You see it on TV all the time \u2013 another promise to make you thin and healthy \u2013 \u201cBuy our video\u201d \u2013 \u201cJoin our gym\u201d \u2013 \u201cEat our prepared meals\u201d \u2013 \u201cTake our pill\u201d – \u201cFollow our diet.\u201d None of it works, not for long anyway. But, I\u2019ve discovered the secret. We just have to do the stuff we don\u2019t do anymore. <\/p>\n
Like get up and walk over to the TV to change the channel. Lean way to the right in your car and use a hand crank to open the passenger window. \u201cPush\u201d the lawnmower; use a hand-powered trimmer. \u201cSweep\u201d the clippings off the sidewalk with a broom. \u201cShovel\u201d the snow.<\/p>\n
The list of \u201cstuff we don\u2019t do\u201d is a long one. I spent ten minutes looking for the car keys so I could drive to the post office and get a stamp to mail a bill to a business five blocks away. I could have walked over and paid it in person, but we don\u2019t do that anymore. Now, I do even less; I sit at a computer and pay the bill. I\u2019ve become so sedate I no longer turn pages in a book. I push a tab on a Kindle. Presto! I\u2019m on the next page. I don\u2019t even expend energy to turn down the corner of a page so I can go back to it. My Kindle has a tab for that too. <\/p>\n
We don\u2019t take the stairs \u2013 up or down \u2013 even if we only want to go to the next floor; we push a button and wait for the elevator. (And catch a cold from another passenger in the process.) We push a lot of buttons \u2013 the one on the dishwasher (no more scrubbing the plates and wiping them dry); the one on the dryer (no more strenuous trips to the backyard to hang out the clothes). More of the stuff we don\u2019t do anymore. <\/p>\n
It\u2019s everywhere \u2013 this stuff we don\u2019t do. It\u2019s in our car. We don\u2019t push in a clutch, shift gears or crank the wheel with our own muscle power. We don\u2019t row a boat \u2013 climb a hill to ski or sled down. We don\u2019t clean the oven or pull the stuff out of the freezer to defrost it. We don\u2019t pick berries or can tomatoes. We nibble; we nosh; we sit and push buttons. And we wonder why we\u2019re overweight and out of shape. <\/p>\n