Become inspired by adjusting the scenery and locations of your walks and runs. Instead of doing the same neighborhood route every single day, surround yourself with beautiful views and less pavement by checking out a different park in Seattle. Take out your calendar and mark one park to visit each week. Ask a friend or your family to go with. Here is a list of my favorites:

1) Lincoln Park

2) Alki Park

3) Magnuson Park

4) Burke-Gilman Trail at UW

5) Burke-Gilman Trail at Gasworks

6) Golden Gardens Park in Ballard

7) Discovery Park

8) Seward Park

9) Myrtle Edwards Park (near Pier 70)

10) Greenlake

When you complete one or 10 you will feel inspired to continue your fitness program and invigorated as a whole.

Keep hydrated on walks

Drink eight to 10 glasses of water a day. Remember soda is not water. Neither is iced tea. I'm always surprised when I find that people are not drinking water and instead drinking lots of diet drinks, citrus flavored water with artificial sweetener, or close to nothing at all.

So allow me to do my part and tell you along with all the other health experts that soda, coffee, and iced tea are dehydrating. You have to drink even more than the recommended 8-10 cups of water per day if you're going to have one of these.

Remember though that being hydrated doesn't mean you are stuck drinking plain old water. There are some better tasting ways:

These are hydrating

- Iced herbal teas including mint and berry

- Hot herbal teas

- Seltzer water in all flavors-Lemon, berry, orange, plain (with no added sweetener)

- Bottled water - carry a package of water in your car so you can drink whenever thirsty

- Iced water with lemon

These are dehydrating

- Sodas

- Diet sodas

- Coffee

- Citrus flavored water with artificial sweetener

Annette Herrick may be reached at annette@fitnessforvitality.com