Being active outdoors connects us to nature and helps us have balance in our lives. Outdoors, we’re away from the TV, telephone, computer, and other time-consuming, sit-down activities.

While being active outdoors, we become role models for our children, friends, and neighbours. When we’re active as part of a group or team, we build the bonds that help people stay connected. When being active becomes the norm, everyone becomes comfortable being active and involved.

Affordable Ways to Be Active Outdoors

Whatever the size of your community, you can find places and ways to get off the couch and enjoy the outdoors.

Using community facilities and services is a fun and affordable way to be active outdoors. Consider the parks, trails, and programs provided by your local government. If your town has more than 3,000 people, those services may be run by a recreation and parks department. The staff can put you in touch with sports, arts programs, and recreational clubs, and help you choose the activities that fit your interests and abilities. Consider gardening, and see if there are community garden plots available.

If you live in a smaller community, check with your town or village office or with the local agricultural office. It’s also likely that your local recreation centre, county hall, ice arena, or library has information on all sorts of community activities.

Having a place to go also gets us out and about. Beyond work and errands, where else can you go? Many communities offer heritage tours or nature walks. Activities such as orienteering give you things to look for as you walk or run.

You don’t need expensive equipment, just some comfortable shoes or an older model bicycle and maybe a friend for company. Some communities even have programs that give used bikes and other sports equipment to kids and adults who need them. Families can be active outdoors on trails and in parks, playgrounds, and campgrounds.

When choosing a restaurant or theatre, look for one you can reach on foot or by bike. Also think about being active when you plan your holidays. Hiking, swimming, kayaking, golfing…there are so many ways to be active while exploring other parts of the world.

Getting Around Using Active Transportation

Active transportation is another great way to be active outdoors. It can be an environmentally friendly and relaxing way to add activity to your day. Whether walking, cycling, in-line skating, skateboarding, or wheeling a wheelchair, you’re using muscle power rather than fossil fuels to go where you want to go.

Taking an active route to work most days can give you much of the physical activity you need. If you can’t walk all the way to work, consider parking 20 minutes away or getting off the bus early to walk the rest of the way. You may also want to get a group together to walk at lunch time. Try leaving the car in the garage when you do your errands, and walk or bike instead. Besides cutting down on pollution, active transportation is less noisy and helps reduce crime by putting more eyes on the street.

Trails for biking and walking encourage people to use active transportation. A place designed so you can walk anywhere is a walkable community. When people take advantage of walkable design and use self-propelled transportation, they’re helping to create an active, healthy community.

Being Active with Others in Your Community

Being active in a group offers many advantages. The security of numbers can add to personal safety, especially at night. Buddies also help us stick to our goals. What’s more, being active together makes the entire experience more fun.

Longer term, groups that are active together often grow to trust each other, becoming part of the glue that helps communities weather the tough times and celebrate the good.

When finding or forming a group, look for people who share your lifestyle or interests. If you’re a preschool parent, form a stroller brigade, or walk with other parents while your children are in activities together. If you own a dog, invite other dog walkers to join you. If you live near someone who’s headed your way to work, make a point of walking or biking together. If you love to walk or run, check local campuses and running stores for a group you can join.

Setting goals may help you stay active. Wear a pedometer to track your steps, and see how soon you can reach the recommended 10,000 steps a day. Decide to be active at least 30 minutes a day, and chart your progress using a physical activity log.

Getting Out in the Great Outdoors

It’s easy to be active outdoors. Using active transportation and being active with other people are great ways to bring more activity to your day. Choosing activities that are simple, affordable, and fun will mean you’re active outdoors more often.

Source: HealthyAlberta.com

Do you remember biking and walking everywhere when you were young? Much has changed since then. Many of these changes can seem like barriers to getting around on foot or by bicycle.

For example, many communities have grown in size. Our streets have become wider and busier. It may not seem as safe to cross them or ride our bikes along them.

Many new communities are designed in ways that make it difficult to get around. Neighbourhoods with dead-end streets and loops have replaced the older grid pattern. This design means that we lack direct routes to where we are going. Our homes, schools and stores are also now much more spread out.

The result: Most of us aren’t as active as we should be. What can we do?

This article:

* Defines active transportation.
* Lists the personal, economic and environmental benefits.
* Offers tips on ways to make active transportation part of your day.

Active Transportation: What Is It?
Active transportation means using human power to get around for business or pleasure. This kind of transportation could include walking, biking, skateboarding, rollerblading or even using a pogo stick!

If you have to go somewhere and you’d normally drive, stop a moment and think. Is it really that far? Could you walk instead? If it’s a bit far to walk or you’d rather get there faster, could you take your bike?

All it takes is a bit of planning. Why not take a bit of time right now to make a list of places you usually drive and the places you could get to using people power?

The best time to decide isn’t when you’re hopping in your car. Cars get you places faster (you may not have time to get there using another way if you decide too late).

But if you always plan to go to certain places on foot or on your bike, you’re less likely to just jump in the car.

Personal Benefits
Being active on a regular basis reduces your risk of high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, stroke, colon cancer and depression (and helps you stay at a healthy weight).

Walking or biking can be a fun, relaxing way to get places. If you can use your bike to go to work or run errands, you’ll find it’s much more relaxing than the stress of being stuck in traffic.

Walking to and from places gives you time to think and enjoy the outdoors in any weather. Impromptu splashes through puddles, snowball fights or dashes through sprinklers can be exhilarating!

Environmental and Economic Benefits
Walking and biking is not only good for you, it’s good for the environment too! Fewer people driving means less air pollution. You’ll be doing your bit to reduce urban smog and climate change.

Leaving your car at home results in safer and calmer neighbourhoods with less traffic congestion. Reducing the number of cars on the road decreases the need for costly road repairs and parking. Green spaces can stay green, instead of paving them over for roads or parking lots.

While it may not be realistic to walk or bike everywhere, each car trip not taken still saves you money. For example, you’ll need to buy less gas and to pay less in parking fees.

You’ll save money on vehicle maintenance too. If you drive less, your tires, brakes, and motor will last longer.

How to Use Active Transportation

* Walking/cycling school bus. Instead of driving your child to school, why not organize a walking or cycling school bus? Students walk or bike to school while under adult supervision.

Just like a school bus, the group stops at planned spots along the way to pick up children as they walk or ride their bikes to school. Adults ensure all the children obey traffic signs and arrive safely.

* Family outings to local stores. If you have stores close to your home, make running errands such as going to the grocery store, drugstore or video store a family outing.

You’ll have lots of time to talk along the way. Each person could take a knapsack to carry things back.

* Biking/walking to work. Could you bike or walk to work? It may take a bit of planning. You may have to leave a bit earlier and will need to have a place at work where you can lock your bike and change your clothes.

Choose an evening or weekend to find a route and to find out how long it takes. Some people take the bus part of the way and then walk the rest of the way.

* Help from cities, employers and developers. Cities can help by making sure there are safe bike lanes, walking trails and bike racks on buses.

Employers can help by providing bike racks and shower/change facilities for their employees.

Developers can help by designing new subdivisions suitable for walking and cycling. Laying out sidewalks and roads that allow easy access to many areas makes it more likely that people will walk or bicycle.

Active Transportation Is the Smart Choice for Our Health and Environment
Active transportation can give you enough physical activity (30 to 60 minutes, in bouts of at least 10 minutes, most days of the week) to:

* benefit your health
* help control your body weight
* help with traffic congestion and pollution
* save you money in parking, gas and maintenance

Leaving the car at home to walk or cycle is an easy way to make physical activity a part of your daily routine.

Source: HealthyAlberta.com