Whatever your age or fitness level, walking is one of the easiest ways to stay healthy and active. Great for both your physical and mental health, you can do it without buying fancy equipment or slogging away for hours at the gym. It's important to stay active while you're pregnant and, as long as you feel comfortable, walking is a simple and safe way for pregnant women to stay healthy too.

As the popularity of fitness apps and watches grows, setting a number of steps per day to reach is a great motivator for walkers. Here are a few of our favourite ways to sneak in those extra steps.

Break it up

If you are trying to do 10,000 steps in a day, it won't often happen in one hit. Try and do lots of walking "spurts" throughout the day, they all add up!

Don't email when you can walk

If you need to speak to someone in your office, wander over and speak face-to-face instead of sending them an email.

Park further away

Instead of squabbling for a parking space near the front of the supermarket, park near the back and get those extra steps.

Be accountable

It's easier to give up when nobody knows what you're doing. Tell and involve your friends, post updates on your social media and be accountable for your healthier choices!

Take the stairs

Avoid escalators and lifts and rack up some steps instead! 

Take your dog for a walk

Your pooch will love the extra time outdoors too. Don't have a dog? Go along with a friend who is walking theirs! 

Set an hourly alarm

Many fitness trackers have hourly buzzers to get you up and moving. Activate them and add to your average steps per day.

Take a walk after dinner

Instead of flopping in front of the TV or computer, take thirty minutes and enjoy an evening stroll.

Walk for charity

Do yourself some good while you do good for others! This one’s a win-win. 

Walk when you don't need to drive

If you live within walking distance of your workplace or are just nipping to the shops, it will help energise you if you walk. Not only that, it's a more sustainable choice of transportation and saves you fuel costs.

With a little ingenuity and a few tricks up your sleeve, it becomes easy (and even fun!) to incorporate more walking into your daily routine. By taking on just a couple of these ideas, you’ll be sure to turn your daily step goal into reality before you know it!

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You can take on a step-tacular challenge this Spring and help save babies' lives

You can choose the number of steps you'd like to aim for, but we recommend setting yourself a goal of at least 6000 steps per day. Most people walk just over one mile for every 2000 steps they take, meaning you'd be covering at least 3.5 miles per day!

By the end of the two-week challenge, you will have walked at least 50 miles - that's the same as walking from the Royal Observatory in London to Brighton Pier.

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