AdventuresNW
According to studies, Americans spend an average of more than four–and-a-half hours on their phones daily, and more than half of adults get fewer than five hours outside in nature per week,
Theorists call these hours spent indoors staring at screens “ultra-processed time“. Like the nutrient-poor junk food that Americans eat too much of, ultraprocessed time fails to nourish our brains.
There is a simple solution: Put your phone down. Go outside. Go for a bike ride.
Or go for a hike, run, paddle, swim, or any other vigorous activity that focuses the mind and body on the present.
What you do outside for exercise and well-being is less important than the fact of doing something, anything, that enables you to escape the false reality of the digital realm and enter the real world of birds and bees and flowers and trees and bodies in motion through the natural world.
For those of you already enjoying lots of time biking or playing outdoors for mental and physical health: congratulations. Bicycling is a stress reliever and mood enhancer that increases mental clarity while exposing us to social interactions.
But you likely know people who are struggling to save their brains and bodies from the curse of screen time. Your task: invite friends, family, co-workers, and others to join you outdoors on a bike.
I work in bike advocacy, so here are some of my tips for finding great places to ride:
- Cascade Bicycle Club’s Free Group Rides program offers rides of varying distances and paces 365 days per year. Go to cascade.org and click Rides & Events to find a bike ride near you.
- Cascade also has a list of paved and gravel trails across Washington state, from the Willapa Hills Trail to the Green River Trail and Snoqualmie Valley Trail. Click the Resources tab at cascade.org
- Evergreen Mountain Bike Alliance has maps of singletrack across Washington. Go to evergreenmtb.org/trails.
- The Lake Chelan Tour offers three days of cycling with new routes each day plus lunches and snack stops amidst the beauty of Washington state’s deepest waters. Register at cascade.org.
Resolving to make time for healthy outdoor activities like bicycling is easy in concept but challenging in reality due to life stresses, work commitments, and algorithms programmed to hijack our attention and keep us glued to screens. But the first step in recovery is to admit we have a problem.
As we head into late summer and early fall, let’s practice some self-care. Let’s go outside and pedal away from our screens toward a healthier lifestyle bolstered by the restorative powers of immersion in big nature.
Because ultraprocessed time is a waste of time.
Paul Tolmé, the Journalist on the Loose, is an outdoors writer, award-winning environmental journalist, and blogger for Cascade Bicycle Club. He lives with his wife in a Seattle houseboat crammed with bikes, skis, snowboards, kayaks, and paddleboards, but no regrets. His work can be seen at paultolme.com and cascade.org/news.
