Super Eco

Photo credit: darkpatator - flickr

As everyone knows, one of the best things about green living isn't preserving the polar bears or knowing future generations will have rain forests to enjoy. No, the real upside of being all environmental is getting to feel righteous. Virtuous. Good.

Coincidentally, this is also one of the real upsides of living healthy. “Oh no, I couldn't possibly touch that processed snack, I only eat whole fruit.” “While I was doing my century bike ride through the canyon the other day, I just felt how good it is to be alive.” Then take a deep breath, stretch, and scratch your back in a way that telegraphs your vigor, your joie de vivre, and your compassion for Mother Earth. Righteous, yo.

But wait: Are there ways to ensure your health and fitness routine are maximally environmentally responsible? Sure. And we should review those. Of course, it is possible to go overboard in the quest for a greener tomorrow. And we should review that too, because there is room for going wrong in all this. Don't be Grizzly Man, okay? 

Here are some quick ways greenify your health without taking it too far:

Do run outside. This one is kind of a no-brainer, but whenever you can, you should run outdoors instead of on the treadmill. Same goes for biking, and hell, there's even sets of stairs you can climb yourself using only human power and not precious electricity. Join an outdoor bootcamp or other fitness program, as long as it doesn't meet in protected wetlands. You can even organize your own outdoor group, if you are a sassy-host/ess type, and you don't mind coordinating some regular runs or other activity. Of course, to extend the idea, relying on your own locomotion for commuting and errands also reduces your carbon footprint, and helps improve your health at the same time. Though I would be the first one to admit it's a bit harder to read trashy magazines while running outside than it is on the stairmaster, unless you rigged some sort of headpiece and avoided traffic and any other obstacle... Um, just listen to music instead. Or simply enjoy the sounds of the beautiful world around you. That way maybe you'll hear that mountain lion before it attacks you on your scenic trail run.

Going too far: No need to slap skull-and-crossbones bumper stickers on every car as you whiz by on your bike. Nor should you walk around the gym, unplugging all the equipment and saying loudly, “Begone with ye! Get outside, you gym rats!” You also should never commute on dorky roller blades, unless you are training for the X-treme Games. Alright, maybe you could make a case for the last one, but I'm still leery of it

Do look for ways to green your gym. Go ahead and pester gym management to install water-saving showerheads, electricity-saving lighting, and to turn off televisions and fans when they aren't in use. Hell, you can even turn off the TV in front of your recumbent bike yourself when you aren't using it---and reaching up to do it burns like, three additional calories. Don't use 57 towels, and encourage your gym to post signs asking other patrons to do the same, because all that laundry adds up. Green cleaning products and pool purifying systems help as well, and you can always do a little research yourself and present it to your gym. Oh, and remember, strength training, like using free weights and such, means less electricity used and better cross-training for you. There's even a few green gyms out there that use human power---namely, what you generate on the bikes and other equipment---to power music and DVD players. It's so Flintstones and yet so modern!

Going too far: Don't inquire about ways to recycle the human sweat runoff on the equipment into potable water.

Do wear organic. Look for workout clothing made from organic and recycled fibers. Some companies, like Patagonia, will even recycle some clothing when it has outlived its usefulness. Cotton is often not so good because of pesticides used for the crop, and wool is better, if sometimes a little bit itchier. Use gentle and ecological detergents to extend the life of your stuff, wash in cold water, and line-dry your apparel, which makes it smell like mmm mmm sunshine. Try and make your workout clothes last, and if you are rapidly changing sizes due to your oh-so-healthy activities, you can even arrange a clothing swap with other fitness rats. Some used clothing stores will even carry the occasional workout item, though I'd be leery of buying chamois-equipped bike shorts that way. (Eeeewww.)

And of course, there's the shoes. If you are a runner, you know you should replace your shoes often, but unfortunately our shoes aren't all that green. Made from plastic, processed and dyed and glued into fancy sleekness, made in China, and shipped here in pretty packaging, each pair of shoes has an impact on the earth. If you have some spare time, you can read this in-depth article on our not-so-happy-landfill shoes, and then try and decide how often you really need new ones before your knees and feet pay the price. At a minimum, you should wear old shoes around town when they let you down in running function. Runner's World http://www.runnersworld.com/article/0,7120,s6-240-488--12883-0,00.html”>suggests the Brooks Trance 8, because the mid-sole is made from the faster-decomposing BioMoGo. There are organizations, like Shoe4Africa, that will give your old shoes to needy folks, so wear socks for now, don't charitably give your athlete's foot to anyone. Or you could always join the barefoot running movement. Proponents claim it is better for you physically, and you get the eco-points too. Watch out for broken glass and low-growing cacti.

Going too far: Refusing to wash your workout stuff for a month because you are so environmental and your odor is just natural, man. That's just asking for a funk cloud and possibly a nasty rash.

Do carry reusable water bottles. Yeah yeah, we all need to hydrate when we exercise, but bottled water is a bad one because the plastic both leeches weirdness into your cool refreshing drink, and it's just more plastic out there in the world. Companies like Sigg make stainless steel bottles you can even attach to your belt loop with a caribeaner, if you don't mind a bottle slapping you in the leg wherever you go. Use a water filtration system and save money on all those flats of supposedly “natural spring” water that might just come from your local well.

If you regularly drink sports drinks, you can buy powder and mix your own. But you should know that some research says you really don't need to replace those electrolytes unless you are doing at least 60 minutes or more of straight activity, so you might just be taking in unnecessary sugar in ambiguously-citrus-flavored form. Perhaps you want to save that sugar for something more fun, like a cupcake. (Well, in equal calories, we are probably talking about half a cupcake. A small cupcake. Whatever. Just run a little farther and eat the whole damn thing. Mmmm, cupcake.)

Going too far: See sweat as potable water above. Don't wring out your shirt and boil it either, then suck down what's left. I'm totally creeped out and yet fascinated by this idea of drinking salty icky sweat. Perhaps I need to get out more.

Do fuel with organics. Sure, you can look for organic energy bars and eat those. Hell, if you are really skilled in the kitchen, you can even make your own. But you know what's also good? It's called fruit, it comes in a recyclable package, and if you have a little protein with it, you've got a great pre-workout snack. Actually, whole, organic foods are ideal for both health and environmental reasons, and tend to taste way better than those horrible little salty entrees people sometimes eat when they want to lose weight, let alone most of the more calorie dense stuff out there. Just think, you can make a big pot of soup with fresh vegetables you get from your local Farmer's market, freeze a bunch, and be all health-awesome. Oh my god, did I just blow my own mind? Oh, and it totally pains me to say this, but trading out meat for other protein sources can be a good thing too. Meat uses up more resources to produce, even if some of us find it very, very tasty.

Going too far: Foraging for your entire meal in the forest, including hunting squirrels with a whittled spear in order to make squirrel-tree-root-mushroom-caterpillar-surprise, unless there's prize money involved. Also bad: Making nasty raw-food entrees and forcing them on other people.

Got some ideas then for what to do to maximize your eco-healthy-happy-joy? Good. Just remember not to cross the line, or you'll lose the ability to just bask away in righteousness and instead, people will think you are a freak who might be more at home in a cabin or compound in an unpopulated location. And maybe you are, but it's much less fun to be righteous alone.