Sneak out for a walk on your lunch break; walk around the block during commercial breaks when you’re watching your favorite TV shows.

RODALE NEWS, EMMAUS, PA—Walking is known to melt your thighs and perk up your bum. But its healthy resumé boasts some even more impressive accomplishments, from cash savings to increasing the odds of survival for breast cancer patients. A lot of attention has been paid to getting in 10,000 steps of walking, jogging, or running a day. A 40-minute, two-mile walk will chip away half of those steps, and everyday activities can usually accumulate the other half.

Here are eight reasons to take those extra steps and make walking a part of your healthy lifestyle:

# 1: It deflects diabetes. New research links brisk walking to a significant risk reduction for developing type 2 diabetes. Insulin resistance is a predictor of this disease, even in people with normal glucose levels. But a recent British study found that people with a family history of the disease who walked briskly, or performed some other type of moderate to vigorous activity on a routine basis, improved insulin sensitivity.