It's not a fashion faux pas to wear sneakers with a skirt at Lake Eola at lunch time.
"Taking a brisk walk for about 30 minutes a day can benefit both lowering your blood pressure and reducing your LDL or bad cholesterol,” said Colleen Roblin, American Heart Association volunteer.
That's why the American Heart Association launched Start! It's a program to encourage people to walk everyday, even at work.
"It's mind numbing when you're sitting there staring at a computer screen,” said walker Carey Longo. “You're staring at a spreadsheet. You're staring at all this information on your screen and when I get up, my eyes feel so much better, go back to the computer and feel refreshed and start again and I feel so much more productive after I walk."
Longo works for Hewitt Associates in East Orlando. They recently implemented the Start! program here. Stickers are placed every 50 feet through out the building to map out a route.
"We’ve gone around our hallways and mapped out walking paths of a 1/4 mile, 1/2mile, 3/4 mile and a mile,” said Brad Crandell, Orlando Location Leader at Hewitt Associates.
"I spend maybe 15 minutes eating and then I get a group of friends together and we walk throughout the building,” Longo said.
If your company doesn't have an indoor walking program you can always pack up your comfortable shoes and head to your favorite park. Walking once around Lake Eola is the same as walking a mile.
"Our life expectancy is increased by two hours for every hour that we walk," Roblin said.
The American Heart Association says walking helps get extra weight off and keep it off.
That's Your Health and Fitness, Nancy Gay Central Florida News 13.