10 Not-So-Healthy Benefits of Walking

GypsyNesters!

Live longer, feel better and perhaps even keep your original knees and hips… blah, blah, blah. We’ve all heard the healthy reasons we should get off our rumps and out in the world.

Pretty good reasons to participate in an activity that requires very little equipment – basically clothes and shoes. Most of us have those lying around the house somewhere, don’t we?

The thing to take into consideration is that different types of shoes serve for different purposes. Websites such as *https://shoeadviser.com/* can quickly let you assess your needs and match the best walking pair of shoes to your lifestyle. Since most of our day consists of walking, it’s important to be cozy when doing so

Or we could get more into it with some of the best walking shoes around.

In case your joints aren’t that important to you, here are some not-so-healthy rewards that might inspire you to take that first step.

The GypsyNesters are glad to share some of the reasons that walking is such a substantial part our lives (in the ever popular Top Ten List form):

10) Finding money. We figure there’s a lot of it just laying around out there. Millions, actually.

Think about it, if you added up all of the stray dough just laying around it boggles the mind.

Over 30 million dollars if each American has lost just one dime. We just want our fair share. Seriously, it’s amazing how good you get at it.

Hint: In the mornings, walk by places that people have enjoyed a drink or three the night before. Veronica found a five dollar bill in a parking lot one morning. She was ecstatic. A few steps later she found a twenty. True story. more on this…


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Bang-up people watching. We love to be afoot, noticing everything, being low to the ground.

When we’re in a new place, watching the people around us is a great way to learn about the area. And we’ve made quite a few friends along the way… meet more great people with us…

Check out some of the walk-centric places we’ve visited!

Veronica explores the world's smallest post office in the Florida Everglades

8) Great company. It’s amazing how much we have to say to each other when we’re not competing with the TV, phone or internet. We really have some wonderful discussions.

Though TV, phone and internet are portable nowadays, we find it refreshing not to carry them along. Terribly old school, eh?

Veronica discovers the world’s smallest post office!

7) Weird shop owners. Both weird shop owners and weird shop owners. (BTW, weird=good in our book!)

New Orleans is at the top of our list, with many weird shops owned by weird owners, but we have stories from just about everywhere we’ve been.

Saunter into these strange places and create some stories of your own. more weird shops…

World's largest ball of paint!

6) Cheesy tourist diversions. We’re real suckers for things like the world’s largest ball of twine and the world’s largest ball of paint (yes, they both exist and yes, we’ve seen them). We’ve also visited THE gigantic bologna in Bologna.

We’re always shocked at how we can round a corner and BAM!–there’s something truly colorful or bizarre to take in. Sometimes it’s the Statue of Liberty, and other times it’s a huge collection of ceramic duck salt & pepper shakers. What a wonderful world. check out more cheesy tourist diversions…

Check out some of the walk-centric places we’ve visited!

5) The Appy Crawl. We take making meals out of appetizers very seriously. Having them at multiple restaurants is even better.

For one thing, it forces us to walk off some of the food between stops, for another, we get to try several different places without destroying our credit rating. We’ve dubbed this bopping from eatery to eatery the “Appy Crawl.” see all of our appy crawl experiences…

David high fives the Vidalia Onion mascot
David high fives the Vidalia Onion Mascot in Georgia.

4) Problem solving. Not only do we have each other’s (somewhat) undivided attention, it’s a lot harder to yell or freak out in public. It’s a good time to really hash things out.

We started this practice when we had kids in the house and we now have a really good groove with our walking and talking.

If we are having issues, walking takes us physically away from the immediate problem and helps us put things in perspective.


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Street performers. In our opinion, there’s nothing better a street performance. And, as with the case of K.C. here, we learn a bit of history too!

Musicians, balloon animal creators, kite flyers, comedians, acrobats…you name it, we’ll enjoy it. more street perfomers we’ve met…
Amazingly delicious street food in China

2) Street food. Anything from pasties from the U.P., sausages in Vienna, to donair and poutine in Canada or this unexpected deliciousness in China, street food is part of travel and the GypsyNesting experience.

Whether it’s dogs (corn or otherwise), bags of roasted nuts, anything on a stick or wrapped in flat bread or deep fried balls of mystery… we’ve tried it all and haven’t barfed yet! more of our street food experiences…

1) IT’S GOOD FOR YOU!!! (Gotcha!)

So — go ahead — break out those clothes and shoes, you never know what you’ll find out there! Check out some of the walk-centric places we’ve visited!

David & Veronica, GypsyNester.com

YOUR TURN: Have you another great walking idea? Did we motivate you to get up and go?

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34 thoughts on “10 Not-So-Healthy Benefits of Walking”

  1. Lol I remember seeing the Bunghole – Salem right?! I love walking bc you see so much more than you do in a car or even on a bike. I haven’t found any money though!

  2. This is a great post! Definitely awesome people watching and I like walking because you just stumble across cool things you might not otherwise have.

  3. Funny that you mention finding money laying around. I have a habit of keeping any eye open for dropped coins, too. Found a five dollar bill once. 🙂 I actually love to walk for lots of reasons, but mostly because it just feels good!

  4. I just love walking! It is the best way to enjoy a new culture and discover things that you would normally not notice from the seat of a car or the back of a scooter. For me, I love wandering around festivals in Taiwan, particularly flower festivals and the Taiwan Lantern Festival! You get to experience everything up, close, and personal, and feel the overall energy of the crowd! BTW, great blog post! Very entertaining and interactive!!

  5. Oh yes, hilarious stuff. Y’all two are great, really wish we’d had more time at TBEX to chat. Here’s to crossing paths again in 2014…cheers! 🙂

  6. Bars are definitely good spots to find money, I once found a bag of money outside of a dive bar in my neighborhood when I was a teen.. sadly that bag was mostly empty but it did have $15 in it!

    Walking is good for the soul, I need to get out & walk more.

  7. Number 10 is definitely true! Although it was a short walk from my car to the house I managed to find a $100 bill sitting neatly on top of a drain after some rain. Needless to say I went for a longer walk up and down the street to see if I could chance luck with a little more!

  8. You’re right, we walk everywhere simply because in that way we can explore more and we are more likely to discover something that we wouldn’t be able to spot from a bus for instance. I’ve never thought of the possibility of finding some cash though, I’m not so lucky usually.

  9. Ever since we emptied the nest and moved to an apartment in Center City Philadelphia, we found that we could more or less leave the car and walk everywhere. The one of us who doesn’t work at home (I.e. not moi), gets 4 miles of walking in on his daily commute. Like one of your other commenters, I get more walking in when visiting new cities. I much prefer it to driving.

  10. Well, I gotta say that finding money is the funniest. I always say you don’t know a place until you’ve walked it. I love to walk on vacation for that reason!

  11. Enjoyed your list and agree wholeheartedly. Gave up the health club membership when I had 3 kids in college and discovered the joy of walking every day. My dogs adore me for it and I’m in better health also.

  12. Ha, I love this! We tend to walk a ton when we travel (it’s a great way to see a city), but we’re not so good about it when we’re staying in one place. Now that you mention it, though, we DO have a lot of deep conversations while we’re wandering… I should keep that in mind for the future!

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