I have spent years wrestling with my relationship to exercise. I grew up playing sports and have always been on teams, all the way through college. Since stopping team sports about 10 years ago, I have found my relationship to exercise pretty fraught. I’ve done all the fad workouts and differnet types of workout classes: I’ve done stints of yoga, barre, weighlifting. I’ve tried to work out on my own at home following online exercise programs (hey fitness blender!) and I have joined many a gym to do cardio and weights. I’ve even hired personal trainers, who, while amazing, stopped being affordable after a point for me.

It’s been really difficult for me to find and stick to exercise that doesn’t feel like torture. I’ve tried pairing it with things I love in order to motivate me— saving a new album to listen to only during my workout, certain TV shows that I’ve only let myself watch while exercising. I’ve even tried simplifying it as much as humanly possible: just trying to walk every day, rain or shine, for 20-30 minutes minimum.

I’ve enjoyed all of these endeavors for different reasons. I liked the atmosphere of a gym, because I found it hard to slack off with the social pressure of people working out around me. I liked the challenge of group fitness classes and the structure that having a personal trainer gave me. I liked my home workouts with designated workouts planned for me every day. And I’ve enjoyed my daily little mental health walks with my dog and my audiobook. But really, nothing has ever stuck or has ever really felt that sustainable.

I don’t know if this is me, or my ADHD, or really what it is about exercise that is so hard for me, but I know I’m not alone in that. So when I stumbled across the ‘cozy cardio’ trend on TikTok, it gave me some hope. For those who haven’t come across it, the past few years walking pads have become really popular as a new way to exercise. They are basically like treadmills but without the highest speed settings and are meant for walking instead of running or jogging. I joined the walking pad club earlier this year, when it was still pretty rainy out and I was working from home a lot and felt like I was lacking exercise. It has been pretty good for me, but this cozy cardio trend really upped the game.

Basically, cozy cardio is getting on your walking pad while wathcing tv or a movie, usually with some mellow lighting, maybe a warm drink nearby. I tried it for the first time today, and let me tell you, it is a game-changer for me. I put on a Hallmark Christmas movie on today and before I knew it, 45 minutes and 5,000 steps passed in a blink. I think this is going to change the game for me for a number of reasons: it ties together something I read about in Atomic Habits, which is that a good motivational tool to form new habits is by pairing them with other positive things. So for me, only getting to watch new Hallmark movies while I’m on my walking pad is both a great motivation, and a good way to get in more than half the steps I have usually been getting per day.

And listen, I know this isn’t the same as doing a HIIT workout or weight lifting, and I plan to integrate this with some other workouts. But for now, it’s an approachable way to get in some steps in a low-impact, fun way. And that’s all I’m really about these days, trying to find things that will motivate me to get some movement in, even on the hardest days. This seems like an easy win to me.