Twalking is a great opportunity for Enfield residents, who are registered with a GP, to explore the beauty of the local area and talk with people whilst increasing their daily activity.
The Twalking challenge, which begins on Monday 23 January, involves a minimum of teams of three coming together to virtually walk 426 miles up the Scafell Pike, the highest peak in England, within ten weeks. To build up these walking miles, participants will be walking around Enfield, discovering the beauty of the streets and parks.
Clinical evidence shows that walking 22 minutes per day reduces the risk of serious illness, including type 2 diabetes, stroke, cancer, osteoarthritis, and coronary heart disease and can lower risk of an early death by up to 30%.
Walking is also an excellent way to boost self-esteem, lift mood, improve sleep, and reduce the risk of dementia, stress, and clinical depression.
Each team must have one person who fits into ONE of the following categories:
- Be the main carer for someone who is ill.
- Have a cardiovascular risk factor – for example they are a smoker, overweight, or have a long-term condition such as diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol.
- Have a chronic physical or mental illness such as Parkinson’s, COPD, depression, schizophrenia, or anxiety.
- Be over 60 years old or older.
The other two team members of the team can be friends, colleagues, family, or anyone willing to encourage someone they care about to increase their daily walks.
Remember, the less walking you are doing now, the more benefit you will gain from walking just a few minutes per day!
Once you have a team of three participants ready, you can nominate a captain and sign up on the Twalking website.
The overall objective of the challenge is for each team to walk at least three miles per day collectively, in the outdoors, and to talk to each other during each walk to improve their health and wellbeing. There is also the option to use ‘bonuses’, which once completed, adds seven miles to each member of the team’s weekly walking distance. Bonuses are ways of caring for yourself, others, or the environment, such as completing daily meditation.
Health care professionals, social workers, and representatives from the voluntary sector will also participate in the Twalking challenge and assist Enfield residents with achieving their goals.
For more information on the Twalking challenge or adding bonuses visit the Twalking website.