Why you should walk 10,000 steps a day
April 26, 2023
There is a crisis in America: the vast majority of individuals are considered unhealthy, caused in large part by sedentary lifestyles and lack of movement. This problem has only worsened in recent years due to an increase of individuals working from home.
This crisis is causing billions of dollars in lost worker productivity, millions of dollars in increased medical care costs, and billions of dollars in expenditures in pharmaceuticals. In addition, it is taking a drastic toll on the mental wellbeing of millions.
This crisis is not just affecting the middle aged and older members of society, but is also a prevalent issue amongst the youth, which is especially terrifying because the habits formed in youth tend to last a lifetime. Therefore, the outlook for millions of Americans will continue to worsen.
The state of inactiveness in America’s youth can be seen in the alarming statistic that 77% of America’s youth cannot meet the minimal physical requirements for military service.
Additionally this crisis has taken a toll on mental health. Currently 17% of Americans aged 12-17 suffer from depression, and these rates are steadily rising. According to The National Institute of Health inactivity is a common cause of depression and mood swings.
As grim as all of this seems, there is a simple solution to reverse these negative trends, returning to what humans were designed to do: walking.
This solution doesn’t require a gym membership, a personal trainer, or equipment.
Walking 10,000 steps a day has been proven to decrease one’s risk of developing dementia by 50%, as well as reduce the likelihood of developing 13 different types of cancers.
Walking 10,000 steps a day also boosts mood, improves sleep, clears the mind, decreases depression and anxiety, and reduces the risk of heart attack.
Walking 10,000 steps daily results in an average weight loss of one pound per week.
There is no downside to walking. In the time it would take to watch one to two episodes of a show a person could have completed 10,000 steps (five miles) at a leisurely pace.
Habits predict the future, so challenge yourself to create the habits that will lead to a long, active life free of disease and depression.
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Jason Kowalski • Apr 26, 2023 at 1:35 pm
It’s better to walk to one’s needs (job, store, home, etc) than to feel that one is walking just for the sake of fulfilling a quota.
Cycling is another great form of active transportation that is practical for suburban environments.
However, it’s a problem that we think of this as something to do for fitness instead of a perfectly normal way to get from place to place.
America has redesigned its environments to prioritise the car and the lawn at the detriment of everything else. Many houses are over an hour’s walk from the nearest grocery store, and we all have neighbors who commute one to two hours on the interstate each way. In many suburbs, walking without a dog is the kind of thing that gets you harassed by cops: nobody who could drive would walk in this automotive wasteland, so you must be so poor or such a criminal that you deserve to be beaten and killed.
We need to fix America, and it starts with our hometowns. Stop prioritising regional drivers over local families. Add more bike paths. Slow down the residential streets. Block cars out of a length or two of downtown street, and let people walk in the street like they did in the old days. Reroute the expressway around the city. Put a bus line in Lake Forest – just one PACE line would be a massive improvement.