My favourite short walks in the North East

I have been walking every day for 20 minutes in my lunch hour for a few weeks now as part of Westfield Health's Walking Lunch challenge and have really noticed a difference. A few of the benefits I have noticed are:-

*Weight loss (head over to Life As Mrs R to find out how much)
*Increased fitness
*More mindful of my surroundings
*More energy
*A better working routine

I work from home and usually sit at my desk for long periods of time (yes I even eat my lunch here) and fitting in a lunch time walk has really set structure to my day and allowed me to be more focused. Sometimes if I am busy I will just walk around my neighbourhood, other times I have walked to my mum's who lives 8 minutes away (we've timed it) and take her dog out for 10 minutes but on days when my husband is at home I have taken a 'proper lunch hour' and we've driven somewhere locally with the purpose of taking a more strenuous walk. If you include driving time, this only takes 40 minutes out of my day and it's lovely to see the local beauty spots on my doorstep, spend time together and improve our health. So here are my favourite local walks so far:-

Plessey Woods

Ponteland Park

Finding a local park to walk through really lifts your spirits. Ponteland Park is full of flowers in bloom and a home to lots of wildlife. Walking along the riverbank is beautiful. We walked around the park and covered one mile in 20 minutes last week burning 162 calories and walking 2200 steps along the way.

Northumberlandia

Northumberlandia is a fab place to walk for people of all abilities. You can climb the peaks or just walk around the flat surface. We climbed right to the top and back in just under 20 minutes and were rewarded with spectacular views of the surrounding quarries. 

Newcastle Monument to Quayside

I quite often have meetings in Newcastle City Centre. Rather than just sitting in a coffee shop and heading home I have switched my habits and made sure that I include a lunchtime walk into my routine. The walk from Grey's monument down to the Quayside and back is exactly one mile (if you stop at The Vermont Hotel) and takes just over 20 minutes. It's lovely to take in the beautiful architecture, I only wish it was downhill on the way back!

If you are feeling inspired to check out some of the local short walks in your area, why not sign up to take part in Westfield Health's Walking lunch next month. It is FREE to take part, motivates you and you might be surprised with the benefits of adding a 20 minute walk into your lunch hour.