Last Updated on 20 May 2024 by Colette
This post features product gifted for review
I hated walking as a kid – I found it boring and would always much prefer to take my roller skates or ride my bike when Mum was walking the dog. I think this was probably in part because we just walked the same routes day in day out – round the aerodrome in the village or “down the lane” – these are routes I’d be so grateful for now living in a built up suburb of Manchester but as a kid I just found them boring.
I’ve said before that I’m not a runner. I never have been and I never will be. The idea of investing in a pair of running shoes and signing up for the adidas Manchester Marathon is never going to cross my mind – walking is definitely more my vibe so I thought I’d share with you five reasons that I love walking.
It doesn’t require huge investment
You don’t need any special kit to get started with walking – you already own a pair of shoes and a coat so just stick them on and go. Over time, you’ll probably find you do want a decent pair of walking shoes, something supportive and waterproof (worrying about your white trainers getting dirty or having sore feet from trying to walk any sort of distance in wellies will soon put you off walking!) and a good waterproof coat is important too if you want to be anything other than a fair weather walker but neither of these things need to be really expensive and they are both things you’ll get a lot of use out of (unlike my paddleboard which hasn’t seen the light of day in about 18 months due to lack of time / poor weather conditions!)
There’s no judgement
You know when you’re thinking about joining the gym or a new club but then you get put off because you worry that you won’t know what to do or that people might judge you – your body, your skills (or lack thereof) and so then you just don’t end up going? You just don’t get that with walking. You put your shoes on, step outside the front door and off you go. Nobody is looking at you thinking “Ooh who does she think she is going for a walk!”
Admittedly if you try to climb Snowdon with no experience or planning, or you set off to walk hike across the moors on a rainy day in white converse or Uggs then yes you probably are going to get judged (and I’ll admit I might even be the one doing it!) but straight out walking, nobody cares or will even notice!
There’s always somewhere new to explore
As I said at the start, I think one of the reasons I hated walking as a child was that I just found it really boring – and during lockdown when I was limited to my local area, I found walking really boring then too. For me, walking is as much about an adventure as it is time in the outdoors and exercise. Luckily we’ve managed to pass this attitude on to the kids too and whilst they’d moan if I told them we were going for a walk round our local area, they are quite happy to pack a bag with a drink, some snacks and a sit mat and get into the car to go somewhere different – Dave and I enjoy hunting out a new reservoir to walk around, heading to the beach or driving into the Peak District for a change.
You can go at your own pace
With walking, you are totally in control of how often you do it, where you do it, when you do it and how quickly you do it. You’re not letting a team down if you’re feeling a bit lethargic or just want to dawdle, breathe in the fresh air and take pictures (though it drives Dave mad when I do this!), you’re not getting in anyone’s way or worrying about whether you’ve worked hard enough, swum far enough, played for long enough to justify the cost of your session or membership. Some days I really enjoy a brisk walk (usually if it’s quite cold!) and other days I prefer to take my own sweet time and that’s fine!
It’s something we can do as a family or I can do it on my own
I’ve never been into team sports – neither watching them nor participating and I never found my “thing” at school when it comes to exercise, I just never really found something I enjoyed doing. I had a phase in my mid twenties where I went to the gym regularly and loved it – Kirst and I went most days after work together- we worked hard but we had a really good laugh too. Once I’d moved from Leeds and didn’t have Kirsty there to make the gym more interesting, I just couldn’t be bothered to go.
When it comes to walking I don’t mind going out on my own sometimes – either sticking my headphones in and listening to a podcast, or just enjoying the sounds of the countryside (Dave thinks its funny that I won’t listen to a podcast when I’m walking Poppy as I think it’s rude!). But mostly we walk as a family – I love the conversations we have when we’re walking together, I love that walking offers us screen free quality time as a family or as a couple (we sometimes will take a day off during the week together to go for a proper walk and have lunch out or, as the kids are getting older, we’ll occasionally just leave them at home now and take Poppy for a walk just the two of us.)
Have a read of these posts next:
Our favourite family friendly dog walks around Manchester
Tips for winter walks with kids
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