LoraJC- I am new to posting, but have been a lurker here for a long time and before that I was on the Cathe forum and I remember you posed a great tip about mascara
that I have used from that day forward! I saw your post about walking and weight loss (earlier) and decided to create an i.d. to post.
I have had a lot of ups and downs for illness, injury and other reasons with exercise. I have felt down a lot about not being the champ exerciser at times I was at an earlier time in my life.
Walking has really worked well for me, just as others have posted.
I found that shoes didn't matter or the questions you ask about how to do it to fuel weight loss, i.e. pumping arms, etc. but I found that just finding a way to connect with walking and drop the self-judgement really made me move forward.
As a longtime exercise, the details, like pumping arms, wearing weighted gloves, doing intervals, using music, not using music -->they are all good ideas and different things work at different times. But for me, it was a kind of unhappiness that whatever I tried would not work, so I had a hard time being consistent, until I got back into a new groove and didn't compare it to my old groove.
I have liked using a pedometer. It's motivating for me. I have a fitbit now mostly because I kept losing cheaper ones and thought I'd spring for a fitbit and be motivated not to lose it.
I had some foot problems, too. For awhile I would walk outdoors wearing Sanuk shoes. For a steady paced walk outside on flat surfaces, they made me feel kind of free, no socks, no expensive 5-toe shoes, but me and my feet and wanting to be active again but not feeling up to it.
I hope this helps.