One year before I retired, the women I worked with decided to have a contest to see who could lose the most weight by Valentine’s Day which was about six weeks away. It worked pretty well for most of us – a pound or two or ten, but two people actually gained weight. So much for good intentions. The hardest part of losing weight is keeping it off and that means a complete life-style change. No weight loss class or diet book is with you all the time looking over your shoulder giving inspiration. The people who do it and stay more physically fit and healthy are to be congratulated. It takes great discipline.
If someone told you that being more “green” and shrinking your carbon footprint could, as a side benefit, make you more physically fit would you believe it? Many of the things we do are done because it’s the quick easy way. Years ago people never had the hundreds of appliances, vehicles and technological gadgets that give us more time to spend in leisure pursuits. We do not always benefit by these pursuits.
In my grandparents’ and parents’ day laundry was done by hand or with wringer washers and hung outside on clotheslines to dry. This meant expending all that extra energy carrying clothesbaskets outdoors and hanging the laundry to dry. It was good physical exercise. Most women weren’t working outside the home so they had time to do these chores. I realize the working person of today probably couldn’t fit it into a schedule with all the other million things to do. If you could just do it once or twice during the winter months or when the weather is good it gives you so many benefits. You do save money by not using the dryer, cut down on the amount of energy you use each week, and get exercise at the same time. It doesn’t really take that long to do and the smell of sheets dried outdoors is well worth the extra effort. I actually like to see laundry hanging on a clothesline.
Using a car less is another way. People who commute long distances have to use their cars, but some who live fairly close to work can walk, ride a bike or commute with others. A very busy family man I know rides back and forth to work on his bike carrying a change of clothes and his laptop. He is able to keep his weight down and looks fit as well as lessening his carbon footprint.
Having your own small vegetable garden is a good way to work outside and have good fresh vegetables for your dinner table. Growing up in North Fairhaven we had our own garden and were surrounded by neighbors who planted huge fields of tomatoes, potatoes and strawberries. They worked at tough jobs all day and still had time to water and weed. The extra produce was always shared with neighbors, some of whom had chickens and goats.
If you have a small lawn you can get by with a hand pushed lawnmower. No worry about using gas and oil and having trouble starting it. It’s a quiet chore and not any more difficult than using a huge power mower. If you have less than a third of an acre lawn there is also the option of a battery operated mower which uses a few cents of electricity a week and never fails to start. Raking leaves instead of using a leaf blower, if it’s possible for you, is good exercise and also saves energy.
My eighty-something-year-old neighbor who died three years ago hung her laundry outside on washday when she’d be outdoors about seven o’clock in the morning and we knew the weather was going to be good that day. She was seldom wrong. She also cut the grass in her small yard and walked on the bike path with her sister at least once a week in the good weather. Her husband had had a stroke years before and she had a ramp added to the house for his wheelchair. She pushed him around the streets of town for many years so that he could enjoy the outdoors with her. She was a strong sweet woman who always had a kind word, never complained and was an inspiration to me.
Students at Fairhaven High School and Hastings Middle School had climate change programs recently. They were presented by S.E.E.A.L. and included Becky who works at Allen’s Nature Center in Westport, Julian with a national program A.C.E., and Tem, a hip hop artist. These dedicated advocates teach young people how climate change affects all of us and ways the boys and girls can help bring the environment back to the 350 ppm. of CO2 in the atmosphere that is the safe limit for humanity. The kids got it. They were very attentive. One young man who performed spoke of his having two sons and said that he wanted to know that their children and
grandchildren would have a good life on our earth. Tem sang a song he wrote about what we have done to the earth and how it’s up to all of us to help change things by the way we live. At least two schools in town have “green teams” with ongoing activities in which the students are involved such as recycling and composting. When the solar panel installation on the landfill adjacent to the middle school is complete, students will be able to track online just how much electricity is generated to heat and light their school. Last year the high school’s environmental club, along with the art classes, constructed a working wind turbine with blades shaped like flower petals. It’s amazing how excited kids get about projects like this.Let’s share some of their enthusiasm and make our number one resolution in 2010 to do more in joining this important cause.
