Before human beings gave up hunting and gathering for a desk job, there was no need for fitness centers, home gyms and a myriad of machines, weights, straps, bands and balls designed to separate the tormented, overweight, desk bound individual from their hard earned money and possibly replace body fat with lean muscle tissue.  There is just one difference, our primitive ancestors had no choice in order to survive.  If you did not hunt or gather food to eat you died.  There were no convenience stores open 24 hours per day, supermarkets or supercenters to  shop for groceries.

Today most people in industrialized countries work in offices and factories to make money to put food on the table and a roof over their head.  In just the last hundred years, many jobs which burned 1000's of calories per day (lumberjack, construction, farming) to menial tasks mostly done by machines that require no more effort than pushing a button, pulling a lever or turning a knob.   Even the American household has been transformed in just a few decades.   Clothes are no longer washed by hand.  Electric can openers, mixers, food processors, toasters, ovens, dishwashers, and garbage  disposals have reduced the amount of energy needed for daily physical activities.  Many mothers no longer stay home to care for their young children.  Children have television, video games, dozens of toys and daycare.  Now mom can drop off an infant or child at daycare and go to work at her desk job.

Many Americans have become a sedentary people.  Some have earned the dubious distinction of couch potato.  People eat too much and get too little exercise.  People come home from work or school, grab something convenient to eat and then retire to watch TV, play video games, spend hours on the phone or on the computer surfing the net.  They would be in much better shape going for a walk or out surfing.

Staying in good physical condition does not require a large investment in bulky machines that take up a corner of a room and sometimes an entire room.  One of the best forms of exercise is walking and all you need is a good pair of shoes.  Whether it is a leisurely stroll (less than 3 miles per hour) or a fast paced walk (5 or more miles per hour) you are working the largest muscles in your body.  It can begin as a short walk (¼ to ½ mile) and progress to longer distances as you build endurance.  This is especially important if you have not exercised in years.  Let’s say you walk 30 minutes per day at 3 miles per hour and weight 150 pounds.  You would burn about 150 Calories.  That is about the equivalent number of Calories in a 12 ounce soft drink with sugar (actually high fructose corn syrup).

If you drink one 12 ounce can of regular cola a day, by substituting water for the cola and walking 30 minutes per day you can loose about a pound of body fat in 23 days (a pound of fat has about 3,500 Calories).  Continue the routine, without increasing the number of Calories you eat and it is possible to lose up to 16 pounds of fat in one year.  Losing up to 16 pounds in a year does not sound as impressive as the claims to lose 16 pounds in one month.  But we are taking about losing body fat and adding lean muscle versus losing mostly water.  The other thing to keep in mind is that the number of Calories you burn is based on your weight.  So the number of Calories you burn decreases as your weight decreases assuming you are not replacing fat with muscle.   

The important point to keep in mind from this example is the minimal effort needed to lose weight.  You do not have to give up soft drinks completely.  If you drink one 12 ounce can per day of a non-diet soft drink, you can cut back to every other day or once or twice a week.  If you drink more than one can a day reduce your consumption to one can per day and than every other day or less.  Making small changes to your diet and increasing your physical activity have significant long-term mental and physical health benefits.

The following table lists 20 activities that require no videos, little or no equipment and provide huge health benefits.  One of the reasons home gyms and exercise videos gather dust after a few weeks or months is the monotonous routine.  People select one activity believing they are going to go from overweight to Mr. or Ms. Universe using stair steppers, light weights or dozens of other devices.  Even a cross-country skiing machine popular during the 1980s is a faded memory.  Variety is the spice of life.  By varying your activity you increase the likelihood you will stick with the plan which is one of the major benefits of a Mediterranean diet and lifestyle.   Also, exercising outdoors is more fun.  Riding a bicycle requires balance, coordination and attentiveness which is not required when you exercise using a stationary bicycle.