Walking Before the Day Begins

I recently bought a book called Protocols by Andrew Huberman.

I have not finished it. I have only read the first part of the chapter on exercise.

But one simple idea already stayed with me.

Walk as much as possible each day.

Before

I walked before. Just not every day.

Two or three times a week. About thirty minutes. Usually in the afternoon.

Whenever I had time.

Which, if I am honest, meant whenever work allowed it.

Since reading that part of the book, my wife and I decided to try something different.

For the past few weeks, we have walked every morning. From 5am to 6am. About five kilometers.

Before the day starts.
Before preparing breakfast.
Before packing school lunches for our daughters.
Before everything else.

It is a small change. One hour, earlier in the day.

But the hour is the same every day now.

I expected walking to be good for the body.

I did not expect how much it would change the rest of the day.

Moving in the morning has improved our energy. And our mood. Not just during the walk, but for the hours after it.

And there was another surprise.

During the walks, we talk.

Not quick questions in the middle of a busy morning. Real conversations. One hour, side by side, with time to listen to each other.

I did not expect a morning walk to be good for our relationship.

But it is.

When I walked in the afternoon, the walk had to compete with everything else.

A message to reply to.
A task to finish.
A reason to do it tomorrow instead.

In the morning, nothing has started yet. There is nothing to compete with.

So it happens.

Earlier this year, I wrote about the weeks that reminded me to slow down. About how we only notice health when it starts to disappear.

This is one small step in the other direction.

I am not sharing this as advice. I am not an expert. It is just what we are trying, and what we have noticed so far.

There is much more in the book, and I will keep reading.

But for now, this is enough.

Walk.
Every day.
Before the day begins.