36. Building a Daily Outdoor Habit with Amy Bushatz

In episode 36 of the Outdoor Minimalist podcast, we discuss how you can start building outdoor time into your daily life and how spending more time outdoors could be good for you and the planet. To help me do that, I had the pleasure of hosting Amy Bushatz.

Amy Bushatz is the host of the Humans Outside podcast, a project inspired by her ongoing personal experiment to test what happens if you spend a certain amount of time outside every single day. With more than 1,600 days of that habit logged and counting,

Amy shares her experiences and connects listeners with inspiring outdoor-minded guests from her home in Palmer, Alaska. Amy and her husband Luke are joined on their outdoor adventures by their two sons and two dogs.

Humans Outside

Website: https://humansoutside.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/humansoutside/

Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/humans-outside/id1492759297

YouTube: @Humansoutside  

Challenge: https://humansoutside.com/challenge/

This transcript was edited to remove some filler words and phrases and is not verbatim according to what is spoken in the audio recording.

Meg: Thank you for joining me today, Amy. I'm really glad that you're here, and I know you'll have a lot of value to share with the audience. But before we get to that, can you talk a little more about your involvement in the outdoor industry and how outdoor recreation fits into your life today?

Amy: Sure! Well, first of all, thank you so much for having me. I love coming on podcasts to talk about this stuff, so I really appreciate the opportunity.

My involvement in the outdoor industry—and the outdoors in general—really started with me just wanting to go outside. At the time, I had been married to my husband for, gosh, about eight years, and we were going through some challenges in our marriage. These challenges stemmed from his military service. He had been in the Army and had sustained some injuries overseas—PTSD, a traumatic brain injury—the sorts of things we all hear about.

I started to notice that he seemed like a much more relaxed person when he spent time outside. But at that point, I was not an outdoorsy person. I was like, "I see there’s no flushing toilet? I’ll be in the house, thank you very much." It just wasn’t my thing. But seeing how being outside made him a different person, I really wanted to be with him during those moments.

So, I thought, “Okay, what we’re going to do is learn to go outside together as a family.”

That’s how it started. I began getting into camping—taking our small children camping. At the time, we lived in Tennessee, and I remember watching him pitch a tent. It was like watching someone take off a backpack full of problems. By the time he was done—it was a giant tent, so it took a while—he just let out this huge sigh of relief. I wanted that for myself, too, because, like everyone else in the world, I was under stress.

The more we went outside, the more we realized how beneficial it was. At some point, it became clear that we needed to make this a bigger part of our lives—something permanent. So, we decided to leave active-duty Army life, which gave us the freedom to move away from Tennessee, a place we weren’t from (though it was beautiful), and pick where we wanted to live.

Now, I have a flair for the dramatic. I’m a storyteller, a writer—I like big gestures. So, I thought, “Hey, let’s move to Alaska sight unseen. Why not?” I had never been there before, and here I am today, talking to you from Palmer, Alaska, which is near Anchorage. I grew up on a beach in California, so why I thought moving to the Arctic was a great idea, I have no idea. But here we are!

So, we packed up the family and moved. Fast forward, we’re living in Alaska, life is good, and my husband is getting outside and living the dream. Meanwhile, I’m sitting here waiting for Alaska to be awesome—by which I mean having nice weather and behaving how I want it to. (Spoiler alert: Alaska is always awesome, but it’s never going to fit into your box, just like anywhere else.)

That’s when I decided to challenge myself. I asked, “What would happen to my attitude about Alaska, my life, my health, my happiness—everything—if I went outside for just 20 minutes a day, every single day, for a year?”

That challenge started on September 1, 2017. It’s now been over 1,600 days in a row that I’ve spent at least 20 minutes outside daily. I didn’t stop after a year because I found that the benefits were endless. It improved my relationships, made me better at tackling challenges, improved my job performance, made me happier, healthier—you name it. Everything we hear about spending time outside? It was all true.

And I didn’t want to stop. I wanted more of it. I also started wondering what others could learn from this experience. Since I’m a storyteller, I knew I had to report on it—it’s just who I am. So, I began sharing my journey through my website, humansoutside.com, and later through a podcast.

But initially, it was all just for me. I started posting a picture of my outdoor time on Instagram every day, starting from day one. It was a way to create accountability for myself. From there, it just took off.

Meg: That’s awesome—what a genesis story! So, when did your podcast start? Amy: Yeah, so I started the podcast—oh gosh—about two years ago in February of 2020.

Meg: Isn’t it funny how many things started in February of 2020?

Amy: Yes, so many things—life-changing things! Life-changing things started in that time period. And it’s always the story of things that started right before all the other things just started, right? So that’s me, too. I had recorded all these episodes, and I pressed the button to launch on February 6, 2020, and then the whole world changed.

So, I ended up with my little pandemic project without even knowing that’s what I was doing. Since then, I’ve also started the Humans Outside Challenge. These are challenge kits I created for people who want to take on this outdoor habit but might feel unequipped or unsure how to start going outside every day. That can be really daunting for someone who’s not already living that kind of lifestyle. The Humans Outside Challenge kits are designed very simply to help motivate and inform.

Meg: And I’m assuming you can find those on your website?

Amy: Yep, absolutely. You can find them at humansoutside.com. All the information about the challenge kits is there if it’s something you need—and if it’s not, no worries. The podcast is there, too.

Meg: So, the podcast started as kind of a personal project—wanting to tell your story and hoping it would maybe impact other people. But what would you say the mission of Humans Outside is now?

Amy: It’s funny because when I first had this idea, I thought, “Oh, I just need to help myself, an indoor person, become an outdoor person.” But now, I’d say the mission is really about creating learning, assistance, and inspiration for people who want to make going outside part of their lifestyle. It’s for people who want to build a daily outdoor habit and make it a natural part of who they are.

Meg: And we’ve talked about habits before and how challenging they can be, especially if you’re coming from a place where it hasn’t been part of your life at all. Putting yourself out there and trying to integrate something new can be tough.

So, what do you think were the most successful things in helping you reach that goal of getting outside for 20 minutes every day? Because I’m guessing there were days that were cold, rainy, or worse—probably more than you’d like to admit in Alaska. How did you stick to it every single day?

Amy: Yeah, so I think, first of all, it's important to acknowledge that when everything is rosy—when the weather is good, when the sun is shining—getting outside every day sounds like a super good idea and really easy.

My friends and I like to run, and we joke that all the races we plan or sign up for are decisions we make on sunny days. Because no one sits in their house in January and thinks, "Oh, I’ll run a race in sub-zero temperatures." Why would you do that? No, you sign up on a sunny day in September when it sounds like a really good idea.

So, first of all, that’s absolutely true—everything feels easy when the sun is shining and the weather is nice. But that’s not how a habit works, right? The point of a habit is that you push through something hard. Because if it were easy all the time, you wouldn’t have to work for it.

For me, there are three things—three steps—for making a habit work.

Okay, first, I set a goal that I would actually do. There’s a reason I set it at 20 consecutive minutes every day. I knew I would never make time for 45 minutes—never. But I would make time for 20. Twenty sounds like a reasonable amount of time.

When I looked at my life and my schedule, I realized I was already burning 20 minutes scrolling Facebook mindlessly every evening, just like most people do. So I thought, "You know what? I can take that time and use it to go outside. I can scrape that together—that’s fine." I picked a goal that was attainable, something I knew I would actually do.

Then I started doing it by using intrinsic rewards to make it happen. There’s a reason we all like going outside—it makes us feel good. When you do something that has a built-in reward, it’s like a carrot on a stick. You know at the end of it, you’ll be glad you did it.

You experience that reward several times in the early days of building the habit. Let’s say the first day, the second day, the third day of your habit—it’s sunny outside, right? A very pleasant day. You’re thinking, "Oh, I could do this forever." Your brain says, "This feels great. This was fun. We feel good right now. We’re looking forward to tomorrow. We like this habit."

Now let’s say it’s day four or five, and the weather is not so nice. It’s very windy, terrible weather—whatever. Your brain says, "Okay, this is not good, but remember the last time we did this?

We felt really good at the end. It was sunny and warm, and we felt great because we went outside." So now you have the perseverance, because you’ve experienced that reward before, to push through a little and find that reward again—even in harder conditions.

The more you do that, the more you trust that the reward is there. So, yes—oh my goodness—there are often days that I do not want to go outside. Some of them were just this week! But I know two things.

One, it’s been more than 1,600 days. I can’t break the habit now—that’s ridiculous.

Two, I know there’s going to be a reward at the end because I’ve experienced it before.

Finally, the third thing to creating this habit is finding the time to keep doing it. One way to do that is through good time management—by getting rid of stuff you don’t need to be doing.

This isn’t quite the minimalism you talk about on this podcast, but I’m going to use the word anyway—minimizing the stuff you’re doing to make time for the things that are more important to you.

Meg: Yeah, so then you can kind of replace maybe something that's not adding as much of that value you're talking about with something like this.

Amy: Exactly.

Meg: So maybe less time on social media.

Amy: Precisely. I mean, do I spend 20 minutes a day scrolling Facebook in one-minute or 30-second increments? Well, I know I do because Apple has that screen time feature now. It tells you at the end of the week how much time you wasted on your phone.

Meg: Yeah, it’s annoying slash beneficial.

Amy: Yes! So, if you looked at that in aggregate, thought about how much time that is each day, and then simply didn’t do that but went outside instead—what would you find? That’s the question.

And I’m sure it’s different for everyone.

Meg: Absolutely, but there are general benefits. I’m sure it kind of changes and evolves along this journey that you’re taking. What have you discovered or learned about yourself since building that habit and starting this daily 20 minutes—or probably more some days? And if you could give a "snackable" impact, what would you say it is?

Amy: Yeah, so, you know, like you said, there are endless highlights. When I say it changed my life in every way, I mean it—it really did. It changed how I think about things. That’s the first takeaway I want to share: so much of this is about the discovery of mind over matter.

Spending time in nature is really remarkable because it gives you a place to find out that you can do whatever you set out to do, and it creates endless opportunities to do so. Think about hiking a trail. The trail might be steep, muddy, maybe a little longer than you’d like. But you tackle it, and you get to the end. Now you know you can do it because you’ve done it before.

Maybe you thought, "This is going to be too hard for me," but it wasn’t. So, the next time you’re out there—whether it’s a different trail or the same area—you’re faced with a choice. You can take the literal easy path, or, once you’ve learned that you can do hard things, you can choose the harder path.

For example, I went skiing with my husband a couple of weeks ago. First, downhill skiing is not my jam—it scares the crap out of me. I’ve even said on national television that I would never go skiing. Ha! Totally did it anyway.

Why didn’t I like skiing? Because it scares me. I had a bad experience—it was scary. But I’ve overcome some of that fear because I’ve learned I can do things I didn’t think I could do, thanks to my outdoor time.

So there we were, skiing, and I had a choice. I could go down the easy slope or tackle the one that had scared me before. The one where I’d fallen. The one that pushed me way out of my comfort zone. I was literally deciding which path to take. That day, I chose the harder path. And I discovered, yes, I can conquer that.

If I hadn’t built this outdoor habit, I can tell you I definitely wouldn’t have taken the harder path. I know because I’ve avoided it before—I always took the easy way.

Meg: Side note, but I also am terrified of downhill skiing, so you’re not alone.

Amy: Yeah, it’s scary—that’s why.

Meg: It’s a valid fear. Self-preservation, anyway.

Amy: Exactly. But now, I see the correlation. Building this habit outdoors has taught me that I can tackle hard things. And that lesson has carried over into other areas of my life.

Meg: I can definitely relate to that. I think I indirectly built a similar habit to yours. I’m not sure if it was as intentional, but through that process, I’ve found that it applies to other aspects of my life—beyond outdoor recreation. Things like work, pushing through adversity, and just general perseverance.

Amy: Oh, yeah—tough conversations, for example. I can’t even tell you how many times I’ve had to have uncomfortable conversations at work. I don’t like confrontation. I want everyone to like me—just normal human stuff, right? But I’m in charge of people, and sometimes you have to have those conversations. That’s just how life works.

Meg: Oh, definitely. And not just at work—it’s true in relationships, too.

Amy: Exactly. I wouldn’t say there’s a direct correlation between "I can go down a scary ski hill" and "I have the courage to have this conversation," but I think there’s a connection. I wasn’t always courageous enough to have those conversations, but something changed. Now I am. And I think it’s because I’ve gotten used to tackling hard stuff—most of that practice has been outside.

Meg: That ties back to what you were saying earlier about mindset and having that mindset shift.

Amy: Yeah, yep, exactly.

Meg: So we talked a little bit about going outside even when it’s maybe a little unsavory—inclement weather, maybe it’s cold, windy, rainy, whatever it may be. Or sometimes even when it’s too hot, which can also be an issue.

I kind of want to transition into talking about how gear can both be beneficial and maybe sometimes inhibit certain habits and mindsets. Do you think it’s possible to develop an outdoor habit or lifestyle like you have without falling into the trap of needing all the gear to stay comfortable?

Amy: I think there are two sides to this. On one hand, we know that using appropriate gear, especially in the winter when layering is essential, can turn your ability to go outside from a hard “no” to a “yes,” or from a punishment to a reward. Let’s face it: we don’t want to do things when we’re uncomfortable. And ways to feel uncomfortable include being cold or feeling unsafe.

That’s why you and I don’t like downhill skiing—it feels scary and unsafe. I try to listen to my body when it’s telling me those things and figure out how to address them. When it comes to cold temperatures, part of that solution is gear. It’s about layering and knowing how to dress, not necessarily about the brand you own or the amount of money you spent, but about using what you do have properly.

On the flip side, there’s the trap of thinking, “I have to have X, Y, and Z” or “I need a specific brand or the newest thing.” So, your question: Can you develop an outdoor habit without falling into that trap? Absolutely, yes. Of course you can.

Meg: So then the question becomes: How do you do that?

Amy: I think it’s less about having the “right” gear—it’s not about consumerism or having all the gear—and more about having the correct gear for you. That depends on so many factors, including where you live, your body size and shape, how your circulation works, what you want to invest in (or not), and the weather conditions on any given day.

I live in a very cold place with a wide range of weather, and I go out in all of it. My gear is about layering a lot of things and walking around like a marshmallow. I joked with my husband during our recent ski trip—I had on four hoods! I don’t ski often, so rather than buy an extremely nice ski jacket, I just layered what I already had.

I know what brands make clothes that fit my body and what brands don’t. One mistake I’ve made in the past is buying stuff without understanding what I actually needed.

Meg: I really like that example of skiing because it’s a testament to something I say all the time: Start with what you have. Like you said, you already knew those things worked, so why wouldn’t they work in another setting? But I think getting to that level of self-awareness with gear and knowing your needs in specific conditions is a huge barrier for many people.

Amy: Absolutely. And people often gravitate toward what’s marketed to them. The outdoor industry and retailers have a big motivation to sell you stuff—that’s their business model. They want you to think you need a specific jacket for skiing or a certain brand for hiking.

To avoid falling into that trap, you first need to recognize that it’s happening. Then it takes a combination of research, patience, and intentionality. You have to research what works for you because everybody is different. For example, I get very cold hands, so I layer gloves and mittens to keep them warm.

I also have a condition called Raynaud’s, which means my hands get cold for seemingly no reason. Right now, they’re cold even though I’m sitting in a warm house talking on a podcast. So I know that about myself and dress accordingly—but that knowledge didn’t come overnight.

I didn’t figure it out by walking into REI and saying, “Sell me your most expensive ski jacket.” I learned that my hands need to be warm, my arms are unusually long, and Patagonia jackets, for instance, don’t fit me because their sleeves are too short. Someone once gifted me a Patagonia jacket embroidered with their company’s name—it’s super nice, but I can’t wear it because the sleeves stop above my wrists.

It took research and intentionality to figure out what worked. That’s the mindset: You don’t need what’s marketed to you. You can often use what’s already in your closet.

Meg: I love that! What were you wearing on that ski trip?

Amy: Okay, so here’s what I wore:

• A long-sleeve tech fabric running shirt (I think it’s Nike).

• A waffle-knit fleece pullover from Brooks, also made for running. I got it on the resale site ThredUp.

• A Smartwool vest, which I’m actually wearing right now. It’s probably the most-used piece of clothing I own in the winter.

• A lightweight puffy jacket that I wear for everything.

• And over that, a heavier REI hard shell jacket, also purchased secondhand. It made the puffy jacket water-resistant for skiing.

So, four hoods, multiple layers, but all things I use for other activities too. For example, I wear the Smartwool vest daily—inside, running, and skiing. That’s how I make my gear work for me.

Meg: Yeah, and that is kind of a core approach—finding things that have multiple applications and are really useful in several different settings. And there are a lot of layers, both physically and, like, metaphorically when you talk about it.

There are layers in how you got to that point because, even as you mentioned, a lot of that gear was secondhand and served multiple purposes. Like the Brooks shirt or the vest you were wearing—you don’t need to have a specific vest just for skiing, another one for running, another one for walking your dog, and then a completely different one for having tea with your grandma.

That last one would be your fanciest vest, right?

Amy: Of course! In Alaska, we call that your "first-best vest."

Meg: [Laughing] Of course. But if we’re thinking about minimalism and trying to lessen our impact, I think your example is really relevant and awesome for gear. How do you think we can apply that mindset to our perception of adventure? Does that question make sense?

Amy: Yeah, it does. I want to first say it’s funny that you brought up minimalism because, with all those layers I mentioned, I might not sound minimalist. You know, wearing all the things at the same time doesn’t seem like minimalism. But it is because each of those items serves multiple purposes. I live in a climate where all of them are necessary in different ways, so they each have their role.

But your next question was... oh no, I lost track of it. Could you remind me?

Meg: Oh, no problem! I was saying that getting past the number of layers you’re wearing and realizing, “Yes, all of these are necessary,” makes sense in that context. But my next question was: If we use that same approach you use toward gear and getting outside, what are ways we can pursue and perceive adventures in a minimalist fashion?

Amy: Got it. It’s interesting to think about this in terms of actions—your personal actions outside of the store, so to speak. We often perceive adventure, especially in today’s culture—whether this is just in America or more broadly—as something grand. It involves transportation, a plane ride, and a scenic vista.

I tend to pick on the Grand Canyon a lot because it’s particularly magnificent. That kind of awe and grandeur is what many people associate with adventure. And the Grand Canyon is absolutely all of those things. But there are other types of adventures, too—many of which are in your backyard.

If you’re living with a minimalist mindset, part of that involves actively reducing your carbon footprint, including the impact created by travel. There’s nothing inherently wrong with travel, but tying adventure exclusively to faraway places can limit your ability to have adventures because you start to think they’re something you have to go to.

What I’m suggesting is that your ability to experience nature and have an adventure doesn’t require a big trip. A minimalist mindset says that adventure is happening in your backyard.

Side note: That mindset opens up a whole world for you personally. Think about all the ways you can benefit if you expand your view of the world around you to include nature that’s just outside your door.

To have a daily outdoor habit, you must think of nature as being accessible right outside your doorstep. Otherwise, you’ll always be thinking about how to travel to nature, which will make it much harder to maintain a consistent habit. If you add travel time to a daily outdoor habit, you’ll likely find you don’t have the time you wanted.

Do I practice my daily habit in places that aren’t in my backyard? Sure, sometimes.

Sometimes I go down the street to a ski hill, and occasionally we go on vacation out of state—those things happen. But by and large, my daily outdoor habit is in my own backyard or adjacent to it. It’s somewhere I can walk to because that’s what’s most practical for me. And really, the best way I can preserve and use the world around me is by accessing what I already have where I already am.

How you think about nature is directly related to how you use it. So, if you can start thinking about nature as being right outside your city apartment or wherever you live, that’s the first step. It’s about changing your mindset and starting with what you have now.

Meg: I love that, yes. That mindset is so powerful. And honestly, it’s kind of a new shift for me in just the last few years. I think I also used to believe that to have a “true” adventure, I needed to travel somewhere—whether it was driving three hours or crossing state lines. I thought that was necessary for it to feel fulfilling.

During the pandemic, I moved back to Minnesota, to the rural area where I grew up. And as I started having these—I guess I’d call them “micro-adventures”—in the area around where I was living, I realized something. I grew up here, and yet I had no idea these places even existed or were this cool.

Amy: Right, right.

Meg: There’s just so much new discovery that can happen, even if you’ve lived somewhere for years.

Amy: Absolutely. And then, once you start to do this, it can lead to even more exploration. So, I have this sub-nature habit I’m looking forward to starting. I’ve decided I’m pretty gutsy and have faced a lot of challenges, but there’s a limit. And this is not a habit I want to start in the dead of winter.

I recently talked to someone on my podcast—Claire Dunn, who’s really into rewilding and finding nature in urban spaces. She introduced me to the concept of a “sit spot,” which comes from the practice of forest bathing. Basically, you find an area near where you live, and you go there regularly to just sit and observe. It’s as simple as it sounds. You sit for as long as you have and simply pay attention to what’s around you.

Now, like I said, it’s very cold outside. It’s actually snowing right now, and I have no intention of sitting in a snowbank until it melts. But this spring, I’m really looking forward to starting that habit. I think it’s going to give me a whole new perspective on what’s around me because I’ll be taking the time to really observe it.

While you were talking, I had this memory of my little brother growing up. My parents kept our yard very manicured—you know, clipped grass, the whole nine yards. But next door, the neighbor had this huge cypress tree and a totally wild, unkempt yard. One day, my little brother went missing—not really missing, but he wasn’t around. So, we’re all like, “Where’s Bill? Where’s Bill?”

Eventually, we found him tromping through the neighbor’s yard—which was highly discouraged, by the way. He informed us that he was “looking for animals in the jungle.”

Meg: [Laughing] That’s amazing.

Amy: What if we adopted that kind of adventure mindset for the spaces around us? Okay, maybe don’t tromp through your neighbor’s yard—they might not like that—but what if you looked at your own yard, or a nearby park, with fresh eyes? Instead of seeing it as just the same old space, what if you thought of it as a jungle or an unexplored territory?

Ask yourself, “What can I discover here that I’ve never noticed before? What will I find if I take the time to really look?” That’s one way to take the nature around you and appreciate it in a completely new way, simply by being intentional and present.

Meg: That’s such a great reframing of the space we... I don’t want to say “take for granted,” but in a way, we kind of do. It becomes so familiar that we stop noticing it. Reframing it like that really gives it new life and perspective.

Amy: Exactly.

Meg: I’m curious—everything you’ve shared so far has been so insightful and actionable for people who want to incorporate these practices into their lives. But if someone listening to this is trying to build a low-impact, daily outdoor lifestyle as a new habit—maybe they’ve only been hiking once a week, but now they want to make it an everyday thing—what would you want them to know? If you were sitting down and having coffee with them, what advice would you give?

Amy: Yeah, so we've talked about a few of these things, but I’ll list them again. The first thing is to create an outdoor habit that you’ll actually do. Aim high, but not too high, and pick something you can work toward. It should be a goal that fits into your schedule and is reasonable enough to hold yourself accountable for.

For example, at the time, 45 minutes a day wasn’t reasonable for me. I knew that once the weather got really cold, I wouldn’t want to do it, and I’d find excuses. But I also knew that 20 minutes a day was something I could actually do, so that’s why I picked that.

Something we haven’t really talked about is not being afraid to ask for help. If you’re going to start going outside every day, you’ll probably encounter weather you’re not familiar with or have actively been avoiding—like I was. I was purposefully not going outside because I didn’t want to deal with certain conditions.

But once I started, I faced weather I didn’t know how to dress for comfortably. So, don’t be afraid to ask for help. Ask people around you who are experienced with those conditions how they dress. Here in Alaska, a lot of people have lived here for a long time and have cracked the code on surviving and thriving.

Some people let me borrow gear to try, others gave me advice on what to look for, and many told me what to avoid. For instance, they saved me from making unnecessary purchases by saying things like, “Those boots you’re looking at? They’re not the ones you want. You’ll want something with really good no-slip soles, extra warmth, and enough room for big socks.” That kind of advice was invaluable.

We also talked about expanding your definition of adventure to include nearby spaces. If you do that, you’ll be able to make your outdoor habit happen daily because you’re not always searching for new and exciting places to go. Instead, you’ll start finding the new and exciting in what’s already around you, just by opening your eyes and being willing to look for it.

And finally, if you need help or feel like this is way over your head, there are so many resources out there. It’s not just the people you know. For example, there’s this wonderful podcast—yours. I have the Humans Outside podcast, and I mentioned the Humans Outside Challenge earlier. When you register for that, you receive monthly help from me to tackle the challenge.

There are also countless other websites, blogs, and podcasts out there. All of us who create these resources do so because we want to encourage people to find and experience the benefits we’ve found and experienced. It’s as simple as that. So, get out there!

Meg: Yes, awesome! And I’ll share links to that, like I said earlier. But if people want to follow along beyond your website, how else can they find you and follow the Humans Outside story?

Amy: Absolutely. As I mentioned earlier, I post a picture to Instagram every day. It started as accountability for my outdoor time, but it’s grown into a community. You can find me at @humansoutside on Instagram and Facebook.

If you want to know what life in Alaska looks like—or if you want to see me skiing a lot in the winter (mostly cross-country, not downhill)—that’s a lot of what I do during the colder months. Moving is helpful when you’re trying to stay warm!

So, @humansoutside on Facebook and Instagram, and of course, you can visit humansoutside.com. There, you’ll find links to the podcast, the challenge, and more. The Humans Outside podcast is also available on all the usual podcast platforms—too many to list—but wherever you normally listen to podcasts, you’ll find it.

Meg: Awesome. Well, thank you so much for being here, Amy. I always love talking to you. And right after this, I do plan to go outside.

Amy: Excellent. Same!