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Fact Sheet
What is Walk Across Northwest Georgia?
Walk Across Northwest Georgia is a celebration of walking, physical activity and healthy lifestyles. It promotes healthy people, healthy communities and healthy families. Walk Across Northwest Georgia is raising region-wide awareness of the important role of physical activity in improving health and the availability of walking places in our communities.
Participate in Walk Across Northwest Georgia by :
1. Taking The Challenge
2. Taking a walk or a hike ~ visit these many walking and hiking destinations
3. Take a walking tour
The Challenge
The Challenge is a six-week walking program to keep participants stepping. Participants will track their steps using a pedometer or track their minutes or miles.
Take The Walk Across Northwest Georgia Challenge
Take The Challenge to improve your health. The Challenge is a six-week walking program that supports your efforts to walk regularly and continue walking. It will help you look better, live longer and feel great!
It’s easy to participate.
Download The Walking Packet
which will provide all the details.
You may also call us and we will send you The Walking Packet.
1. Choose to track steps, miles or minutes
2. Determine your average daily steps in week one
3. Set a goal to increase daily steps, and record your progress
4. Attend Walk Across Northwest Georgia walking events, take walks, hikes or walking tours.
Why walk?
- Walking is a safe, low impact, affordable form of physical activity you can do anytime, anywhere and for life.
- Walking for transportation will help your budget.
- Walking can lower your risk of diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure and high cholesterol.
- Walking can boost your energy, relieve tension and lower your stress.
- Walking allows you to mingle with others, which contributes to a sense of belonging.
- Walking allows you to really live—enjoying the outdoors, the seasons and special places.
- Walking slows the aging effect.
- Walking strengthens the bones and lowers the risk of osteoporosis.
- Being physically active decreases the risk for prostate cancer, breast cancer, endometrial
cancer, lung cancer and colon cancer.
Walk Across Northwest Georgia is a great way to renew your commitment to healthy and active lifestyle. Participating shows support for the health of the community and raises awareness of the importance of building and maintaining safe and accessible physical activity opportunities within our communities.
Startling Health Facts
Lack of regular physical activity has the same effect on health as smoking a pack of cigarettes a day.
Benefits of Regular Physical Activity
There’s no doubt, if physical activity came in a pill, it would be the most widely prescribed prescription in the United States.
Regular Physical Activity has many benefits:
- It slows the aging effect.
- It strengthens the bones and lowers the risk of osteoporosis.
- It relieves tension, stress, and fights depression.
- It decreases the risk of colon, breast, and other cancers by almost 50%.
- It reduces the risk of developing or dying prematurely from heart disease and diabetes.
- It reduces the risk of developing high blood pressure and cholesterol.
- It helps to maintain a healthy weight.
Children
The prevalence of adult-onset diabetes in children has more than quadrupled in the last decade.
Children spend an average of three hours a day watching television in addition to time spent on the computer and video games.
The number of overweight children has increased by 63% in the last 30 years.
Children are showing early signs of cardiovascular disease such as weight gain, high cholesterol, Type II diabetes, and high blood pressure.
Inactive children, when compared with active children, weigh more, have higher blood pressure, and lower levels of HDL (good) cholesterol.
63% of adolescents in the United States report having two heart disease risk factors.
The recommendations for physical activity for children is 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous activity every day.
Northwest Georgia
In Northwest Georgia thousands of people suffer from chronic illnesses that can be prevented or improved through regular physical activity.
Only about 28% of adults in Northwest Georgia report being physically active (exercising 5 days per week for 30 minutes or more).
Over half the adults in Northwest Georgia are overweight or obese.
Coronary heart disease is the leading cause of death and lost-life expectancy in Northwest Georgia (one out of every 2 to 3 deaths is due to major cardiovascular disease).
Over 32,000 people in Northwest Georgia are known to have diabetes.
Common cancers in Northwest Georgia–such as breast, colon, lung, prostate,
and colorectal – are increasingly known to be preventable through lifestyle
change.
The Northwest Georgia region consists of
Bartow, Catoosa, Chattooga, Dade, Floyd,
Gordon, Haralson, Paulding,
Polk & Walker counties
