A regular lunch-hour walker strides along Lakeside Avenue in downtown Cleveland. (Photo by Chris Stephens)

Only half of Americans meet recommended goals for physical activity laid out by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. One of the easiest ways to get the 30 minutes a day you need to stay healthy is to get walking — almost anyone can start a walking program and work up to the recommended 10,000 steps a day, experts say.

The benefits, laid out by innumerable studies over the years, reach into virtually every aspect of both physical and mental health.

Getting started is easy, says Dr. Michael Roizen, chief wellness officer at the Cleveland Clinic and co-author of the "You" series of books. On a recent (brisk!) walk with the doctor around a track at the Walker Center on the Clinic campus, he offered tips for getting started.

— GET A PEDOMETER: It's impossible to count your steps without one. Go ahead, try. Most sporting-goods stores sell them, and they range in cost from $10 to $60. A good, reliable model can be found for $20. Also, studies have shown that walkers who started wearing a pedometer walked about one more mile per day than they did before they started counting.

— HAVE A PLAN: Walkers who follow a formal program are more likely to stick with it, and the 10,000-step recommendation makes for one of the easiest plans ever. Just get the steps in Roizen says.

— TAKE IT EASY: All those thousands of steps may sound a little daunting, especially to someone who mostly steps to the kitchen to get a snack between recorded episodes of "The Office" and "Desperate Housewives." When Roizen starts anyone out on a walking regimen, his rule of thumb is no fewer than 6,000 steps a day to start, broken into 3,000 steps at a time. To give you an idea, that's only about 7,500 feet at a time, or about six laps around a track at a comfortable pace.

— GET A BUDDY: Roizen views this as the most important thing you can do when starting out your walking plan. A buddy is "someone who generously wants you to succeed in getting healthy," Roizen says. "It is that person that will look at your health or your plan as part of what they are responsible for." Accountability and cheerleading are what your partner can give you. And face it, when it's pouring rain and the treadmill just doesn't look all that inviting, we could all use a cheerleader or two.

— REAP THE REWARDS: Now comes the really good part. You walk more, and here's what you get in return:

 ... A healthy heart: Walking can help ward off heart disease, the No. 1 killer in this country. Any regular physical activity reduces risk. People recovering from heart attacks and bypass surgery recover better and have lower risk of another heart attack if they walk. Walking regularly will reduce your resting heart rate and blood pressure, which will put less stress on your heart and your whole cardiovascular system. Every little bit helps.

 ... A slimmer waist: Regular walking can also help you lose weight, although some recent research has shown that you may need to up your step count a little to maintain weight control. Obesity is a contributing factor in a slew of diseases, so walking can reduce your risk of diabetes, breast cancer, hypertension and stroke.

... Lower cancer risk: It's not exactly clear why, Roizen says, but there's a very strong body of evidence showing that people who exercise regularly, even moderate walking, cut their risk of certain cancers significantly. They are also better able to fight off infections, meaning that office cold may just bounce off of you next time.

... A happier head: Study after study also has shown that regular exercise improves mood, can relieve mild to moderate depression, and busts stress. "It's a curious thing — people actually get addicted to walking," Roizen says. "I know the days I don't do it, I feel like I want to and I missed it." And the best thing about walking as a form of exercise is that you feel good while you're doing it, not just after you're done.

... Lower health care costs: A daily walk could save you more than $300 a year in doctor visits, hospitalizations and prescription drugs, according to a survey published in The Physician and Sportsmedicine in 2000. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that the country could save about $76 billion a year if sedentary folks got up and moving.

Coming up short? So you're walking now. You've programmed your pedometer and are diligently working towards 10,000 steps a day. You're coming up short. Consistently. Here are a few easy ways to squeeze in those extra steps. Remember, they all count.

 — WALK THE DOG. Again. (The dog will love you for it!)

 — WALK TO VISIT A NEIGHBOR. Then walk your neighbor's dog. (Your neighbor will love you for it!)

 — USE THE STAIRS. Steps up and down count, too.

 — PARK FARTHER FROM THE OFFICE, the grocery store, the big box store, really everything. As long as it's safe. Dr. Michael Roizen parks as far as he can from his office on the Cleveland Clinic campus and gets 2,000 to 4,000 steps in a day this way.

 — PLAN A WALKING MEETING. This is Roizen's favorite and made for a healthy interview. It's best if it's a one-on-one meeting.

 — WALK TO THE NEXT BUS STOP on your route.

You're getting confident now, and you want to up the ante. And what's with those people ski-walking?

It's called Nordic walking, and it appears to be catching on. Off-season skiers in Finland developed it decades ago to stay in shape. Hikers began using it in this country, and now it's made its way to more urban landscapes.

The poles take some of the pressure off hips and knees and help you burn more calories during the walk, enthusiasts say. You can find Nordic poles at sporting goods stores. Check out the Australasian Nordic Walking Association Web site for details.

Also, walking with heavy hand-weights is out, experts say. The swinging motion may hurt your joints, and you'll probably just walk slower when you use them. It's best to get your weight workout separately.

WALKING BY THE NUMBERS

— 10,000: Number of steps recommended to meet your daily exercise requirement.

— 25,000: Number of feet you'll walk in a day if you reach that goal. That adds up to about 5 miles.

— 2,000: The number of steps a sedentary person averages a day.

— 30: Minimum number of minutes per day of moderate-intensity physical activity recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

— 49: Percent of Americans who meet this recommendation.

— 100: Calories burned per walking mile for a 180-pound person. This differs based on your weight and your speed. For example, a 130-pound person walking at 12 minutes per mile will burn 473 calories a day walking 10,000 steps. At 20 minutes per mile, this drops to about 350 calories.

(Brie Zeltner is a staff writer for The Plain Dealer of Cleveland. Zeltner can be contacted at bzeltner(at)plaind.com.)