The Revolutionary Exercise Plan

Our forefathers worked much harder than we do. Their jobs were more physical than ours, but so were their home lives.

Whereas we just sit on the couch pushing buttons on one of the many remote controls that litter the coffee table, home life at the time of the American Revolution required much labor.

You just turn the dial on your thermostat to make your house warmer. In 1776, they had to chop wood to stoke the fire. They pumped water from the well or carried many buckets in from the stream instead of turning on the faucet. While you might press a couple of buttons on your microwave, they had to hang a heavy cast iron pot over the fire and fill it with meat they hunted.

Is it any wonder they were in much better shape than you are?

Now don't think you need to abaondon the creature comforts of home to get back in shape. But because your job might keep you behind a desk all day, you need to make a consious effort to get some exercise.

If you don't want to don brightly colored spandex or "sweat to the oldies" in an aerobics class, worry not. It's not necessary. Just get outside and walk. Maybe shovel some snow (in winter) or work in the garden, cut the grass with a push reel mower, or trim the hedges (in summer). Raking leaves, cleaning the gutters, or walking to and from the store for errands all counts as exercise. So does much housework.

Park far from the store when you visit the mall or grocery store. You'll get more exercise walking in and carrying your bags out - and your car will get dinged up less too!

Clean up that old bicycle and fill the tires with air. Go for a bike ride. Any speed you ride is fine. Just ride.

At work, take the stairs instead of the elevator. At the mall or airport, bypass the escalator in favor the stairs too.

It doesn't matter what you do, just do something. Because modern life is so sedentary, you have to make a conscious effort to get some exercise in. You don't need much. Thirty minutes a day is fine if that's all the spare time you have. If you can do more, that's great. The more you do, the more you'll like it, and the more you'll want to do.

The Revolutionary Diet way of supermarket shopping

When you enter most supermarkets, the areas along the outside walls are often where you find fruits and vegetables, meats and fish, and the dairy products.

The inner aisles are filled with all the prepared and packaged goods, all the fake foods made with high-fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated vegetable oils, and genetically-modified grains - none of the the things that existed in 1776, and none of the stuff you should be eating.

Fill up your cart with as much real food as you want. You're not going to get fat by eating produce. If you have to venture into the inner aisles, do so to pick up rice, pasta, and some condiments to flavor the real food you found along the permimeter of the market.

Be sure to park your car far from the door, so you have to walk across the parking lot, and bring reusable shopping bags (they're easier to carry, hold more, don't tear, and are good for the environment).

If there's a farmers market near your home, don't hesitate to shop there first, and buy from the supermarket only those things you can't get at the farmers market. Eating local food is good for you, good for the local farmers, and good for the environment.

Healthy eating is simple - just eat real food

If you think about the lives our forefathers (and mothers) lived, they were naturally conducive to a healthy lifestyle.

They ate real food, got plenty of exercise working outside, and slept well at night.

You can enjoy the weight management benefits of their healthy foods and sound lifestyle without giving up the comforts of modern society. It's not hard to do, and you'll find you like it.