What Counts: Exercise or Movement?
This week is planting week around the house, so Paula and I will be working around the yard each day. What we won’t do is go to the gym to work out. In thinking about it, that raises the issue of the myth of physical activity: does yardwork count or do you have to get your heart rate to a certain amount?
The answer is it all counts. In fact, if your lifestyle forces you to move a couple of times an hour, all day long, that’s associated with living longer. We’ve lost the equivalent of 700 calories of daily activity due to technological advances in the past century; those are calories that contribute to the weight gain that’s been creeping up on us. We could cut 700 calories from our daily diet or we can find ways to use another 700 calories every day. Anything and everything you can do to use calories throughout the day counts. Gardening and yardwork definitely count in that process, and as the image shows, it’s movement you can pass on to future generations.
We’ll look at a food myth on Thursday.
What are you prepared to do today?
