walking is great for many reasons. It gets you to breathe more deeply, it stimulates the immune system, it's pretty low impact...it's the best all-around health booster you can do.

If you're walking hills, pushing on the uphills so that you're breathing harder, you are getting the sort of interval cardio training Phillips and others recommend.

You can do a lot of good resistance training work with nothing more than body weight (push ups, sit-ups, tricep dips, squats and lunges, calf raises) and a $10 fitness band.

Add a couple deep stretches per week, and IMO, that's a beautifully rounded fitness routine. If you want to do more in six months or a year, that's great. Life is long...find activities you enjoy, and do them because you like them, rather than because they'll help you lose weight. They will do the latter, but not in any miraculous way. The good lifetime habit of beloved exercise will see you through to better health and firmer muscles for a longer life.

HTH!