Don’t forget to stand!

A great article from The Onion: Department of Health and Human Services Recommends Standing at Least Once a Day.

Alas, as ridiculous as that article is–like any Onion article, I guess–you know it’s only funny because there’s some aspect of truth to it. As exercise recommendations get downgraded from vigorous exercise every day to moderate exercise 15 minutes a day to walk at least every other day, to hey, at least think about exercise sometimes, please?, is it that hard to believe that someone might one day recommend standing at least once a day?

It reminds me, though, that I’m extremely lucky:

1. I live in Portland, where most people do see the value and joy in physical activity. One needs only a sunny day here to observe this phenomena. With even the smallest hint of nice day, suddenly there are 20 million neighbors working in their yards, biking with their kids, walking their dog to the park, whatever. It’s awesome.

2. Exercise is an ingrained part of my life, not an extra thing I have to remember to do. If there’s ever a day where I didn’t get my Onion-recommended standing in, it means you should call an ambulance. I’m likely on my deathbed. Because even something as simple as leaving the house for me entails exercise, whether it’s a walk to the store or hopping on my bike to get somewhere further. Even if I don’t make the extra effort to go running, for example, I at least have a baseline of fitness wrought of biking and walking wherever I need to go. Granted, being the crazy person that I am, just biking places isn’t enough to keep me feeling in shape and sane–but at least it’s enough, without even trying, to stay away from total slothhood.

3. I actually like exercise. It’s not like you have to beat me with a stick to get me to go for a bike ride. It doesn’t take tons of persuasion to get me outside for a run. I like the feeling of muscles being used, of breathing hard and getting sweaty. I like the productive tiredness at the end of the run and then the buzz from it that lasts the rest of the day. It’s so much easier to stay healthy when you like the work of getting there.

4. I like food that’s good for me and is actually food. As opposed to processed shit, I mean. Granted, I like some junk too (and James knows better than to leave a stasia alone with a bag of chocolate chips), but few things make me happier and more wholesome-feeling than seeing a whole pile of fruits and veggies in my grocery basket.

So I guess what I’d like to know is how I can somehow share those four things with other people. As much as I’d like to, I’m not sure how to transpose a love of exercise to someone else, other than by so passionately liking it myself that it seems appealing. And even though I love them, I’m not sure how I can convince a naysayer that vegetables are more delicious than cheetos. I don’t want to turn everyone into me, of course, but I do wish I had some magic formula for sharing this stuff with people who want it.

So in the meantime, while I figure this all out, I hope all of you reading this are at least inspired to make time to get outside today–and do more than stand:)