Hello everyone, welcome to another entry in my Health series where I review hardcore penny pinching stories that contribute to a sustainable lifestyle. This topic is not for the faint of heart, you’ve been warned. 🙂
I have a short one for you today. In my quest to perfect cardiovascular health and reduced medical bills, I am constantly looking for ways I can optimize my health. Ever since my June posting I decided to start walking more and taking the stairs instead of an elevator to force myself into situations of working out more.
Much to my surprise, I awoke today with a nice fluffy 4 inches of snow in my driveway. Naturally, I was a little bummed because I wanted to run to the gym but cleaning up this snow was going to take 20 minutes of my time. Then I began to think, I am an idiot. Plowing this snow would be an excellent workout. I not only was going to the driveway, but I also decided to get the sidewalk too. I turned this into a killer HIT (High Intensity Training) exercise by working as fast as I could while not taking a break. Before I knew it, I was sweating in 12 degree weather!
As I was killing it outside, I began to look at all the poor guys robbing their health and bank account using a gas powered snow blower. It’s not that I think I am better than them. Not at all. I feel sorry for them because they do not realize how healthy and efficient it is to turn this little blessing of snow into a killer cardio workout without having to leave the house.
Sure, everyone is entitled to use whatever tool they want. I am not trying to be an exercising dictator here. However, I can’t help but to imagine this country’s crazy obesity rate and I began to wonder, are all our tools really making our lives easier? Just speculating here, but I bet if we as a nation increased our cardiovascular health we could reduce the cost of healthcare.
I am noticing some of the conveniences we leverage, are robbing us on a few levels.
- Many of us complain about not having enough time to workout. Meanwhile, we take the elevator instead of the stairs and try to find the closest parking spot instead of walking.
- Most of us drive to work everyday instead of biking or walking on the pretty days. This means less cardio for us. But it also means, we have to spend money on gas, car repairs, new tires, the list goes on…
As a frugal geek, I take that second bullet point especially serious. How can we reduce our outbound expenses? Examine the two bullet points just mentioned. Are there any other areas where we can optimize?
Sadly, there was a complacency mindset I originally had when I was complaining about the snow. It wasn’t until my love of efficiency forced me to recognize the workout opportunity placed in front of my own eyes by this beautiful snow.
Being healthy is frugal. Being efficient is an art form that can contribute to our frugal muscles. Here at Average Joe, we are always looking for ways we can metaphorically squeeze into that conveniently tight fitted shirt and flex our frugality muscles.
As I improve my own health, I promise to share my observations and statistics so that we can all live a better life. Please let me know how we can make a few tweaks to our life and squeeze in a workout while also saving money.
Drive safe out there my fellow frugal mercenaries!
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Says Joe Cole 