Walking Clear Across Canada (Virtually)

Canada's a big place.

Walking across it might take some time.

I don't have much in the way of time.

Doesn't mean I can't do it.

Thanks to the Trans Canada Trail new website feature, by entering my steps daily, I can do it from the comfort of my own province and still walk the roughly 18,000km of trail (11,184 miles).

Want to walk across Canada too?

Simply sign up for a free account here and log your steps daily.

Last one to the East coast's a rotten egg.

[Hat tip to our fitness director Rob]

Dr. Arya Sharma's Blog

Today I'm going to direct you to Dr. Arya Sharma's blog.

Arya is a friend, the Scientific Director of the Canadian Obesity Network and the Medical Director of Edmonton's Weight Wise - Canada's largest tertiary care bariatric centre.

Arya only recently picked up the reins over there and despite a ridiculously heavy workload, he's somehow finding the time to blog.

His more recent post, "Is Reducing Global Warming the Key to Preventing Obesity?" is a very interesting take tying together dietary over consumption, the over-processing of foods, obesity and global warming whereby he asserts that,

"Each calorie of food you eat may have consumed 10 to 50 calories in fossil fuels"

and that,

"Processing 1 pound of coffee requires more than 8,000 calories of fossil fuel, the equivalent of one quart of crude oil, 30 cubic feet of natural gas or 2 1/2 lbs of coal. It has been estimated that the CO2 emissions attributable to producing, processing, packaging and distributing the food consumed by a family of four is about 8 tonnes a year."

Some very interesting reading.

Hope you enjoy it, and welcome to the blogroll Arya.

Great Gear Website for Functional Exercisers

I love a good deal.

I also love functional exercise.

What's functional exercise?

It's exercise that doesn't feel like exercise. Riding your bike to work, playing with your children, gardening, housework, walking (not Segwaying) around town, hiking, skating, skiing - pretty much anything other than pushing weights.

If you want exercise to be a lifelong commitment, you'd better make sure you commit to something you enjoy, and gyms really aren't for everyone.

Remember too that exercise for weight control is cumulative, not consecutive. It's like going to the bank. Go 6 times in a day and deposit $10 each time and you've got the same amount of money in your account as if you went once and deposited $60. Now switch the "dollars" to minutes and it's the same for exercise, 6 ten minute blocks is the same as one 60.

So what does this have to do with gear? Well while you don't need a gym membership for functional exercise, it sure helps to have great gear.

I found a fabulous gear sale website that posts one-deal at a time offers for extremely discounted outdoor gear.

It even has a widget that sits on your desktop and alerts you when a new deal is live, and their shipping costs to Canada are extremely reasonable.

www.steepandcheap.com
That site's going to cost me a fortune!