Get on the Road to Health and Fitness!

Thank you for participating in the Live, Long, Live Well senior walking program. Increased physical activity can result in significant health benefits and a better quality of life for New Jersey's older residents.

The fastest growing segment of New Jersey's population is the group 65 and older, with the 85+ populations experiencing the greatest increase. Every community has seniors. If your community does not have a large senior population, consider making your community more 'livable' as your current residents age. A more walkable community benefits older adults as well as other segments of the community. For those people who cannot or do not want to drive, walking is essential to obtain necessary goods and services. Walking is also an enjoyable and effective way to exercise and socialize. Pedestrians also actively contribute to neighborhood and community vitality, economic vitality and overall livability. The enclosed Community Checklist for a 'Livable' Community can help you determine ways to make your community more walkable.

Encourage community members to increase their activity all day long. Best results occur when people set and attain a goal of 5,000 to 10,000 steps per day for at least 20 days each month. Tracking steps can be easier with a pedometer. If you want to add pedometers to your walking program, bulk pedometers are readily available from several distributors and manufacturers. A "Counting Your Steps" guide, provided by the Madison Health Department, can be used to help participants track their 'steps' for other physical activities. Madison's information on forming a walking club is also included, along with fact sheets from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and information from the President's Healthier US Initiative, USA on the Move: Steps to Healthy Aging.

We hope you will use the information in this packet to establish a Live Long, Live Well community walking program, or share it with other community organizations and existing walking clubs in your community. You can help community members reach their physical activity goals by providing local maps of walking trails and information about local fitness programs.

The enclosed forms can be reproduced and are also available on the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services' web page: http://www.state.nj.us/health/senior/index.shtml. The materials can be found under 'walking' in Health Topics A-Z

To order additional individual walking logs, report community miles walked, or obtain individual New Jersey Walking Recognition Awards:

• Call 609/943-3498
• Fax 609/943-3497
• E-mail

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