New Urban Habitat

I used to run a few miles every morning. On the rare days I didn’t run, I swam laps, played tennis, hiked in the woods, or went on a bike ride. And I owned a library of yoga and pilates DVDs.

These days I hardly even think about exercise, and the tennis rackets and workout DVDs are in the closet gathering dust. But the weird thing is – I think I might be fitter now.

I spend most of my days carrying or chasing my active 16-month old baby, and my house, yard, and gardens require nearly constant labor. My family walks or rides bikes most everywhere we go – to the grocery store, library, park, and to friends’ houses. And I rarely stop moving during the day, except when I’m writing. Sure, sometimes I miss those long solo runs and challenging yoga workouts, but I just don’t have much energy to spare at the end of my days.

Mayo Clinic physician Dr. James Levine’s research makes me think it might not just be my imagination. I may actually be in better shape now than back when my idea of relaxation was a Rodney Yee or Seane Corn power yoga session. The results of Levine’s study on obesity (Science, January 28, 2005) indicate that if you want to achieve a healthy body weight, it’s more effective to put more of what Levine calls NEAT — “Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis” — into your life  than to seek out organized exercise. NEAT includes the activities of daily life that are not planned physical activity, like standing, walking, talking, cleaning, fidgeting, or diving to rescue a sixteen-month old before he pulls the Oxford English Dictionary onto his head.

Moreover another large study suggests that the frequent moderate activity of daily life helps prevent cancer better than more infrequent, but intense recreational activity. In the nine-country European breast cancer study of more than 200,000 women, of all the household and recreational exercise women did, household activity – including housework, home repair, gardening, and stair climbing – was the only activity that significantly reduced breast cancer risk.  (Physical Activity and Breast Cancer Risk: The European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition, Cancer Epedemiology Biomarkers & Prevention, 2006)

Increasing your daily activity, or NEAT, is easy, and the best part is, you not only get a healthy body, you get to mark things off your to-do list. Plus, increasing your NEAT usually means turning off power tools and ramping up human-power. And that means burning less coal and gasoline, contributing to a cleaner, healthier planet for all of us.

Here are 7 great ways to increase your NEAT as the weather gets colder.

1. Hang laundry.

Depending on where you live, take advantage of the sunny autumn days to hang laundry on the line. Drying diapers or whites in the sun helps bleach and disinfect them. Line-drying also saves money, conserves energy, and helps clothes last longer. During the winter, you can dry clothes on a rack inside in most climates, which also helps to humidify dry indoor air.

2. Split and stack fire wood.

Burning wood is arguably not the greenest way to heat a house, but it can be remarkably economical (and cozy). Plus, preparing winter wood stores is an excellent workout for a crisp autumn day.

3. Prepare the gardens for winter.

In most climates, it’s time to plant bulbs, harvest and dry or freeze herbs, save seeds, clear away dead foliage, and plant cover crops.

4. Rake leaves

Several years ago, I lived next to a  dental office with the most manicured lawn I’ve ever seen. Teams of landscapers descended on it every day with gas-powered leaf blowers, lawn mowers, and shrub trimmers. The noise was deafening. Since then, I’ve become a huge fan of the humble (and quiet) rake.

5. Hand wash dishes

The jury’s still out on whether it’s greener to hand wash or machine wash dishes. It depends on how you’re hand-washing and rinsing and on how energy-efficient your dishwasher is. (See an analysis of the carbon footprint of each method here.) In our household, hand washing conserves both money and energy. On the downside, it hogs a lot of precious counter space. However, I tend to actually prefer hand washing. It’s a pleasant, meditative task, and it’s just the sort of frequent, moderate exercise those studies suggest is so good for us.

6. Leave the car at home.

How can you increase your physical activity, be healthier, feel better, make the world a cleaner, more beautiful place  while you get where you need to go? Stop driving, or at least significantly reduce your car-use. Whether you bike, walk, or take public transportation, you’re certain to add more activity to your day when you ditch the automobile. And as a perk, alternative transportation is usually more fun than sitting in traffic, searching for parking spots, and being on the road with enraged drivers.

7. Play

If you have little ones in your life, you already know how much energy you can burn jumping into piles of leaves, building  forts, playing Red Rover, or just carrying or chasing after the little speed-racers. If you don’t have kids, I’m sure a neighbor, friend, or family member would be happy to share the fun for a few hours (so he or she can take a nap).

What are your favorite ways to stay active as winter approaches?