Thursday's Ten

In the spirit of trying to become healthier this year, I'm writing a fitness-related ten list today.

Ten Ways to Exercise for Free...or Cheap

1. Walk to more places you would normally drive. A prime example for me is walking to teach piano lessons once a week. That's 2 extra miles walked/jogged a week!

2. Use the greenways and parks. I love Nashville's natural beauty. When I'm hiking Radnor or running on the greenway I often forget I'm actually exercising!

3. Do yoga on the patio, or set up a sanctuary in your home for a relaxing session. Or roll up your mat and take it to a pretty, relatively quiet grassy area. Parks are good for this :0)

4. Did you know there's exercise OnDemand with Comcast? And DirectTV has fitTV. Both are great channels that you ALREADY pay for. Use 'em!

5. Stair climbing on your actual stairs. What a concept.

6. Garden and/or mow the lawn. Mowing is my personal favorite (not with a riding mower, obviously, with a push), but I sadly am not able to right now since I don't have a yard of my own--our homeowners association takes care of the common area. But in a pinch, gardening now only burns calories, but has a beautiful--and tasty--end result

7. Play with kids. I don't have kids of my own, but I do babysit a lot. Take a walk with them (pushing in a stroller if they're infants, strolling at their pace if they're young), play in the backyard, or go to the part and stay off the bench.

8. Ride a bike. Ok, this takes an initial investment if you don't have one, but it's pretty low-maintenance after that. And this opens up a whole new world of getting around town. For example, you can ride it to Target if you live 2-3 miles away like I do...and there are bike paths the whole way :) Now...I don't have a bike currently. But I plan to get one soon (well, it's on the list for when I'm employed) and I have neighbors and friends who have told me I'm welcome to use theirs if I want. I'm gonna start taking them up on it!

9. Do exercises such as crunches and push-ups while the TV is on. Unless it's a show I LOVE, I'm usually not paying *that* much attention to what's on the tv. I could certainly spend some of the time I'm usually sitting with the laptop open and surfing the net by exercising something more than my fingers.

10. A fitness magazine or dvd every couple of months is STILL cheaper than a membership to a gym. Sure, I'd love to join a gym and I probably will (again when I'm employed and stable again). BUT for now, I think I have enough variety to be able to handle exercising for free...and besides, when it's nicer out I prefer to exercise outside anyway!