Sometimes it's good to be reminded that walking is more than just another check mark on a daily

to-do list. Hi, I'm Dave. Welcome to Walking is Fitness, a daily 10-minute podcast designed to provide

you with a little added motivation to get out, take the walk, and more importantly, to keep going, to build a

consistent, life-changing habit. Today's 10-minute walk starts right after this.

Happy New Year. It is a frosty start to 2026 here in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

Temperature hovering right around freezing and there is abundant frost, including frost on the windshield and windows of our vehicle.

And it's a good thing it's going to be sunny today because if we need to use the car,

that sunshine will act as our ice scraper.

We actually don't have an ice scraper here in Myrtle Beach.

Not that frosty mornings are rare, but rare do we have to leave early before the frost melts and on those occasions when that

happens I pull a credit card out of my wallet and it becomes it becomes the ice scraper sad to say

walking is exercise walking is powerful walking will change life. Those are messages that you will hear

consistently if you listen to this podcast long enough. But there are what I would call the joys of

walking. If you are just getting started and 2026 is the year you want to make walking a regular, consistent habit, or if you've been walking for ever, you have a well-established habit, regardless of where you are on the on the spectrum of this walking habit i think it's good to be

reminded that walking really is more than simply a box to be checked on a daily to-do list there are

joys associated with walking and i want to talk about real briefly eight

joys that I experience almost every day when I get out and take the walk. Joy number one. This walk helps me to

manage anxiety, stress, if I'm feeling really any kind of negative emotion,

anger, frustration, grief, walking is a way to feel better. This movement actually lowers

cortisol, which is the body's stress hormone. It can release

endorphin, the body's feel-good chemicals. Bottom line, when I get out and take the walk,

I feel better. Joy number two, walking is a great way to solve problems. There's that Latin phrase, which I love,

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