One of the best things you can do for your overall health is to move. You have already made that commitment with 99 Walks, and now it’s time to do one of the other best things: reduce your sugar consumption.

I suck at meditating. For years, I tried different ideas, everything from walking meditation to meditation classes to simply taking five slow, mindful breathes while sitting on the floor of my closet.

Nothing worked. I didn't have the time or money to go to meditation classes, walking meditations were really just walks and if I managed three breathes on my closet floor before either thinking "this is stupid" or noticing the pile of laundry in the corner, well, that was a miracle.

99 Walks has a lot of core values. 99 of them to be exact.

These are the things that we believe. The way we choose to live our lives. They are part principles and part sparks of inspiration. Some of them may appear to contradict. That’s because we aren’t the same every day. Say yes and say no. Eat less sugar and eat the cupcake. Sometimes, well, sometimes you just need a cupcake. Because without the occasional cupcake, life is too predictable. Too rigid.

“I’m so sorry,” the email began. “I swear I’m not one of those people who miss deadlines, but I hurt my back and I won’t have the column to you on Friday.”

I was laying in my bed, alternating between ice and heat - because that’s what they say you should do. Neither were working. I had done something bad at the gym earlier that week and simply breathing sent shooting pains up and down my spine. I was stopped in my tracks. Laid out and laid up. On my calendar that week was two full days of meetings, one writing deadline and a dinner for a women's networking group that I had created. A meeting at my daughter’s school to discuss her class schedule for the coming year and my son’s 18th birthday.

March 14 can be written as 3.14 or Pi -- the mathematical constant of a circle’s circumference to its diameter and a magic number in the math world. So March 14 is often called “Pi Day.” To celebrate, I ate apple pie for breakfast. Then I ate a little more for lunch because, well, because it was there and it was delicious. Dinner was a big plate of spaghetti.

Aren’t we all looking for the magic bullet? The one thing that will make us thin, turn our house into a showplace and move our business to “the next level?”

The media is replete with tales of overnight success. Justin Bieber puts a homespun video on Youtube and becomes a bazillionaire. A couple of students found the company Rovio, release the Angry Birds and become millionaires overnight.  Lana Turner gets discovered at a drugstore counter.

“Jump higher.”

“Keep your feet closer together.”

“Turn the rope faster.”

“Practice every day.”

Failure sucks. We go into things -- new projects, new relationships, new diets -- with optimism and excitement and enthusiasm. And when they don’t work out, when we “fail,” it sucks. We feel defeated, discouraged and sad.

My first job out of law school was with a huge national law firm. One Saturday morning, on a perfect June day, all of the first year associates were required to attend a full day accounting workshop to learn the fundamentals of public accounting.

You know, I know it. Beethoven, Steve Jobs and Darwin knew it.

You get some of your best ideas when you are out taking a walk. Most of us have known this instinctively for years, and now there is research to prove it.

As the story goes, an elderly Cherokee grandfather was walking with his grandson and striving to impart some grandfatherly wisdom. “Within us,” the old man began, “are two wolves locked in a constant state of battle.

Last week, I received an email with this subject:

"This One Thing Will Change Your Life Overnight."

Tempting right? But we know the truth: anything worth having takes work, time and consistent effort. One way to help you get there is to apply the Japanese philosophy of Kaizen.

Winter walking does a body good. It fights inflammation, burns extra calories, fires up those endorphins and clears the mind. But winter walking does present some challenges and requires a little extra effort to stay safe. Here are eight things to be mindful of:

A deep freeze has gripped much of the nation. Yesterday, the temperature in Sag Harbor was 7, there were patches of ice where an earlier rain had frozen and branches continued to be brought down by the howling wind. A friend in Michigan reported it was -19 and even in Florida, my mother abandoned her morning walk because it was just too cold. 

When it is cold, millions of years of evolution tells us to seek shelter and stay in the cave. Don't expend any unnecessary energy. And eat up because the cold is taxing on your body and you don't know where your next meal is coming from.

We need to fight that urge. We need to push ourselves to remain active. In fact, walking in cold weather has a slew of benefits. Here are five:

We’ve all rediscovered the fanny pack. In Style Magazine reports that “Celebrities Celebrities Are Obsessed with This Retro Accessory.” As an incredibly busy working mama, 99 Walks’ Pack Leader, I couldn't be happier.

I bought a simple black Herschel fanny pack (okay, they call them “hip packs” now but we all know what they are don’t we?) from Urban Outfitters. Herschel. Urban Outfitters. Cool by definition right?

My 13-year-old-fashion-conscious teen was horrified when I told her what I had done. But then I modeled it for her. “Well, it’s not as bad as I thought,” she conceded.

Setting goals is important because if you don’t know where you are going, you are likely to get lost.

Effective goal setting takes practice. Set the bar too low, and you won’t achieve as much as you might. Set it too high and you set yourself up for failure. Make your goals too ambiguous and you’ll be unable to track your progress or know when you have achieved them. And, perhaps most importantly, setting goals that are not deeply, truly and profoundly important to you is a waste of time because you will never be inspired to do the hard work it will take to get there.

My son was born on January 17, during the heart of winter in New York. An emergency C-section left me more bruised and battered than I had expected. Sitting in the blue nursing chair in the baby’s room two weeks later, I called Judi, my C-section mentor (she’d been through two), and cried, “when does it stop hurting?”

My life is busy. We are all busy. Often too busy. Yet we keep adding to our plates. Saying yes. Taking on new projects. Why? I don't think it is simply because we "can't say no." I think it is more complicated.