Walking. It’s a simple, low-impact, safe, and accessible exercise for just about everyone. The health benefits are many, especially when paired with a healthy diet. You could trim your waistline, tweak cholesterol levels and blood pressure, deflect diabetes, and even improve your emotional health.

And next Wednesday, Oct. 3, you can join hundreds of University of Iowa faculty, staff, and students in one of the biggest walks of the year, the Healthiest State Walks. The walks support the Healthiest State Initiative, a movement to make Iowa the healthiest state in the nation by 2016. State organizers hope to involve even more than the 291,000-plus Iowans who participated in the inaugural 1K walks last year.

Most participants can easily find the time to participate over a lunch hour or between classes. A kilometer is about 7.5 city blocks, a 12-minute stroll for the average walker.

The UI College of Public Health, for example, will again host three different walks open to any university or community members who wish to participate. One route will depart from the College of Public Health Building (CPHB), a second from the University of Iowa Capitol Centre (UCC), and a third from the Bioventures Building on the Research Park campus. All three College of Public Health-sponsored walks are scheduled to depart at noon.

Additional campus walks registered with the Healthiest State Initiative include UI Libraries, Recreation and Wellness Center, Division of Sponsored Programs, Tippie College of Business, the Division of Continuing Education, the College of Pharmacy, the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Central Transcription Services, and Physics and Astronomy, to name a few.

So campus organizers urge everyone to take a few minutes to get up from their desks, put on their walking shoes, and join fellow staff, faculty, students, and other campus friends in helping to make Iowa a healthier state.