Fitness is important to me. I plan to be alive for quite a while and remain active and lets face it, wild as well. Being active, is what keeps me sane at the end of the day. I'm not really one for doing exercises, I love to dance, which is of course great exercise. But I don't do stretches or yoga, use a gym. My day to day life is active. From collecting water and carrying it to my truck, to climbing walls and trees.
I don't own a car, so I walk everywhere. I walk everyday, to work, to town, to visit my friends. I do have friends that will take me and my girls to places that are too far to walk, like the beach and if we want to go to the city we catch a bus. I go to the weekly market with my trolley and end up, coming back carrying and pushing a heavy load.
Part of my work is gardening, so I use a strimmer, an old reliable one, that is very heavy. It always feels like I am having a powerful work out when I use it. Then there is the pruning and sawing, along with digging and raking. So both my upper and lower body get a really good work out, between all the walking and do and gardening, 3-4 times per week.
Living in nature, means I have access to the best infrastructure in which to exercise. It's really important to walk on uneven surfaces, to walk uphill and downhill. I love walking up the dry river bed, which leads me into town. Not when I need to go shopping, as it would be really difficult to carry my trolley up there. But it's lots of fun jumping from rock to rock and ducking under branches.
I've done it in the dark before, with only the light of the moon to guide me and it was a lot of fun. I was with a friend and we had a great laugh as we stumbled a few times and I disappeared, down a hole. (I stumbled and fell, luckily I didn't hurt myself.)
I don't need weights, when I carry water everyday. In buckets and also in 10 liter containers. I probably should do some stretching, but I've always just get stuck in and get things done. If I'm not moving, I get too in my head, which sometimes is where I need to be. I do enjoy my own company, but it really depends on my mood. If I'm feeling triggered or down, I can easily find myself stuck and then my life can become stagnant. It's happened in the past and I found myself in a loop. Until I got knocked out of it.
Lately, I have though begin to use my girls trampoline. Every morning, I get up, go to the toilet, then jump on the trampoline on my way back to the truck. Then I have my breakfast and get on with my day. So for the first time in my life, I am using something other than my environment, in which to exercise. And it is on a huge trampoline. Which there is nothing minimal about. But seeing as I don't use anything else and it's outside and used everyday by me and my girls, I think it fits quite well into my minimalist lifestyle, I think I'm allowed one big thing lol.
The photos that I have used in this post, are mine.
