Some of you may know that I've been reading the book
Born To Run, just finished today in fact and I loved it! I'd highly recommend it to runners and non-runners alike. The author discusses the need (and truly it is a need) for our bodies to be active. We weren't meant to sit around living lazy lifestyles. We have a body built for performance and a brain that's alwasys after efficiency.
Today we live in a culture that sees extreme exercise (and I'll add diet as well) as crazy, because that's what our brain tells us: why fire up the machine if you don't have to? For most of the human existence our brain knew what it was talking about. Sitting around was a luxury, so when you got the chance to rest you took it because you didn't know when it would happen again. Only recently have we turned lazing around into a way of life.
We've taken away the jobs our bodies were meant to do (we hop in the car and drive everywhere instead of walking, if we need food we drive to the grocery story, for warmth we turn on the heater, cooking food is easier then ever, and forget about walking out to the out house. We've gone soft!) and we're paying for it. Nearly every top killer in the Western world-heart disease, stroke, diabetes, depression, hypertension, and a dozen forms of cancer- was unknown to our ancestors.
We can change so much about our future health if we just take the steps now to correct it! Eat more produce and move a little more (or a lot more in some cases.) It seems so easy and yet it can be so hard to break the habits we allow ourselves to get into. Habits that can come from, family, friends, tradition, and culture. Whatever the reason may be, it's time to break bad habits and make new ones.
So just get up and move! Dance with your kids (I love this one), go for a run or even a walk, ride a bike, go hiking, do some Zumba or kickboxing. Whatever it is you love, just do it everyday (or as often as you can.)
Tomorrow I'll share with you a lesson I'm currently learning: why fat is essential to our diet.
