We walk to our cars, to our classes, to buy things at the grocery store or at the mall. We walk into our favorite coffee shops and restaurants and we walk to greet our friends when we hang out. Walking is so much a part of our lives that it’s easy to overlook its significance.
When COVID-19 struck the United States and I was sent home from my university, I was suddenly walking a lot less. My average weekly step count was cut in half and I spent the majority of my time sitting in front of my computer to tune into my online classes. I tried to keep an active routine, but if I didn’t make a conscious effort to get out of my chair and move around, I’d end up with step counts at the end of the day that were barely above 1,000.
Despite the suffering and hardship that has come out of this pandemic, both for me and my loved ones and for people across the globe, it did give me a lot of time to evaluate myself and my life. Through all this reflection, I realized something crucial. Anyone can slip into a sedentary lifestyle, and it’s all too easy when your job is to sit in one place.
That's why I'd like to give you 5 reasons to change that and start walking today.
1. It can improve your relationships.
This is the number one benefit I've seen from walking. During this pandemic, I've been spending a lot of time at home. This means I am constantly around a lot of the same people. When we see the same people every day in the same situations, it can be easy to let more meaningful conversations fall to the wayside. It's not like I'm going to talk to my sister about existentialism when we're in the kitchen together cooking breakfast. (Well, I might do that.)
But the point is that the conversations we have when we bump into people around the house tend to be light and even superficial. It's like those dreaded "how was school?" conversations we used to have with our parents on the drive home. Even if school was something other than "fine," it's hard to get into all that in a ten-minute window.
Walking, however, has given me the perfect opportunity to have more meaningful conversations with the people I see regularly. It's one thing to talk for five minutes in the dining room and it's another thing to talk for half an hour walking around your neighborhood.
If you share a home, then take someone along with you on those walks. It might be awkward at first, especially if you aren't used to talking for that much time. But I promise you'll learn so much about the people you care about. And if you live alone, call up a friend or a family member. You'll still be exercising and having someone on the phone gives you company and a sense of security if you like to walk later in the evening.
2. It can make you smarter.
We think of Albert Einstein as one of the smartest men who ever lived. At fifteen, he mastered differential and integral calculus, and at twenty-six, he published a paper about his theory of special relativity. I'm only twenty-one right now, and I certainly don't expect to be publishing any groundbreaking physics theories in the next five years. However, I can still learn from the way Einstein developed these ideas.
Einstein came up with a lot of his most valuable ideas during long walks. He would observe things in the world around him and wonder. Wondering takes time and when we go through our normal daily lives, we don't always have a lot of time to wonder and process the things around us. A study conducted by a team of researchers from HEC Paris, Harvard Business School, and the University of North Carolina found that people who think and reflect on the information they receive perform 23% better when it comes time to use it.
And we don't necessarily have to wonder alone or in silence. We can wonder aloud with a friend (like Einstein did with Michele Besso) or we can wonder to music. And if that doesn't sound appealing, you can even put on a podcast. It's hard to make time to learn new things in our busy lives, so try it while you walk.
3. It can help you lose weight (and eat more).
A lot of times, when we think of exercise, we think of running three miles or doing burpees and push-ups. However, according to Google, exercise is simply "activity requiring physical effort, carried out to sustain or improve health and fitness." Of course, that does include high-intensity training, but it can also include the things we do on a daily basis, like walking.
In 2007, Harvard psychologist Ellen Langer conducted a study on how perceptions of exercise impact the number of calories burned known as the Crum Langer Hotel Experiment. She worked with 84 female hotel maids and the majority, despite the amount of time they spent on their feet cleaning from room to room, didn't perceive themselves as active. The maids were divided into two groups and Group 1 was told how many calories they burn with each activity they perform. Group 2 was told nothing.
One month later, Group 1 had seen a decrease in systolic blood pressure, weight, waist-to-hip ratio, and blood pressure. Group 2 remained the same. Why?
Mindset matters. If you believe your walk around the neighborhood is exercise, you'll pick up your pace. If you believe your trip to the grocery store is exercise, you'll park a little farther away from the entrance. If you believe staying on your feet to wash dishes or fold laundry is exercise, you'll try to stay on your feet longer.
Opportunities for exercise are all around us in the most mundane activities. And, hey, the more calories you burn, the more you can consume. Let's earn that latte, ladies!
4. It can help you meet new people.
My sister always points out houses with wraparound porches, and I've become somewhat obsessed. They have this old-timey, classic feel, and I just want to sit outside with a mug of tea and a book and wave at the people who walk by. I love that old-fashioned neighborhood sense of camaraderie.
I don't know that this is everyone's experience, but I have a pretty good relationship with the people living in the four houses closest to me and my family. But my comfort level with my neighbors was sort of limited to that radius. When I started walking every day, I started getting to know more of the people who've lived around me all my life.
Scott Young has a great blogpost about Seven Habits That Seem Lazy (But Actually Help Us Get More Done). Habit #3 is chatting with colleagues. Sometimes we overlook talking to other people, especially acquaintances because we assume they're a distraction from our work. However, I'm a big believer in the idea that we can learn things from everyone, and that definitely includes our neighbors.
5. You can do it literally anywhere without any special equipment.
Of all my points, this one is probably the most self-explanatory. I've always heard that running is a good form of exercise for this same reason. All you really need are the space and time to do it. And if you're not quite ready to commit to running, either because of the intensity or the simple fact that you can't get into it, walking is already a part of our daily lives! If you can't sustain a challenging workout regimen or a strict diet but you can talk yourself into walking around your neighborhood for half an hour every day, that's okay.
In fact, it's not just okay. It's good. Living an active life is good, and that looks different for everyone, but what matters is that you are active.
Walking more doesn’t even mean going for a walk outside (though I 100% recommend the fresh air). Walking more can also mean spending less time sitting around at home. If I want to watch Netflix or Youtube, I do it on my phone while doing chores around the house. If I need to study flashcards, I do it while pacing around my room. If I go to the grocery store, I park a little farther away from the entrance so I can get that extra exercise.
At university, I was constantly walking between classes, walking to meet friends, and walking to extracurricular meetings. At home, I was walking between my kitchen, bathroom, and bedroom. There were entire days I didn’t set a single foot outside and it began to weigh on me both mentally and physically.
So I decided to make a change. And you can too.
Start walking more today and stay lavender, ladies!
— Theresa
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