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Summary
On episode 429 of 40+ Fitness, Coach Allan sits down with Joyce Shulman, co-founder and CEO of Macaroni Kid and 99 Walks, who strongly believes that walking is the key to improving your lifestyle.
Joyce argues walking is one of the most underused tools we have, and that its power goes well beyond the physical: it improves mind, mood, and body in profound ways.
The conversation covers why we struggle to make time for self-care, how Joyce’s book Walk Your Way to Better is structured around 99 short, mindset-focused walks, and how her organization, 99 Walks, is building community to fight loneliness while getting a million women moving.
Links
- https://99walks.fit
Key Takeaways
- Walking works on your mind, mood, and body, not just fitness. Research shows walking combats depression, boosts mood immediately, and improves decision-making and energy.
- A regular walking practice literally makes your brain bigger. Stanford research cited by Joyce shows a walk can raise creative output by up to 60 percent.
- Historical figures used walking as a thinking tool. Aristotle, Socrates, Benjamin Franklin, and Darwin were all committed walkers who used their walks to process and generate ideas.
- Walking delivers major physical health payoffs. A regular practice reduces the risk of dementia, diabetes, osteoporosis, and several cancers, and one study found it can add up to seven years to your life.
- Walking helps clear both emotional and physical toxins. The lymphatic system has no pump of its own, so it depends on muscle movement like walking to flush waste out of the body, meaning sitting still lets toxins build up.
- Self-care is not selfish, it’s necessary. Joyce argues the paradox is that you can’t take the best care of the people you love if you don’t first take care of yourself.
- The real fix is making time, not finding time. Joyce built a walking habit by dropping her daughter at gymnastics and walking for 30 minutes instead of watching the whole class, turning found minutes into a repeatable habit twice a week.
- Loneliness is a quiet, widespread crisis. Proprietary and national research both put loneliness rates for women and men near 70 percent, which is why 99 Walks focuses on building community, not just step counts.
- Joyce’s three strategies to get and stay well: invest in yourself by making your wellness a priority, accept that everything worthwhile (fitness, happiness) takes ongoing consistent work, and surround yourself with like-minded people, since you take on the habits of those around you.
“You deserve your dreams.”
Joyce Shulman