Expert extols walking

The fitness expert has her roots in this area.
POLAND -- It was old home week for Leslie Sansone. The well-known fitness expert glanced around the meeting room of the Poland Library on Thursday evening and talked about how pretty it is.
She'd driven by the library many times, she said.
"I loved this area. I lived here for a while before I had children. We had the most fun in this area.
"We had classes lined out the door," she said, when she taught aerobics at the Boardman Athletic Club.
Then she looked out and around at the 60-some faces of the mostly women who'd come to hear her speak.
"We should have planned to move the chairs and have a workout," she said to them.
They laughed. But maybe she was only half-kidding. Because Sansone is no proponent of sitting around.
"Make healthy choices," she said. "Of all of them, it's physical activity that will give you a quality life."
Sansone has been in the fitness industry for 25 years. She has a studio in New Castle, and lives "15 minutes" from the library.
You could spot her at the Giant Eagle, she said, where she might have on her walking shoes. Keep a pair in your car, she advised. Keep a pair wherever you go frequently, she said. "Over a week's period, you'll find out how many times you'll use those shoes in your car," she said.
Walking advocate
Sansone is big on walking, which is evident from her "In-Home Walking" and "Walk Away the Pounds" videos. Her new book, which she autographed Thursday, is also called "Walk Away the Pounds."
Walking outdoors is great for you, she told the crowd, but when you can't get outside, she's hoping her videos can help. She hasn't forgotten to include some exercises for upper body muscles, she said, which can get neglected during an outdoor stroll. Her newest video, which will be sold first through the QVC shopping network, includes a five-mile workout, she said.
Sansone recommends exercise at least three days a week for 30 minutes.
List of benefits
Your blood pressure stays down, total cholesterol goes down, brain function is improved, your skin gets better and your hair gets better, she said. Exercise helps ward off type 2 diabetes, which is caused by extra weight sneaking up on people, she said. She urged people to shun unhealthy lifestyles they may have been raised in. "If you're living like the generation before you, you're setting yourself up" for their health problems, she said.
Don't worry about the times in the past when you fell out of your routine for good health, and don't feel guilty about them, she said.
She said it's never too late to start exercising, and a few more times during her speech, she asked the crowd: "Who would like to walk?"
"Bones and muscle are made for locomotion," she said. "We aren't meant to sit."