Health Life

The Best Investment I Made During The Pandemic That Still Pays Dividends

How prioritizing my health turned into a long-term investment.

by Eric Chung

Updated January 19, 2024

People walking in the snow outside of a streetcar in downtown Toronto — Photo by Andre Furtado

Some days, I think back to my pre-COVID daily morning routine.

🕒 7:15 AM → Snooze my alarm

🕒 7:30 AM → Wake up and get ready

🕒 7:45 AM → Drive to the train station

🕒 7:59 AM → Find a parking spot before the train comes in 5 minutes

🕒 8:04 AM → Board the train to downtown

🕒 8:58 AM → Arrive downtown

🕒 9:00 AM → Rush to the office

🕒 9:30 AM → Arrive at work, sweating and exhausted

Sounds like fun, right?

Commuting is 100X worse in the winter

Every day around 8:58 AM, I would arrive at the busy Union Station.

It felt like being in a stereotypical movie scene, surrounded by a sea of workers who had left the comfort of their homes and reluctantly made the journey to their respective workplaces.

In the winter months (which take up almost half the year in Toronto), the snowy sidewalks and slushy streets added a layer of challenge to the daily trek.

As a new grad, I often thought about how people have done this commute throughout most of their careers and wondered if I would have to do the same for the next 40 years.

A sudden shift in my routine

Needless to say, commuting was a daily (first-world) struggle, so it was a huge relief when the world shifted towards remote work during the pandemic.

Overnight, my morning routine was reduced to:

🕒 9:25 AM → Wake up and get ready

🕒 9:30 AM → Arrive at work (which was now the desk in my bedroom)

The time that I saved was immense, but surprisingly, some days I found myself feeling more tired than before.

As grateful as I was to be able to work from home, part of me actually missed the commute.

Wait, scratch that.

I missed those 30-minute walks between the train station and the office.

I missed getting my heart pumping and jamming out to music to start my day.

I definitely did not miss the chaos of commuting over 90 minutes to work every day.

Change is never easy

After work, I used to hit up the gym right across the street.

Convenient, right? Getting in a workout before repeating the commute in reverse really helped me stay sane.

Fast forward to the pandemic era, curling a bag full of textbooks in my bedroom just didn’t hit the same, so eventually I stopped exercising.

I also struggled with “leaving work” as I would routinely continue working on my laptop past 5 PM, blurring the boundaries between work and life.

My work-life balance was that my work had become my life.

I was depressed. I was lonely.

Most of all, I felt like a slob.

That leads me to the investment part.

The best investments aren’t financial

You might have already guessed it. During the pandemic, I invested in walking.

Nothing crazy, just walking.

Going for walks on days that I don’t lift weights has been an incredible benefit to my life.

I’ve felt an improvement in my mood.

I’ve had more time to reflect on my current life:

How I’ve been feeling lately
Areas that I want to improve upon
Obstacles that I want to overcome
Goals that I want to achieve
Where I want to be in the future

Think of it as a little self-therapy.

Some days, it’s the only time I leave my apartment.

Nothing beats getting away from screens and breathing in that fresh air (with a hint of pollution coming from the highway).

Not to mention, it’s been a great way to take advantage of the nature around me.

I may live in a dense, urban area, but I’ve found a trail that runs through a forest so quiet that I feel like I’ve been transported out of the city.

The best part about walking (aside from it being free, of course) is that there are a hundred different paths you can take. Every walk can be different.

And when I’m focused deeply on my thoughts or on a podcast, I don’t really care which way I go. I’ll just walk wherever the path takes me.