More specifically, I said I would, “Here are some of the specific things I’d like to add to my 26 in 2026 list: Purchase a conservation area pass and visit all 11 local conservation areas plus the Luther Marsh, one per month, and a provincial park pass with the goal of visiting 6 new ones this year.”
This weekend, most other family members are off outdoor adventuring. Mallory and Gwen are backcountry canoe camping in Algonquin, Sarah is off with family in Prince Edward County, Jeff and Susan are both in Nova Scotia, and Miles, mum, and I are home sick. Blerg.
But even when you’re sick, the dogs still need walking, so we ventured out in the car to check out a new-to-us conservation area, Elora Gorge. (That’s different from the Elora Quarry where Catherine and I went swimming a couple of years ago.)
We had so much fun that on Sunday we did it again. This time we went further afield to Shade’s Mills Conservation area in nearby Cambridge. It’s more of a lakefront beach for families, less hiking. Cheddar went in the water for a bit to beat the heat, It got up to 30 degrees and we got heat alerts on our phones. That felt extra strange after the midweek frost alert.
Both days we logged more than 10k steps and enjoyed our days, talking, and hanging with the dogs.
Goal: 11 conservation areas + Luther Marsh
So far we’ve visited Rockwood, Shade’s Mills, and the Elora Gorge, and I feel like I’m getting to know the area better.
Elora Gorge Walk with Cheddar, Chase, and Miles
2. Shades’s Mills Conservation Area with Cheddar, Chase and Miles
Khalee and I have been working on a walking challenge – The Great Sniffari 2026 – and I chose for us to walk 21km over the first 10 days of May.
Often when I try to take photo of Khalee, she steps out of the way. This time she kind of photobombed my photo of this fallen tree with the roots exposed and a ‘witch broom’ tangle of branches on it. Image description: a photo of Khalee, my medium-sized dog with short, light-brown hair on most of her body and white paws, tail, and face, wearing a jaunty green bandana with cartoon bugs on it. She is looking to the right in the photo and her neck is foreshortened because of the angle so she looks a little squished. Behind her is a fallen tree with the roots exposed.
The challenge seemed like it would be fairly easy at the outset – a small extra effort on top of our usual walks – but things went a bit awry and I realized last Thursday that I was going to have to do a bit of a push to finish on time.
So on Thursday we walked 2.78km, on Friday we did 2.81, Saturday was 3km which technically brought us to the end of our challenge.* (In fact, we only needed .29km on Saturday to finish.)
I say technically because I didn’t realize the settings in the app wouldn’t carry over from my other, year-long, challenge and the Sniffari was pulling Apple Health step data.
I didn’t actually want to include steps from things like walking around the house or the grocery store but because they automatically uploaded at the end of each day, I didn’t realize they were being rolled into my total and I was surprised to find out that I was finished.
Once I figured out why I had finished a day early, I calculated my actual distances and then added extra amounts to my daily walks for the next few days to match the way I wanted things to play out.
No matter the details of the challenge, on Saturday I realized something important.
These longer walks were making me feel great.
I mean, I generally enjoy going for a walk – even when I have to drag myself out for them – but this was a different kind of enjoyment.
I was starting to feel those kind of intangible benefits I get when I exercise regularly – a looser feeling in my hips, a certain ease of movement, an overall feeling of wellbeing – after only 3 days of extra effort.
That seemed kind of quick but I wasn’t about to look a gift horse in its proverbial mouth here. Instead, I decided to keep building momentum.
So, on Sunday, we walked 4.42km and, on Monday, we walked 4.08km, and it felt purposeful, straightforward, and kind of tiring – but in a good way.
And, on top of that, all of this extra movement seems to have flipped a mental switch for me and I have found myself doing a bit more yoga, a few more strength training exercises, taking a few extra trips up the stairs, and adding mobility exercises while I am doing things around the house.
So, it seems that, like the title says, moving more makes me want to move more.
And I like it!
Of course, I know that this has happened to me before – I’ve gotten into an exercise routine, started to feel the effects, been enjoying myself, and then something has gone sideways and I lost momentum or had to change gears.
So, I have told myself to keep an eye out for when that happens and in the meantime I am developing some backup plans.
I’ll let you know how it all goes, obviously. 🙂
a photo of Khalee, my medium-sized dog with short, light-brown hair on most of her body and white paws, tail, and face, standing next to a river on a bright, sunny day. She is sort of side on and she’s facing the left side of the photo. She has a harness and leash on. She’s standing on dried grass and mud, the river next to her is filled with brownish red rocks and there are trees and more dried grass and mud on the other side of the river.
Today is Take A Walk Outdoors Day and I plan to celebrate by, you guessed it, taking a walk outdoors!
This isn’t a new thing for me, of course, I take a walk outdoors with Khalee most days, but I am making a point to get a good walk in today.
For the record, I also took a walk outdoors on Monday, even though it was just Take A Walk Outdoors Eve. It was a very drizzly day and Khalee was not a fan. She insisted on turning around to head home after just a few minutes but I’m still counting it as a walk outdoors.
Poor Khalee Pup looks so fed up with me. I’m sorry for dragging you out into the drizzle, KP! Image description: Khalee, a light-haired, medium-sized dog is standing in the middle of some snow facing towards the right. She has turned her head towards the camera. Her fur looks damp and she does not seem delighted to be outdoors, despite the mental health benefits.
Note: Are there entirely too many ‘official’ days for ordinary things? Maybe. Do I enjoy choosing to celebrate some of them all the same? Hells, yes! If it adds fun to my life and does no harm? I am IN.
As I was writing this post I did a quick search to see how many of my posts mention walking. It turns out that I have written 668 posts for Fit is a Feminist Issue and at least 192 of them mention walking. That includes posts for Making Space and Go Team so some of them may not be about my own walks but I still find it interesting that there are that many. Also, that 192 doesn’t include some posts that are about walking but that didn’t get picked up by the search function for some reason – like the poem one linked below.
Here are a few of my favourite posts about getting out for a walk:
The health benefits of being outdoors is one of those things that I “know” but I realized I had never actually looked it up before so I did and I found this article from the Canadian Psychological Association that you may want to have a look at:
This image is a link to a 2024 “Psychology Works”Fact Sheet entitled Benefits of Nature Exposure from the Canadian Psychological Association. The credits below are copied directly from the document: This fact sheet has been prepared for the Canadian Psychological Association by Yasmeen Ibrahim, Clinical Psychology Ph.D. Student, and Shannon Johnson, Ph.D., Department of Psychology and Neuroscience at Dalhousie University.
Another thing that sprang to mind while I was writing this was the Latin phrase Solvitur Ambulando which means “It is solved by walking.” I don’t speak or read Latin but I came across that phrase years ago and I love how it landed with me.
I took it literally when I first heard it – that walking around can help you figure things out – but I have since found out that it is also about solving complicated abstract problems by taking practical action. It works in all directions, really.
And in confirming the Latin spelling, I came across this delightful ‘sketchplanation’ of the literal interpretation of the phrase by Jono Hey
Image: Jono Hey, Sketchplanations Image description: this image shows three stick figures walking along a hilly field in shades of green. The first one on the left has a cloud made of dark scribbles above their head that indicates some confusion, they are walking towards the right and towards the back of the image. Then we see a later version of the same person walking from the back of the image towards us, and the cloud of confusion is a lighter colour. Finally, we see the same person closest to us on the right, and above their head is a light bulb symbolizing an idea and the light bulb is surrounded by green lines indicating a sort of brightness. Text at the top of the image reads, in Latin, Solvitur Ambulando and (the translation) it is solved by walking. This image is representing the idea that taking action, moving forward, literally or figuratively can help you to organize your thoughts and plans.
And seeing as I am pretending to be all sophisticated by sharing a Latin phrase, I’ll lean into that and share a quote (that is about walking and not about walking) from a poem that I love called [Traveler, your footprints] by Antonio Machado.
Traveler, there is no road;
you make your own path as you walk.
~Antonio Machado
Now, as good as it is to take a walk outdoors and to recommend walking outdoors, I know that that’s not always possible for everyone. and from what I understand, you can get some of the benefits of walking outdoors, of being in nature, and the like from looking at pictures of nature and, I assume, watching videos of people’s nature hikes.
So, in the spirit of focusing on things we can do instead of getting all caught up in the things we can’t do: If you are not able to get out outside today to take a walk (or to propel yourself by whatever means you usually do) then here are a few nature walking videos that I thought you might enjoy watching at home – whether or not you are walking/moving at the same time.
Have fun!
Image Description: The still image for this video shows a path leading forward through a wintery forest scene. the trees on both sides have snow on their branches and all of the undergrowth is laden with snow. There’s also snow on the path leading ahead. In the centre of the image is text reading “Winter Walk” and it is in a handwritten sort of font.
Image Description The still image shows a path through tall green trees on a spring or summer day. The path is clear and flat and has a wooden fence on both sides. Tt’s a sunny day and even though you can’t see the sky you can see the the light from the sun making all of the needles on the trees and the moss and plants in the undergrowth glow in the soft light. The trees are large and we’re mostly just seeing trunks and lower branches. There is a large tree to the left that has fallen so we’re seeing its roots and the tree trunk, which has moss on it, extending towards the left and backwards.
Image description: The still image of this video shows waves lapping on a yellow-brown beach on a sunny day with a bright blue sky. There are evergreens and other trees and some grass on the upper left far above the wet part of the beach. The beach extends forward for a long ways.
Image description: The still image for this video shows a fall scene in the woods with a path that extends into the distance with trees on either side. The path is strewn with orange leaves and some of the tress have orange leaves left on them. There are also a few evergreen trees here and there among the other trees.
Image description: The still image for this video shows a green field with hundreds of dandelion flowers growing in it. In the distance you can see farm houses, and structures for electrical lines, and a strip of blue/grey sky.
I had to include this video because this trail is about 15 minutes from my house and I thought you might enjoy seeing the rocky terrain and the ocean views on this hike. Image description: The still image for this video shows a collection of houses in a variety of colours in a part of St. John’s, NL called The Battery. The streets in this area are narrow and winding so the photo kind of looks like the houses are clustered haphazardly. There is a mix of old, weather-beaten structures and brightly-coloured newly painted houses. There is a rocky area in the foreground of the photo. This photo was taken on a sunny fall day so while the picture is bright.
The weather in Southwestern Ontario has been mercurial. One day rain and 12C, the next freezing rain, then snow, then rain. You get the idea. It’s what we call in these parts a “wintery mix”.
With the barometer fluctuating any joint I’ve injured starts a conversation with me. My right knee gets cranky when it rains. My right hip reminds me of a fall in December. Lots of biomechanical feedback. So much so I didn’t walk in the worst weather. This is very out of character for me. I’m the one who wrote Nat decides she’ll weather the weather, whatever the weather, whether she likes it or not.
I do take advantage of opportunities to walk to physiotherapy, the chiropractor and work.
My commuter bike is tucked behind construction supplies awaiting me to adjust the shifting. I’ve been getting a lift. It’s been so gross out!
I’ve enjoyed the days where there is good footing and I have my little spikes for my shoes on me at all times. They are not great on my knees when the ice gives way to solid footing.
All of that to say, overall, I’m still averaging 9,500 steps a day, even taking it “kneesy”.
So here’s to navigating the rest of the season with self compassion and some stick-to-it-ive-ness
Nat smiled at the camera in a light jacket, a grey knit toque and a mustard yellow cowl.
Today, December 14, is our first real cover-the-ground-looking-like-winter snowfall here in Boston. I have such a soft spot for snow– it’s the fact that, as a southerner, I grew up with snow as a mysterious, rare and fleeting treat. Whenever we got enough to cover the ground, make snowmen, do snow angels or (oh joy!) go sledding, it never lasted more than a day or so. So we all pulled on our improvised snow gear and raced to the nearest hill with baking pans and whatever we could scrounge, so excited for that first snowy slushy slide.
I moved to New England 42 years ago, but the first snow has never failed to entrance me. There’s not nearly enough for me to pull out my cross country skis, but I’ll take a walk around the Fresh Pond reservoir and ooh and ahh at the frosted trees.
While I’m doing that, feel free to read this post about warmer weather winter walks with y family in South Carolina. I’m headed there next weekend, and will enjoy getting outside in sneakers and a light-ish jacket with family, friends and dogs.
What are you doing to take advantage of or endure the weather where you are? I’d love to hear from you.
I was shoveling my driveway on Wednesday. It was after my morning walk with Michel, my immortal beloved, and Lucy, hellhound, when I had a slip and fall.
It was sudden. I was upright shoveling and then on the ground. I’m sure I yelled.
I landed on my right hip and shoulder. Imagine a panda bear rolling around, that was me.
I got up, dusted off my pants and headed inside. I was embarrassed and mad. There was ice from the previous day under the fresh powder. A classic formula for slipping.
It’s been a few days. I’m sore but nothing serious. My socials have photos of friends with broken arms or other tales. One involved a brain bleed. They are recovering. But. Wow. Falling is not nothing.
I’ve been working on my balance. It involves deliberately using my peripheral vision, core strength and practicing my balance in a variety of settings. It’s really helped.
But it is icy and I’m out in it, biking and walking.
A friend offered her strategies for avoiding falling. We know these things well.
The penguin shuffle, where you are slightly forward and take small steps.
Wearing grippy footwear and adding crampons (little spiked overshoes).
I occasionally break out my hiking poles.
Strength and flexibility should help me stay relatively injury free. I credit learning barrel rolls in roller derby to my good outcome.
If you go down like a rodeo clown rolling helps disperse the energy.
Here’s to staying Rollie Ollie this winter!
A penguin being very skilled at walking in slippery conditions.
Sometimes, things move slowly (including me) and it is a lot easier on my brain if I just accept that pace and keep going.
This is definitely one of those times.
November has been a good month (yay for birthdays!) but it has also been a month with lots of rain, lots of meetings, lots of things to get done – and a few inconvenient migraines thrown into the mix.*
So, with all of that said, here are the updates:
My Walking Challenge
I’m 37% of the way through my walking challenge and I have been enjoying the little bit of extra motivation to get moving and the little bit of extra incentive to walk a little further.
image description: a screen capture of the activity screen from my challenge app. The top of the screen is a spooky scene depicted in purple and green. (That line rhymes!) below that is a map of Salem, Massachusetts with the route marked out in blue and icons representing different people doing the challenge at whatever point they are on the route. Below that are my stats: I have covered 37% of the distance in 39% of the time I have allocated for this challenge. I have completed 18.07 km and I have 29.73 km to go. I have completed 22 days of the challenge and I have 34 remaining.
While I *could* set my tracker to include all of the movement I do in a day, I decided that I only wanted to count deliberate activity. So, my walks count and so did raking the leaves but bringing in the groceries doesn’t contribute to the challenge.
My 11 Things Challenge
Here are my things-in-progress:
Journal while sitting on the floor once a week – I’ve done this twice.
Practice those three tricky TKD patterns for at least 30 minutes (total) – I’ve done 10 minutes of practice.
Rake up some of the backyard leaves (I’m leaving some for the bugs!) – I spent 30 minutes and filled up two paper lawn bags with leaves so this one is done!
Do at least one 10 minute meditation per week – I’ve done this twice.
Find a way to elevate keyboard for a standing writing session – I’m working with my Brother-in-Law to make this happen. By the way, I’m writing this on his birthday (Nov 17) so Happy Birthday, Dan! 💚🎂
Not bad, hey?
(The reason I’m describing my progress as slow is because I haven’t gotten to some of the bigger items on my list. I’ll get there though.)
I’m awarding myself a gold star for my efforts so far and I’ll update you further in a couple of weeks. ⭐
PS: My sister shared this short video with me recently and I found it really helpful. It’s good to be reminded that the purpose of making a list is not necessarily to get everything on the list done. Instead, it can be about ensuring that you get more done than you would have without the list. Good perspective shift, hey?
*Is there such a thing as a convenient migraine? Of course not! But some migraines are more inconvenient than others. This month they have all happened when I could just stop and take good care of myself without too much of a scramble.
I love gardens all year long. Yes, the spring and summer are the flashiest times to visit, with all the wild colors and shapes and so many shades of green. But I really enjoy the shift to subtler color palettes– the browns and yellows, darker greens, all made different by the softer light and shadows.
A path in botanical garden called Garden in the Woods, near me. Photo by Native Plant Trust.
I’m a member of the Native Plant Trust, which gives me access not just to this botanical garden, but also to dozens of gardens all over the US. I’m planning a few free fall garden walks with friends for November.
But before that, I’ll be in Portland, Oregon at a conference. I’m headed there on Wednesday. While there, my friend Norah and I are taking a little break from the conference activity to visit Portland’s Japanese Garden. I can’t wait to see this place in its version of fall color. Here are some pics from their Fall Colors Tracker page:
Trees shifting to reds and yellowsStrolling pond garden path with oranges and greens.
Closer to home, the Mount Auburn Cemetery is putting on its own show of colors. On their “what’s in bloom” page for this week, here’s what they say:
By mid-October Mount Auburn’s landscape is awash in color. As our many deciduous trees and shrubs begin to transform their foliage into jewel-tone shades of red, orange, yellow, and purple, other plants set out their fall fruits and nuts.
Here’s a photo from Instagram from this week of Mount Auburn Cemetery:
A person walking near the stones amidst bright orange and yellow foliage. Photo by Corinne Elicona.
Readers, do you have any tips for great garden walks in the fall? Let us know.
We are a numbers-obsessed people (we humans, I mean). We always want to know:
How much do I have?
How many do I need?
Is more ever too much?
These are hard questions. Luckily, I’m not here to try to answer them. But I can tell you one thing: the number of steps recommended per day according to scientific studies is definitely NOT 10,000, but rather 7000 seems to be a sufficient number for loads of health benefits. We’ve written about this before, but a new meta-analysis came out in Lancet Public Health re-affirms this claim.
The researchers found studies meeting their criteria that showed associations between number of daily steps and the following health outcomes:
all-cause mortality
cancer incidence
cancer-related mortality
cardiovascular disease
cardiovascular disease-related mortality
type-2 diabetes
dementia
depressive symptoms
physical functions
falls
Here’s what they said:
Three key findings emerge. First, even modest daily step counts were associated with health benefits. Second, 7000 steps per day was associated with sizeable risk reductions across most outcomes, compared with the reference of 2000 steps per day. Third, even though risk continued to decrease beyond 7000 steps per day, it plateaued for some outcomes. Notably, the dose-response relationship might differ by outcomes, participant age, and device type.
So, the latest research analysis is saying that, compared with 2000 steps a day, 7000 is great for a lot of very important health outcomes. In other individual studies, an average of 4200 steps a day provides modest improvement in lowering health risks. And, I might add, activity researchers happen to agree with this blog that every step counts– small amounts of activity contribute to health and well-being in lots of ways that we appreciate.
Researchers have also tried to pin down whether speed makes a difference. Here, the new Lancet study could not make any definitive conclusions, in part because there are various ways to measure intensity and because differences could simply reflect better overall fitness and physical function.
“We actually don’t see an association once we consider the total number of steps,” says Paluch, who has also looked at this question. “So, essentially, the total number of steps, regardless of how fast you’re walking, seems to have a benefit,” she says.
So– faster or slower, harder or gentler, up or down, to or fro– all of these add up to the message (which we knew already, but science is reaffirming it) that movement is key to a number of the features of well-being and health as many of us think of it.
Oh, last thing: those 7000 steps don’t all have to be all up. Just saying.
A very steep and long stairway. You make the call. By Ozlem for Unsplash.
Unfortunately, I don’t have a lot of opportunities (or time-flexibility!) to walk to my activities on a week to week basis.*
Either my commitments are too close to get much extra exercise in or they are too far to reasonably walk without adding a lot of extra travel time. (If only regular time worked like conference time, hey?)
And yes, I suppose I could just choose to take longer walks some of the time but I can almost guarantee I will talk myself out of that process on a regular basis.
Ideally, I would have a meeting or a class a couple of times a week that was within 45 mins walking distance and I could build my schedule around it, including the walk time.
However, since the ideal situation is not naturally occurring, I have decided to create it myself…
At least once a week, I am going to go on a creativity walk!
I’m going to pick somewhere to walk to where I can read, draw, or write and I am going to shape my schedule so I have plenty of time to get there. And, since I know what my brain gets like, I am also going to create a definite plan for what to do while I’m at my destination and I am going to bring the things I need to be comfortable (a stool or a blanket and some snacks.)
This combination should help my outing feel like a treat rather than an obligation.
I’ll report back once my first creativity walk is complete!
*I don’t count my brief ‘walk to work’ each morning because it’s quite short and that stroll is not really about the exercise, it’s about shaping that part of my day.
Technically this post has nothing to do with snails, except for the fact that I have no plans to go particularly fast on these creativity walks, but I just really like snails. Image description: a yellowish-brown snail shell (with the snail inside) resting on the metal railing of a bridge next to some overhanging leaves.
