Walking is a daily experience and a lifetime journey.

Mokokoma Mokhonoana

Having spent years of being fitness obsessed, I have finally reached a point of comfort and have come to adopt the mantra of ’10 km a day’ – if I do nothing else with my day, I have walked 10 km. This has had a profound impact on my mental and physical wellbeing.

This, for me, has been what works to keep going in life. To keep my core sane and mobile. This is my baseline. This will be different for everyone. It could be 10 minutes a day. It could be 10,000 steps a day. But what I have come to realize is that I need to do this minimum level of activity on a daily basis to feel alive and to feel that I can function in life. To me, it is also manageable and achievable in my middle years. It is weight bearing yet non-intensive and low strain on my joints. It is keeping me physically healthy without pain or exhaustion. And through the years of buildup of chronic pain from injuries and trauma, I have landed on this to keep it at bay. It is what has kept me from experiencing debilitating back pain and leg pain.

I write as I wake at 5am ahead of carrying out more tedious tasks like journal editing. I sandwich this time for walking in between my work schedule. If I have to work into the evening to make up for that time, so be it. As my job requires sitting at a computer, I build in time where I can walk around this.

This is not any weight loss attempt rather a weight maintenance plan that is sustainable (for now at least), which is at most a secondary goal. I have spent too many years in my youth preoccupied with looking good and being slim as my primary goal – going to no end to reach that. It now comes down to how it makes me feel and how I feel I can tackle life. It is not about comparing myself to others. It is about where I am at and what I can do. Call it wisdom and maturity in middle adulthood.

This is what I need. And I don’t compromise on it. It takes a minimum of 2 hours a day, and I ensure to protect this time, however I can. And doing so outside is a must. I am grateful too that I am able to do this, and that I have legs, as battered as they are (dislocated kneecap, multiple sprains, osteoarthritis, etc.), that enable me to move.

I focus on walking because walking is what makes me tick – this is what has worked for me over the years – amidst all the clutter and complications in life – it is a form of simplicity that I appreciate. It grounds me wherever I am. It lets me appreciate my surroundings. It just let’s me be. It has allowed me to explore wonderful cities, countrysides, and waterfronts all over the world. It is accessible in so many ways. It costs me nothing to go out walking; indeed, it may even be preventing expensive health problems down the road.

I hope too that everyone is able to establish their baseline and thrive from this point forward.