Believe it or not, there are people that still walk to work every day, even when they have a car or easy access to subways, buses, and transportation services like Uber and Lyft. But why would anyone
walk when they could ride, right?
Morning routines are hectic enough, what with rushing around to get ready, making sure you have everything youâll need for the day, and hitting the snooze button over and over again, thanks to another night of crappy sleep.
And yet here we are, suggesting that you take a bit longer to get to work by walking there, instead of saving it by riding into the office. Youâre probably wondering why in the heck we would do that. Itâs simple â walking to work will actually save you
more time in the long run.
Walking Improves Sleep and Boosts Energy
Health care professionals and sleep experts have conducted multiple studies that have found spending more time during the day on your feet helps to counteract our mostly sedentary lifestyles by increasing blood flow and oxygenation to the muscles.
Itâs been proven that even just an extra hour of slow-paced walking each day can help us to get more of the high-quality sleep that enables us to ditch our addiction to the snooze button, boost our energy level throughout the day, and give us an overall sense of well-being and satisfaction with our lives.
These studies have shown that spending some of our days beating the pavement can have a seriously beneficial impact on almost every aspect of our lives â it can even help us to live longer! And getting our walking time in during the hours just before and just after work helps us to cash in on all the benefits that come with increased physical activity without causing us to actually lose out on sleep thanks to exercising too close to bedtime.
Walking Helps Your Wallet and the Planet
If having better overall health and life quality isnât enough to get you walking to work than the extra money that you have each month thanks to not buying gas or paying for rides just might do it!
Most people donât even notice the seemingly small amounts of cash that theyâre losing due to transportation costs, but when you add them up at the end of the month, youâll find that you could have added a nice little chunk of change to your savings account if youâd been walking to work each day.
And did you know that vehicle emissions are responsible for up to 40% of the release of harmful greenhouse gas into the atmosphere? When people choose to walk to work, theyâre contributing to the amount of clean, fresh air that we all breathe each and every day, not to mention the air that their children and grandchildren will be breathing in generations to come.
What is Walk to Work Day?
If youâve been looking for an excuse to break the cycle of your costly and unhealthy habit of commuting to work via vehicle, look no further than the
celebration of Walk to Work Day on April 7
th.
In 2004, the idea of a national holiday promoting the benefits of walking to work was first mentioned in
Prevention magazine, and it was quickly adopted by the US Department of Health and Human services. In the years that followed, Walk to Work Day became recognized around the country, and itâs still celebrated (no matter how unofficially) by many people today.
Get Moving for Better Days and Nights
Daily walks to and from work can work many health-related miracles in our otherwise sedentary lifestyles, from giving us the extra time on the way into the office to wake up and clear our heads in preparation for the day, to getting our hearts pumping and blood flowing to increase our energy, and helping us to fall asleep faster in the evenings and waking up feeling more refreshed in the mornings.
And as an added bonus, walking into work gives us the time to enjoy the things that we would normally miss while traveling in a car, train, or bus â enjoying the feeling of the wind and sun on our skin, the cheerful greetings of birds and other wildlife, and the chance to interact with the people around us.
So this April 7
th, why not celebrate National Walk to Work Day by setting down the car keys, throwing on your walking shoes, and getting yourself ready to feel more alive and well-rested than you have in a long time? Your body, wallet, and the planet will thank you!
