GET YOUR BODY MOVING: MOTHER NATURE GOT HIM IN SHAPE
John Bradley always loved being outdoors. As a youngster growing up in northern Maine, he spent many more summer nights sleeping outside than in. His days were filled with work on his family’s potato farm, fishing, swimming, canoeing, and hiking in the woods.
Now age 45, John still finds joy in the great outdoors. It not only relaxes him but it also helped him lose 30 pounds.
John, who ran his own farm for more than 20 years before becoming a student at the University of Maine, had a weight problem | for most of his life. He ate too much of the wrong kinds of foods, and despite his active lifestyle, it showed.
“My family always kept a lot of sweets around the house,” he says. “And I had a special fondness for french fries and Coke. I drank Coke all the time.”
Every now and then, John would diet and lose some weight, only to regain it. By age 40, he reached 220 pounds. “I realized that slimming down wouldn’t get any easier as I got older,” he says. “And I knew that I’d be a lot healthier without the extra pounds. So I made up my mind to get rid of them for good.”
John paid more attention to his food intake, eliminating fried foods, desserts, and high-calorie snacks. He kept an eye on his portion sizes, too. For exercise, he began doing situps, working up to 100, five times per week. But what really made a difference, he says, were his nightly nature walks.
Every evening after dinner, John, sometimes accompanied by his wife, would step out his backdoor and head for the old logging roads that cut through his 270-acre farm. He’d wander the roads for an hour, sometimes two, observing nature in all her glory. He’d spy bears and their cubs; coyotes; moose; and deer. “Even when I walked alone, it was never lonely,” he says. “I might see muskrats or beavers or trout in my stream. But I knew I’d almost always see something.”
John so enjoyed his nature walks that he never really thought of them as exercise. Yet in combination with his improved eating habits and his sit up regimen, they got him down to a healthy 190 pounds in about 6 months. He’s been holding steady since 1996.
“If I wasn’t active, I’d gain weight quickly,” John says. “But the exercise that I do is a pleasure. I’m always glad to get outdoors. It’s where I feel best. It’s the place where I most love to be.”
WINNING ACTION
Pursue your exercise through your passion. One of the best ways to stick with your exercise routine is to find an activity that you look forward to. If the traditional choices such as running, biking, and swimming don’t interest you, ask yourself what does. Bird watching? People watching? Karate Swing dancing? Anything that gets you moving can help you slim down and shape up.
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