twenty summers ago, Nancy Duguay
stood at the side of a soccer pitch in
Campbellton, New Brunswick, watch-
ing her 11-year-old son sprint back and
forth, and wished 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 anotherparent that she would be back in time
to pick up her son and then set off
for the mountain. “In just my regular
sneakers, 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- The ritual has given her a lot more,
as well: stress relief, mental-health
management, community.
“There’s a psychological and physic al
need to do it now,” she says. “I want to
keep healthy and keep moving.”
IT’S GOOD FOR YOUR BODY
A growing body of research confirms
what Duguay discovered: walking con-
fers enormous health benefits. Accord-
ing to a report from the Canadian
Academy of Sport and Exercise Medi-
cine, walking for 150 minutes a week
can reduce the risk of most major
chronic diseases by 25 to 50 per cent.
In fact, light to moderate exercise has
been found to be more effective than
medication during rehabilitation afterT
reader’s digest
50 april 2020