Having spent the last several days on my "one new thing a month" crusade, I've found a number of unexpected side-effects from trying something new. I've chosen to spend this month going for a walk every day for 30 minutes (or more) and besides the planned effects of getting myself up on my feet and getting my blood circulating for 30 minutes, I've found that it makes an excellent activity to destress at the end of the day.

Like many people, I work long hours every day (or most of them) in a desk job. I have the ability to turn my desk into a standing desk for periods of the day (which I do) but I'm still mostly sedentary. I'm not sure if you've read the latest news articles or studies, but more and more of them are finding that this will greatly shorten our collective average lifespan, particularly when combined with obesity. This is compounded for me because most of my hobbies also involve long hours sitting at a desk.

So, today I was finishing off another long day at work, even longer than usual, seeing me get home around 11pm. My plan as I trudged home was to turn something on TV and go to bed, never mind that I have some deadlines coming up a couple of my side-projects. Instead, realizing that I hadn't found time for a walk yet today, I kept my promise to myself and headed out the door. After 30 minutes of walking through my perfectly serene neighbourhood at night, I returned back to my house and, will you know it, I've found the energy to keep working for a couple of hours. So that's what I'm going to do.

I didn't anticipate getting this late-night burst of energy just from going for a brief walk before bed but, there it was, and here I am.

Have a good night all.