Move it

We are a sedentary society. And although most of us know that there is no mysterious fountain of youth in some far reaching land, we still put faith in the existence of miracle cures. We hope that cutting out an entire food group (carbs) will make us thin. Our puffy fingers reach for pills that promise to systematically gobble away all of our fat cells while we sit in front of the boob tube eating a gallon of ice cream, our arm lost in the bag of potato chips.

And we sit. And we super-size. And we wait. And we sit some more.

Just maybe the solution (besides giving all that chewing just a small break) is to move. Move your body just a little bit more every single day. Instead of circling the parking lot, plant that automobile and walk a few more paces. Get off the bus a stop early. Take the stairs in your building. Walk your dog (and your child). Move it. It doesn't take an expensive gym membership to burn calories. Gold's Gym didn't exist much before the spandex-clad 80's. And our ancestors were svelte. Because they moved. (And, by the way, they cooked in lard).

I hope I haven't offended anyone here--I am not exulting a skinny esthetic. My heart is in the right place. And if I had the budget of a city like Stockholm, I'd put these piano stairs everywhere. And we could all sing and rejoice in our movement and on our bathroom scale...with an extra loud hurrah for, what really matters, our clean bill of health.

Thanks to Plinio and Nana for forwarding the inspiring video.