Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Little known fact, walking is the secret to happiness.
Spencer's back and we're going to walk through Amsterdam here real quick. And if you want to know more about how walking is the secret to happiness, follow along.
First of all, you gotta, you gotta do it, you gotta get out of the house.
[00:00:18] Speaker B: Exactly. But it's the great thing about it is you don't need money, you don't need anything other than a pair of shoes and to get off the sofa and walk out the door.
And it is amazing what it can do for you. Even if now you feel I can't walk more than 100 meters, do the 100 meters. Because if you start doing it on a regular basis, before you know it, that hundred meters becomes a kilometer and then it becomes 10 kilometers. And at that point you can take it as far as you want. And at least for me, the more that I move, the more that I have this feeling that my body is working, that I'm moving through the city or moving through the forest, it gives me an enormous sense of well being. It's like a really powerful feeling.
[00:01:15] Speaker A: I don't think there's ever been a walk I've regretted. It's a bit like travel.
I don't think I've ever said, man, that walk was a waste of time.
I sure, I sure should have sat home on that one.
But no, here we are because we decided to walk. We just walked through Vondelpark, should hit record earlier and here we are in Amsterdam. Anyway. Now this is a bonus, not required.
But a bonus is if you happen to have a gorgeous city like Amsterdam, it makes it a whole lot more enjoyable. But it's not every, it's not a requirement. No, not.
[00:01:48] Speaker B: And it's well documented that you don't have to be some hardcore gym goer, you don't have to be running marathons. But if you walk for even a short amount of time every day, it compounds to make your health a lot better. Like I have a friend who recently retired about two years ago and he was really in quite a bad shape health wise. And he started walking slowly, slowly and he built it up to four hours a day. So every single morning he leaves the house at about 8:30 and he comes back at lunchtime and he walks in different directions away from his house. And he lost tons of weight. He has stopped, he's now no longer needs to take blood pressure medicine. He feels a lot happier. He feels like he obviously lost weight. So he feels good about himself. And it's from, only from walking.
[00:02:47] Speaker A: He walks Alone.
[00:02:48] Speaker B: He walks alone four hours every day. He's done it for two years. He didn't start with four hours, obviously he started with much less. But for me he is an amazing example of you don't need money, you don't need expensive, expensive things. You need some time, you need to dedicate time to it. Yeah, but you know I know that I spend multiple hours a day on a screen.
[00:03:14] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:03:14] Speaker B: I can decide to take an hour out of that time.
I can take an hour out of my screen time and I can use it to go for an hour's walk.
[00:03:23] Speaker A: Well and also if you.
I often talk about creating and consuming and. Well actually we are creating, creating right now. You could chalk that one up. But if you're, if you're like me and you want to do afternoon consuming, you can combine a walk with listening to a podcast.
And there's walking. It's a different kind of walking, but it's still walking. All walking doesn't need to be crystal clear perfection. And you're listen and you're, you're listening to the chirp of the birds or whatever maybe unrealistic situation, but it can also be turned into your educational hour.
Now we're talking habit stacking.
[00:04:06] Speaker B: Or you can phone your mum like I do. Yeah, I use walking to talk sometimes. Yeah, I've done many one hour walks where I know that if I ring my mum it will take me an hour.
So I use it to go for a walk.
[00:04:17] Speaker A: Yeah, I wish I could still do that. I did that all the time and I don't regret it ever. Yeah, there you have it. Pretty simple really. Just walking, just putting on the shoes. Did I ever tell you this, Spencer? I had one of my very first published articles ever. It was for Writers Digest magazine which is a big thing in that industry and used to be even a bigger thing.
And it was called Just put on the Shoes.
And I had, I, I sort of combined how writing, the struggles of writing is like the struggles of jogging or running or even walking.
And the title was Just put on the Shoes.
Sort of like just get the pen out, just write a few words. So just put on the shoes, get out the door and walk even the tiniest bit. And then we're also back to consistency and habits. How often can you do it? What can you promise to yourself? And don't over stretch, don't say I'm going to run a marathon by Saturday.
[00:05:19] Speaker B: I know somebody that I used to work with that had a pretty bad back injury and he said that he wants to go back to running, and they kind of laughed at him. And he started with. When he went to bed, he used to put his running shoes by the bed, and in the morning, his only task was to try and put them on.
And then it was, can he.
Can he walk down the stairs? And then it's, can he walk and open the front door and walk into the street? And then can he get to the end of the street? But, yeah, he started. And now he's running every day, seven miles.
But he started literally with what felt like an impossible task of putting his shoes on himself.
So, yeah, put the. Put the shoes on. That's where it starts.
[00:06:08] Speaker A: All right, there you have it.
That's it. That's the hardest bit, and hopefully someday the easiest bit. And then go out. Enjoy. Get off the couch. Turn off the Netflix. No offense. Netflix. I love Netflix.
Sponsor of our show.
Again.
[00:06:25] Speaker B: Sponsoring again.
[00:06:26] Speaker A: They love us.
It's just them and the running shoes companies. Just keep.
[00:06:31] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, Nike's on the phone.
[00:06:33] Speaker A: Gotta go, gotta go, gotta go. Okay, go, Enjoy. Go outside. Get off the couch.
