Walking has saved me more times than I can count

I remember the day I discovered the impact a simple walk could have on my mood. It was almost 40 years ago and I was in high school. I walked through my front door in a mood—I don’t recall if it was a bad mark, a mean girl, or a cute boy, it was high school, so it could have been any of those things. Or it could have been nothing.

My dad, a coach with a deep understanding of people, took one look at me and said, “Go for a walk and then we’ll talk.” I took his advice, dropped my backpack on the couch, and walked back out the front door. I returned home 30 minutes and three kilometres later. Even though the specifics of what upset me escape me now, I've never forgotten the way that walk transformed my mood. It put whatever it was in perspective, so that when my dad asked, “Do you want to talk?” I replied, “Nope, I’m fine.” He took one look at me and knew it was true.

Since then, walking has saved me more times than I can count.

At university, I lost more than 13kg walking. Most evenings of my second year, I would lace up my sneakers and walk from one end of the campus to the other before dinner, by myself. It allowed me to clear my head, find my footing, and reclaim the body I had inhabited before gaining the first-year 13. Twenty years later, on a hiking trip, I developed the idea that would become Macaroni Kid, my first truly successful business. And during the hundreds of hours I've spent walking with friends, we have talked about everything—and I mean everything—from kids, to work, to politics, to relationships to, you know, everything.

I have solved more problems, shaken off more stress, created more ideas, and lost more weight walking than through any other practice or habit. It has kept me sane, fit, and healthy. Oodles of research bears this out, as walking has been shown to have a profound impact on your body, mind, and mood. It reduces your risk of everything from diabetes to dementia; it’s a valuable to tool in combatting depression; it fuels your creativity and improve your decision-making.

These days, I walk at least four times a week and often more. I walk by myself in the early morning to clear my mind and prepare for the day ahead. I walk in the middle of the day when I realize I’ve been sitting at my desk for too many hours. I walk with a friend in the early evening to transition from my work day to my home life. I have a policy that, if any one of my friends messages me and invites me to take a walk—unless I have a clear conflict and can’t—I say yes. Last week, a woman I had never met (the cousin of a friend) texted to invite me for a walk. I almost declined. I was busy. I had a dozen tasks on my endless to-do list that I thought I should complete that day. I worried that we’d have nothing to talk about. But I said yes and I added an exclamation point to convey my enthusiasm. I met Frances at the beach, one of my favourite walks, and we set off together. The three kilometres flew by as we discovered common interests, shared stories, and connected in that unique way that walking and talking lends itself to. And I was reminded that life is about more than checking things off of my to-do list. It is about forging human connections and, in my experience, walking and talking is the best way to do that.

Last year, my husband and I founded a movement called 99 Walks and we are on a mission to get a million women walking because, as I’ve discovered throughout my life, the simple act of walking is incredibly powerful. The real magic of 99 Walks is the community of women who cheer each other on, lift each other up, and inspire each other to keep putting one foot in front of the other.