• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

HollyRobinson

Writer & Red Dirt Rambler

  • Home
  • Bio
  • Blog
  • My Books
    • Haven Lake
    • Chance Harbor
    • The Gerbil Farmer’s Daughter
    • Sleeping Tigers
    • The Wishing Hill
    • Beach Plum Island
    • Folly Cove
  • Ghostwriting

Why You Should Walk (Hint: It’s Not for the Exercise)

Posted on 01.11.14 | Holly Robinson | 7 Comments

 

A few years ago, I was having my annual physical when my physician made one of those squinched-up faces that sets off alarm bells. When you see a doctor with that expression, you know you have something big: cancer, a brain tumor, an erratic heart rate, whatever. (To be fair, my doctor looks like an elf anyway, so this is close to his natural expression. If he weren’t hammering knees and producing reflexes, my doctor would be hammering together toys in a workshop.)

“Your blood pressure is way up,” he pronounced solemnly. “What’s going on?”

“You tell me,” I said. “You’re the doctor.”

Okay, too flip an answer for a solemn moment. But I was embarrassed, the way you’re always embarrassed when you’re caught out during a checkup when you admit how many glasses of wine you drink (depends on the week) or whether you exercise regularly (ditto).

Amazingly, my elfin physician didn’t blink. He just proceeded to really ask me about my life: Was I stressed at work? How were my kids? How was my sex life?

It’s not easy to discuss your sex life with an elf, but I answered his questions dutifully, clutching my paper wrap to my body. My answers were the usual roundup for a woman in the middle of her life: yes, I’m stressed about work deadlines; sure, my marriage is okay; yes, I still have sex; the children come and go and I have a mother I look out for as well. It’s a full and happy life, I assured him.

He nodded, scribbled out a prescription, folded it, and handed it to me. “I want you to try this and see me again in six months,” he said.

When I opened the paper, I had trouble reading his writing. Not just because it was the usual physician’s secret code, but because I couldn’t believe what I was reading: “Walk 20 minutes two times a day.”

“Walking won’t help me lose weight,” I protested. “Besides, I already go to the gym.”

“That’s not why you should walk,” he said. “Just try it and see what happens.”

What happened—no surprise here—was that I became addicted to walking. Over the next six months, I walked the dog, I walked alone, and I walked with friends. Especially with friends.

I hiked trails through the woods, walked a flat gravel road around the reservoir, took my time going around the block. I walked in rain, sleet, snow, ice, sun.

My next doctor’s visit, my weight was the same, but my blood pressure was down. A lot. But I didn’t need him to check my blood pressure to know that: I could feel it.

I have been walking for years now. On the days I walk, I can do anything. These days, I drop my youngest son off at the school bus and take a half-hour walk before coming home, which lets me sit at my desk for several hours. Then I get up and take another walk.

“There’s something wrong with you,” my mother said recently, when I got up to take a walk in sub-zero weather, as the snow was starting to fall. “You’re always having to get up and go outside.”

It’s true. I do have to get up and go outside, now that I’ve realized how all of the problems I have—big, small, immediate, long-term—feel so much smaller when I’m outdoors. That thorny chapter in the new novel I’m writing? I walk it out, and without even consciously thinking about it, the dialogue or the setting or the plot points come to me. The argument with my husband? If I bring him outside to talk, our argument is gone in just two blocks—lifted off our shoulders into the ether.

Recently, a New York Times columnist wrote a great round-up of stories on exercise findings for the year 2013 called “For Fitness, Intensity Matters.” Apparently intense exercise is the way to go if you want to improve your health and live longer.

But if you want to live better, take a walk.

 

 

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • More
  • Email
  • Pocket
  • Print
  • Tumblr
  • Reddit

Categories: Uncategorized Tags: blood pressure, exercise, fitness, fitness training, health, hiking, intensity in fitness training, new york times, Walk, walking, walking to lose weight, weight loss, why walk, women's health, writing

Holly Robinson's avatar

About the Author

Holly Robinson is a novelist, journalist and celebrity ghost writer. She and her husband have five children and a stubborn Pekingese. They currently divide their time between Massachusetts and Prince Edward Island, and are crazy enough to be fixing up old houses one shingle at a time in both places.

Reader Interactions

    Leave a Reply Cancel

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

    This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

    7 Comments

  1. Lisa Orchard says

    January 12, 2014 at 10:00 am

    I love this post! I have found the same thing with walking. Whenever, I get stuck on a story I go for a walk or a hike in the woods. I usually work through the problem and I feel so much better! Great post!

    Reply
    • hollyrob1 says

      January 12, 2014 at 10:13 am

      Thanks, Lisa. It really is amazing how much easier it is to think sometimes when you’re in motion, especially when you’re writing! I appreciate you stopping by to share your view.

      Reply
  2. Sandra Nachlinger says

    January 12, 2014 at 10:50 am

    I’m linking to this excellent post on my Facebook page. Although I take my dog on short walks, that isn’t quite the same as strolling along by myself, especially since he likes to tug on his leash and bark at any other dog in view! You’ve inspired me to start my own walking program this afternoon.

    Reply
    • hollyrob1 says

      January 12, 2014 at 4:08 pm

      Thank you, Sandra! I know what you mean about dog walks–my little Pekingese gives me an excuse to go out, but it’s not quite the same thing as striding along! Good luck. Let me know how you get on.

      Reply
  3. hollyrob1 says

    January 13, 2014 at 10:32 am

    Thanks so much, Will–and I think you’re absolutely right to talk about the benefits of walking for older adults. I once ran into a woman in Nepal who was in her seventies and still trekking along, quite literally. That’s my goal, to be as fit as that, at her age!

    Reply
  4. Virginia A. Smith says

    January 15, 2014 at 2:12 pm

    Hi, Holly, I loved this post! I also find that walking clears the mind for writing and other things. Being English, walking is part of what I do. My family would go on walks en masse; all anyone had to say was, “Walkies?” and we’d all head out, grandparents, parents, children.
    I wrote about this phenomenon in my blog, The Year of Living Englishly, theyearoflivingenglishly.wordpress.com/2013/01/26/us-vs-uk-walkies/
    You know where I got the idea for this post on walking? On a walk, of course!

    Reply
    • hollyrob1 says

      January 15, 2014 at 2:45 pm

      Yes, the English really know how to walk. I wish we had all of those lovely footpaths. Thanks for walking by my web site!

      Reply

sidebar

Blog Sidebar

Follow Me

  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter

Follow me on BookBub

<span>Follow me on BookBub</span>

Click here to read my recent articles and essays

  • Home
  • Blog
  • Bio
  • Ghostwriting
  • My Books
    • Folly Cove
    • Chance Harbor
    • Haven Lake
    • Beach Plum Island
    • The Wishing Hill
    • Sleeping Tigers
    • The Gerbil Farmer’s Daughter
  • Articles & Essays
    • Essays
    • Articles and Essays
      • Interviews
  • Events
  • Non-Fiction
    • Essays
    • Articles and Essays
      • Interviews
Holly Robinson

What’s New on the Blog

running on Bothwell with dogs

Can We Ever Be Completely Happy?

I was driving through Boston recently when I stopped at a light. Next to me was a rust bucket of a car. The driver had long hair, a sleeve tattoo, and a sharp profile that said, “Don’t mess with me.” Clearly a guy with a hard life and an even harder past. Yet, in the Read More

20230507 094648

Why Stay Married When You’re Living Apart?

I’m unloading the dishwasher when my husband comes up behind me. “You’re making chaos out of my stemless glassware,” he says. “What are you talking about?” He rearranges the glasses I’ve just put on the shelf. There are only six of them, so it doesn’t take long. When he’s finished, there are two of each Read More

mammoWipe

MammoWipes and Other Medical Indignities

Why do pets get red carpet medical care, while humans are treated like livestock?

HollyBlaise

The Imperfect Mother

As we creep toward Mother’s Day, that Hallmark Holiday of flowers and chocolates and too many regrets, here is the most important thing for all of you moms out there to remember: Mothering is an imperfect art. No matter how hard you try, you will never get it right 100 percent of the time. Just Read More

20230505 141526

Winning at Hawaii Bingo

Let me just say this right up front: I never had any particular desire to go to Hawaii. For one thing, I’m more of a hiker than a beach lounger. I don’t like rum or boating or sunning or surfing, and men in Hawaiian shirts make my teeth hurt. Then my dear friend Toby Neal—a Read More

20230328 123906

Creativity, Cancer, and the Circle of Quiet

I walked to the bench today after my MRI. My doctor ordered the test to see if I have pancreatic cancer, not because I have any symptoms or suspicion, but because my mother died of it last year. “Better to know,” is what my doctor said. “We can at least get a baseline.” Of course, Read More

TwitterFacebookLinkedin

Copyright © 2020 Holly Robinson

Website by Bakerview Consulting