What are modern conveniences costing you?

More than you'd think.

Today, you hardly need to leave your house.

No time for grocery shopping? Have InstaCart do it for you.  Hungry for a midnight snack? DoorDash some noshies from the local gas station. You can even deposit checks straight from your bed using your phone—no clothes required.

While these services have certainly made life easy, the cumulative effect of not having to physically move or socially interact has its drawbacks.

Once upon a time, people walked everywhere on foot, found and prepared food, built shelters for protection, and made clothing and tools. The physical labor to perform these tasks required substantial energy. The functional movement of life—squatting down, lunging, pushing and pulling—was strenuous work that left people spent, tired and ready for a good night’s sleep.

Our bodies still require the rhythms of regular movement and recovery to function properly. Beyond maintaining fluidity, balance, and muscle strength, consistent movement enables all body systems to work better, including digestive, immune, and neurological functions. In essence, we evolved to execute strenuous movements every day and those movements set us up for rest and recovery, feeding back into the loop so other systems work properly and synergistically.

This is one major way our habits translate into states of wellness and disease. They say genes hold the gun, but our lifestyle (or choices) pull the trigger. In short, you can have genes for a particular disease or sickness, but those genes may not be expressed if you make lifestyle choices that support health. Movement is a core aspect of lifestyle medicine for a reason: it maintains good health.

In the 2023 docuseries Live to 100: Secrets of the Blue Zones, National Geographic fellow Dan Buettner travels to the places in the world with the most centenarians looking for the secrets to longevity. Each area had unique elements, but overarching trends appear across each. Themes of community, clean food, and continued movement despite creeping age are some of the most notable.

In Okinawa, for instance, people in their 80s, 90s, and 100s still till their own mini gardens just outside of their homes. Not only do they reap fresh produce, but the labor they put into the task helps them stay strong and mobile. When they eat their high-nutrient meals, they do so with family and other community members, sitting around a table on the floor and talking. The meal serves as nourishment for the body, the squatting down to and getting up from the floor nourishment for the muscles, and camaraderie nourishment for the spirit.

In Sardinia, unique geography lends a hand. Steep hills force people of all ages to climb daily. They do this from their youth into their elder years, maintaining physical strength and stamina their whole lives. They also gather outdoors in local trattorias, or restaurants, to socialize and catch up with others. They eat a Mediterranean diet, rich in healthy fats and fresh fish and vegetables. These boons to health often counteract the bits of wine and spirits that they partake socially.

In a 2023 interview with The Slowdown, biomechanist and author, Katy Bowman, says this about awareness of our movement patterns:

”Start thinking of the shape of your body throughout the day. I explain it this way: If you imagine a star at every one of your joints, your body is making a constellation. So there’s a constellation while working on the computer, a constellation while taking a walk, a constellation while riding a bike. Can you refine those constellations, for instance, by improving your posture at your desk? You have many joints in your body, and they’re there to allow you a different way of doing the tasks that you’re already doing. Think of a star for every single one of your vertebrae—not just, you know, a star at your shoulder and a star at your hip. The more you change up those shapes, the more movement micronutrients you’ll be getting.”

Don’t underestimate how important daily movement is to your overall health. Not only does lack of movement create restriction, but prolonged restriction contributes to disease and ultimately, biological failure.

Even so, there’s no need to feel guilty when using modern services that save you time and energy. Slowly reducing the need for them and building in time to care for yourself is a good alternative. Here are a few tips to help create space for healthy habits.

1)     Downsize your obligations and commitments. Start by asking yourself: what are you saying “yes” to that you should be saying “no” to, and what are you saying ‘no” to that you should be saying “yes” to? If you’re going to be busy, be busy doing what’s most important to you. Even taking one thing off your plate can open space for extra self-care–a short daily walk or time to prep for a healthy meal you enjoy with family and friends.

2)     Simplify your home set-up. Having less means having less to maintain. Look around you and determine what you really need to operate efficiently in your life. Are there items you never use–furniture that just collects dust or projects you never get to? Reducing clutter and having organized spaces help alleviate feelings of stress and overwhelm. The time you’d use for upkeep can instead go to activities that mean the most to you and those that foster peace and wellness.

3)     Set yourself up so that daily movement is required to get things done. Plant a garden –it requires lots of physical work and you’ll be grounding yourself while you dig in the soil. Take a page from Katy Bowman’s book and move your dishes to the bottom cabinets so you’re forced to squat to retrieve them. Park far away from a building’s entrance. Take the stairs. Stretch each time you get up your desk. Every little bit helps. In this book Atomic Habits, James Clear says, “habits are the compound interest of self improvement.” In other words, what you do every day matters more than what you do once in a while. Setting your life up so you’re moving regularly will go a long way toward maintaining the strength and fluidity needed to stay mobile, independent, and happy well into your golden years.

As spring approaches, temperatures warm, daylight extends, greenery makes a reappearance. It’s much easier to move your body in these conditions. Make a renewed commitment to moving in different ways each day. Like the Blue Zones centenarians, mix your movement with social time for the added benefit of improved spirit.

What you do now will impact your quality of life decades from now, so there’s no such thing as too late a start.

I look forward to reading your comments about what you’re choosing to do to make time for yourself and to create new body “constellations." Remember, genes are not the great predictor we once thought they were. You have so much power to influence the trajectory of your own health and wellness. You just have to choose to wield it.