Sustainable Living | weight loss | and a healthy self-sufficient lifestyle

If you have made the commitment to become self-sufficient you are joining the ranks of many whom for various reasons and beliefs have decided living a less dependent lifestyle is the best way to escape the economic chaos, and get out from under overwhelming debt.

Generally living a self-sufficient lifestyle includes growing your own foods, fruits and vegetables. It also promotes physical exercise to accomplish these task plus other outdoor activities such as cutting and hauling firewood.

Cooking from scratch, making your own dry mixes, processing and canning your own food allows you to select the ingredients that you want to add to feed your family.

This is particular important if you are on a low salt, or other therapeutic controlled diet. Most recipes taste just as good without adding salt or cutting the salt content down. You are also getting away from the chemical additives with names that we can’t even pronounce no less understand what they do, or how they harm us.

There is still no better investment in your self-sufficient future than to take care of your personal health and ensure your family does the same.

Without good health there is no way to escape the dependency on others and the runaway cost of healthcare.

People who are dependent on insulin, oxygen, dialysis, or other life sustaining medications will not be able to cut their ties to this part of the economy, and will likely become even more dependent as they age into potentially even needing some type of continuous care facility.

Taking on new outdoor self-sufficient activities needs to be done at a pace that will not overwhelm the body causing a heart attack.

Getting in shape and fit should be at the top of your self-sufficient to do list. Make use of preventative checkups so small things don’t turn into major issues.

If you or your spouse is overweight seriously consider a weight loss and physical exercise program. Carrying around that extra baggage places so much stress on the body and puts a person directly on the path to become very dependent or tethered to some piece of expensive healthcare equipment or medications, with frequent monitoring.

A weight loss program doesn’t mean to run off and purchase a health club membership. People tend to look for the easy way out, the magical pill or machine that is going to make it all disappear.

Sales people feed off of a person’s desire to lose weight and talk them into signing expensive health club one year contracts or purchasing expensive exercise equipment on payment terms.

The info commercials on TV use paid models to sale their goods and machines. When was the last time you bought something “As seen on TV” to get it and find it just doesn’t work like it was shown on TV?

This is buying more dependency, old fashioned common sense watching what you eat and a brisk walk has been proven to shed the pounds.

If you feel a piece of exercise equipment will help you then look through the classified ads, thrift stores and garage sales. Exercise equipment is sold for pennies on the dollar, and if it doesn’t work for you, you can always donate it to a thrift store and let someone else try it.

If you feel an exercise club along with a personal trainer maybe some help, look for one that will allow you to pay month to month, instead of signing a locked in contract that you have to pay for a year, regardless if you use it or not.

You can always approach the health club and ask for a temporary pass, just explain you are only living in the area short term and just need the use of the club for a couple of months. Some of the area hotels will likely have promotional discount passes for short term club use. If you end up liking it then you can join for the longer term.

If you are already over 55 look at the senior lifestyle programs being offered by area hospitals and other medical organizations. They offer free or low cost health screenings and exercise programs, and maybe even discount passes to the health club in your area.

Joining with other like minded self-sufficient individuals allows you to development new friends and to enjoy the pooling of resources to help each other in the quest of living self-sufficient. In doing so you can develop small groups to purchase in bulk, process and can foods in larger volumes, share the purchase cost of more commercial duty meat grinders, grain mills, and other food processing equipment. Look for close by neighbors who are also moving to a more self-sufficient lifestyle

This also allows you to help each other on the more strenuous building projects as well as having a reason to just get out and enjoying the great outdoors.

Liz Stevens is a freelance writer dedicated to helping those move towards living a more self-sufficient lifestyle. Liz and her husband are owners of Cottage Craft Works at http://www.cottagecraftworks.com

Cottage Craft Works is a sustainable living website offering products and how to books for sustainable living. Take time to visit this very unique and refreshing web site. If nothing else you will bring back the nostalgia and remembrance of growing up in a different time where life was just a bit less complicated and less dependent on others and the economy.

Both have spent over 30 years developing friendships in the Amish sustainable living communities in Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York. Those friendships have grown into providing the small cottage based business an online market place to sell the old time products used for generations in these sustainable living cultures.

The craftsmanship and knowledge that has been passed down for generations in the Amish communities is now available to all those seeking to live a more wholesome sustainable culture for their own family.