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Obviously, staying healthy requires a lot more than simply eating well.

During the twentieth Century we focused on making life easier and “more efficient” by demanding and then becoming addicted to ‘labor-saving devices’ at home and in the workplace. Although we simply wanted to make life better for ourselves and be more productive, the actual result has been a health disaster.

As we all know by now, health research shows that as a nation, a very large number of us are either overweight or obese, and badly out of shape as well. This has led to an epidemic of diabetes and heart disease which, along with longer life spans, has created a large population of chronically ill people who are not only helping to drive up health care costs, but living unpleasant lives as a result.

One way of getting and staying in shape is obviously to get regular moderate to vigorous exercise: aerobic exercises such as jogging, bicycling and swimming, or weight lifting, yoga, martial arts, dancing – some combination of these for 1/2 to 1 hour a day at least 5 days per week.

For more information, see:

Medline Plus: Exercise and Physical Fitness – from the National Library of Medicine excellent links to respected web sites with recommendations and instruction on various forms of physical fitness.

Physical Activity for Everyone page – a good overview of physical activities (types, maximum and minimum levels) for all ages from the Federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Sports Nutrition Guidelines For The Vegetarian – from the Vegetarian Resource Group.

But another way that is even more consistent with living simply, is to save yourself, instead of saving your labor. In other words, work physically harder at your routine daily tasks so that you get plenty of exercise doing your normal activities:

• Walk up and down the stairs instead of taking the elevator.
  
  
• Don’t use the handicap automatic door opener – open the door by hand!
  
  
• Park far away from the building and get in a few extra steps.
  
  
• Walk, roller blade, or bike to the store instead of driving.
  
  
• Do the dishes by hand instead of using the dishwasher.
  
  
• Hang the laundry on the wash line instead of using a dryer.
  
  
• Throw away the TV remote and walk to the set instead.

There are literally hundreds of ways in which we can ditch labor saving devices and actually use our bodies instead. Although any one of these activities doesn’t equal a full one-hour gym workout, when you do a lot of them each day, it adds-up to a substantial amount of effort, and the expenditure of a lot of calories – and they’re FREE! No equipment to buy, no gym or spa memberships to pay for, and they all save electricity, greenhouse gases, and other resources at the same time.