Archive: May 2007

Go Green

Being Healthy & Fit is the first step to going green

By H. McGee

If you’re like me, springtime in mid-Michigan means getting outdoors and walking, running and cycling along the roads. It also means navigating through a winter’s worth of roadkill, trash and debris that’s seemingly everywhere.

While dodging a squirrel and a Coke bottle, I had the idea of what it would take to go green the healthy way. Here’s a list of ways you can go green, help the environment by reducing your ecological footprint and feel better about yourself. According to Wikepedia, the phrase “ecological footprint” is a metaphor used to depict the amount of land and area a human population would hypothetically need to provide the resources required to support itself and to absorb its wastes, given prevailing technology.

Get it? Good. Try this:

Gardening. It’s the ultimate way to go green. Research shows that gardening for 30-45 minutes most days of the week has significant health benefits like decreasing the risk of high blood pressure and diabetes, as well as helping strengthen bones. Weeds don’t pull themselves—they take some muscle. Plus, eat what you grow. It’s green, healthy and, if you truly have a green thumb, can be chemical free.

Commute by bike. Riding your bike to work will save money on gas and improve cardiovascular health. Don’t have a bike? Buy a used one, if you can find one. Buying used equipment is like recycling—if it still works, use it.

Buy local. Shop at your local farmer’s market. Smaller, local growers take pride in the quality of the product and the purchase price goes directly to the farmer. Buying local saves energy by reducing the fossil fuels needed to transport food across the country. Eat your fruit and vegetables!

Skip the bottled water. Use a sports water bottle and filter your faucet. Bottled water produces large amounts of container waste. Plus, if you’re like me you need more than those smaller, store bought bottle waters can provide.

Finally, come up with something you can do on your own. I’m going to start taking bags along with me on my runs to help pick up some of this trash I’m forced to look at on longer runs. I’ll fill the bags and follow up by picking them up in my car. That should help clean the roadsides.

I haven’t decided what to do about the roadkill, though. Any ideas?