Wet Nose Guide Blog

(source: opacity)

There is a REAL crisis in America at the moment and no it’s not terrorism, North Korea, or even the economy–it’s something more “homegrown”–obesity! I know that I am going to sound ignorant and pretentious all at the same time, but WTF happened to America where we can’t even take care of our own bodies? Are we that lazy? Do we want to let the rest of the world make fun of our jelly-rolls? (and remember it wasn’t cool in grade school, and on a world-stage it feels even worse)

(source: Rob!)

I just read this report and I am disgusted.  There so many little things that people can do that will overall have a greater impact on their health–walking your dog is one of them.  I will quantifiably prove that walking your dog will help you shed pounds instead of shedding $$$ by getting a dog walker.

First, I checked on Yahoo Answers to see how many miles per day people should be walking their dogs and 3 miles seems about average for three walks a day, so a mile or so per walk.

Then, I used this calorie calculator to find out an approximate calories burned when doing previously mentioned activity.  For all intensive purposes (I am going to use an extremely obese individual as an example)–say you’re approximately 300 lbs and you walk your dog in 17 minutes, which yields a loss of 163 calories.  Three times a day that’s 489 calories. 17 minutes for three times a day can easily be done even if you work (before work, right after work, and before bed), so you can’t use that as an excuse.  Also, if you have a family, walking together is a healthy bonding experience.

With the money saved (average $10 an hour for a dog walker x 7 days a week = $70), you can afford to buy healthier food.  Fresh fish instead of frozen fried patties.  Fresh veggies instead of french fries.  Boneless chicken breasts instead of chicken with the skin on–I can go on and on.

The main point of this post is that exercising gives you energy and overall is healthy for your dog (please see a previous post in regards to obese dogs).

Also, with the instance of dog walking, you will save money that can be applied towards a healthier lifestyle, which will in effect help you lose even more weight and allow you to run with your dog if you stick with this routine.

Tags: budget tips, dog walking, Obesity, save money

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 20th, 2009 at 8:29 am and is filed under Doggie Advice, Doggie How To Guides, Healthcare. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.