Care about your body, care about the Earth

With Earth Hour today at 8:30 p.m. and Earth Day coming up next month (April 22), it's a good time to note that your family's environmentally friendly practices can extend to your fitness routines. Consider:

• Exercising outside, instead of on a treadmill or stationary bike, to save electricity
• Exercising at home, instead of at a gym, to save gas and carbon emissions (or how about joining a green gym, if there's one in your area?)
• Using household items as fitness/play equipment, to save money and create less waste—the "reduce" and "reuse" part of "reduce, reuse, recycle"
• Donating your used running shoes and other fitness gear, to reduce waste and extend the benefits of fitness to others; buying used sporting equipment (in good condition) too
• Using a refillable water bottle, to reduce waste; reusing your workout towel a few times, to reduce water and energy use from laundry
• Doing errands or taking kids to school on foot or by bike, to lower your family's carbon footprint and raise its fitness footprint

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