be proud! And if some technology would make your new walking regime feel even cooler, you could download our Walk4Life App for free, which will record all your walks and tell you how many calories you’ve burned in the process.

If you’re still looking for a way of making a statement as you walk, how about finding an iconic umbrella to carry with you? It’ll be much more of a talking point – after all, big flashy cars are becoming so ‘last season’ nowadays!