Making Exercise Sustainable

It's kind of a funny thing about our society. We have cars and buses, which we drive or ride in to get to where we're going. They save time, sure. And we have countless little helpful machines around our homes: dishwashers, washers and dryers, lawnmowers. They save time, too, and lots of work for us. So what do we do? We get back in the car and drive over to the gym, where we can spend all that time we've saved trying to burn all those calories we didn't have to expend doing the work that our machines do for us.

Does that seem like a step backward to anybody else?

I realize that it's not practical, or even possible, to walk everywhere. But I bet you can walk more places than you think! How long does it take to walk a mile? Fifteen minutes, maybe twenty? How long does it take to drive to the gym, get out, gear up, walk a mile on the treadmill, shower, and drive home? A lot longer. Sometimes our shortcuts turn into long, meandering, wild goose chases. And we're the ones looking an awful lot like a wild goose.

I don't enjoy exercising for the sake of exercising. It becomes just another item on my to-do list, and more often than not, it's the one I leave undone. I'm looking to simplify my life, not complicate it. So I have started looking for ways to incorporate exercise into my life as part of my normal routine of getting things done, rather than as an "extra" that hangs over my head when I don't do it.

Instead of getting up to jog in the morning, I load up my kids in the stroller and we cruise the town after breakfast. I stop by the post office and mail a package, say hello to a neighbor of mine, and stroll toward the small, family-owned grocery store. I'm out of bananas and apple sauce, and my 9-month-old loves bananas and applesauce. I chat with the clerk at the grocery store; she's pretty used to me and my double stroller now. We swing by the movie rental shop to return a dvd and then check out the library before we go home.

Now, did that take longer than a 20-minute jog in the morning? Yes, sure. But it took a lot less time than it would have to go for a 20-minute jog, and then run four errands that involved unloading two kids at every stop. This kind of routine works well for me, and I'm thankful that I'm in a small town that accomodates it.

What are your options? Maybe it's canceling that gym membership that requires a drive, investing in a few weights at home, and picking up the morning jog habit. Maybe it's getting a dog who will beg you for a walk every morning (and at noon, and at night). Maybe it's becoming familiar with the local parks, the hiking trails, and the bike routes. Maybe it's spending an hour on those gardening and landscaping ideas you have instead of an hour with a work-out video. What can you do to make exercise a simpler, saner, and more sustainable part of your life?

Image Credit:sendung.