THE WALKING CURE

How a daily stroll improves your mental health, boosts your social life and cuts your risk of chronic disease

- Christina Frangou

TWENTY SUMMERS AGO, Nancy Duguay stood at the side of a football pitch watching her 11-year-old son sprint back and forth, and wished that she had a cigarette.

Duguay, then 39 and a cardiac rehab nurse, was trying to quit after smoking for more than half her life. She’d sneaked her first cigarettes from her parents’ packs as a teen and hadn’t stopped since. With her hands empty as she waited for her son’s practice to end, the urge for a puff gnawed at her.

Behind the field, the heavily forested Sugarloaf Mountain stood guard. As a kid, Duguay and her friends regularly hiked the mountain and picnicked on its peak.

Then an idea struck her: walking instead of smoking. She told another parent that she would be back in time to pick up her son and then set off for the mountain. “In just my regular trainers, a pair of shorts and a T-shirt,” she remembers.

Duguay’s heart pounded as she climbed, and she stopped often to rest. When she arrived at the top, she took in the view that sweeps over the city and across the river to the rolling hills of the Gaspé Peninsula.

“I just felt so good,” says Duguay. “My natural endorphins kicked in, and the craving was gone.”

Almost every day since, she has gone for a walk—and the habit has changed her life. Not only did she quit smoking, but her resting heart rate dropped from 80 beats per minute to 60. The ritual has given her a lot more, as well: stress relief, mental-health management, community.

“There’s a psychological and physical need to do it now,” she says. “I want to keep healthy and I want to keep moving.”