Back in 2021, there was a day that I had to lean on my two boys just to walk down the street. I remember because I came across a friend that asked me: ‘what happened? ‘
My body hurt constantly. My back pain was relentless. I was out of shape, carrying extra weight, and I couldn’t even stand up straight. But it wasn’t just physical pain. Life had hit me from every direction at once: a car accident, menopause, heartbreak, divorce, selling my house — stress upon stress. It felt like everything familiar had been stripped away.
At one point, I truly believed my healthy life was over.
What I didn’t know then was that recovery would begin with something incredibly small: a walk.
At first, I could only manage part of the boardwalk. But the beach had a way of calling me forward. The sound of the waves, the open sky, the steady rhythm of putting one foot in front of the other — it gave me something I hadn’t felt in a long time: hope.
So I kept walking, with a friend. I asked her to wait for me at the coffee shop near her house every Sunday. And she did. For months. She still does. It’s been five years.
Eventually, I made a promise to myself to walk every Sunday. Then I noticed something surprising: I felt a little better. My body still hurt, but I was stronger. My mind was clearer. Less dark. I started thinking, “What if I walked twice a week? Maybe even three times?”
Slowly, walking stopped feeling like climbing Everest and started feeling like energy I needed to spend.
But it took four years for the biggest realization to hit me: I needed to walk every day.
Not perfectly. Not competitively. Just consistently.
And then came the goal that once would have sounded impossible: 10K a day. To some people, it may not sound extraordinary, but to me it represented absolute freedom. If I could do that, I could rebuild myself.
Today, I’m in week fifteen of a new challenge: not ten kilometers a day, but seventy kilometers a week. I realized not all days are equal, but I can compensate across the week. I went from 30–40 km a week to 70 km through pure decision and will. Sometimes it’s not easy, but I know that if I keep going, it will become easier at some point.
Why 10K? Because it worked for me. There’s no science here — just finding what works. If you feel like your body has left you, walking can be a powerful way to reclaim it. Decide on a weekly number and start.
And somewhere along the way, walking stopped being exercise.
It became social connection. It became coffee hopping. Even traveling alone became possible because of the 10K walking mindset. It became proof that healing is possible, even after life knocks you flat. Most importantly, it gave me my mobility back.
I can’t imagine my life without my walks now. They remind me every single day that recovery doesn’t happen all at once. It happens step by step, breath by breath, 10K steps at a time.
And sometimes, the smallest decision — to simply keep walking — can change your life completely.
You can follow my efforts here
https://www.instagram.com/did_you_walk_today_/
