interview<\/a>. \u2018I did Pilates online during lockdown; I had the mat and ball and everything, but as soon as you get back to work it\u2019s hard to find the time, so walking it is. I keep telling myself I should do more exercise, but I don\u2019t want to do anything intense like running.’<\/p>\nThe much-loved Gavin & Stacey star is on to something, says Good Housekeeping\u2019s fitness expert, Kim Hawley. \u2018Walking lowers your blood pressure. It improves your heart health. It reduces risk of stroke, it decreases your risk of cognitive decline, it reduces anxiety, it improves your mood. Thirty minutes a day, that\u2019s all you need. Thirty minutes of brisk walking makes a huge difference to your health.\u2019<\/p>\n
Just getting in those steps makes a big difference to health. But if you want to turbo-charge the benefits, Kim recommends trying the Japanese walking method… \u2018Three minutes of fast walking, then three at a moderate pace. Repeat that for 30 minutes.\u2019<\/p>\n
Alison doesn\u2019t just have her eye on physical fitness \u2013 she also takes her diet seriously. \u2018I eat a lot of fresh fish and vegetables,\u2019 she says. \u2018We try to have three to four veggies with our meals; I don\u2019t eat a lot of carbs or potatoes so we tend to go big on veg.\u2019 But there’s still room for fun, which comes in the shape of a margarita cocktail. \u2018It\u2019s my favourite cocktail and I\u2019ve got a shaker and all the ingredients,\u2019 she says. \u2018I really enjoy that, so it\u2019s my Friday night treat!\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When we\u2019re younger, exercise feels easier… energy levels are high, we have fewer demands on our time and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":596771,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[252907,4959,252908,1107,499,1110,103,61,60,184510,1135,252906,223989],"class_list":["post-596770","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fitness","tag-alison-steadman-doesnt-run-or-go-to-the-gym-this-is-the-simple-exercise-she-does-instead","tag-content-type-feature","tag-contentid-f70c3017-ca38-4d32-abc8-cec64431c80a","tag-displaytype-standard-article","tag-fitness","tag-hasproduct-true","tag-health","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-issyndicated-false","tag-locale-gb","tag-shorttitle-at-79","tag-sponsored-false"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596770","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=596770"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596770\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/596771"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=596770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=596770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=596770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}