Deconveniencing our lives.

by

Im obsessed with Blue Zones. (Like obsessedobsessed since the book came out in 2009.)

Ive integrated the Blue Zone Power 9 notion into my personal mission statement & it’s one of the reasons I touched down in my new city and immediately searched for purpose/a way to “belong.”

family sunday school starts this weekend!

family sunday school starts this weekend!

It’s why I PLAYout not WORKout. For *me* that’s movement which comes naturally.

swinging as CARDIO!

swinging = CARDIO!

I strive to eat only stuffs my grandmothers would recognize.

I challenge myself each time I intuitively reach for a food:

Is this something they’d have eaten? Would they have recognized this as “food?”

raspberries FTW!!

raspberries FTW!!

Id thought I’d created an OAKtown Blue Zone (me, the neighbors and my homeless peeps) yet was unaware I’d missed a piece until I stumbled on a tweet by (Blue Zone author) Dan Buettner.

He stated (paraphrasing) those who live longest arent marathon runners/triathletes etc—they are people who live a deconvenient lifestyle.

The word DECONVENIENT struck a chord and *jolted* me in a way Id not been for a while.

  • I employ all tricks (elevators? Never!) which squeeze steps into my day.

My home (and facets of my life) still wasnt set up as an environment which got me moving without my thinking.

My home—and I like to think Im not alone in this—was far too convenient.

I decided that moment—as much as possible—to commit to living a lifestyle my grandmothers would recognize, too.

I made the decision to deconvenience my home and set up my surroundings so the right behaviors more readily ensue.

I closed off the chute so I was compelled to *always* walk laundry downstairs:

in case I forgot...

in case I forgot…

We have a bathroom on each floor.  I chose to ‘act as if’ we only had one…and it was upstairs:

subtle reminders till it became habit

subtle reminder till it became habit

You literally CANNOT change channels without a remote anymore, but that doesnt mean it needs to be convenient:

not near the television

not near the television

Im addicted to plain, sparkling room temperature water.  Instead of bringing inside (convenience!) I chose to leave in my car.  If I wanted water–I was ‘set up’ to walk for it.

 

(picture youre not getting of my incredibly messy trunk)

Id previously viewed work-from-home life through the lens of:

How can I make this easiest on myself so I get the maximum done in the minimum of time?

My home is now set up with a backdrop of:

How can I make this less convenient so my surroundings get me moving without my thinking?

  • Im not yet growing all my own vegetables and still use the ‘convenience’ of a grocery or farmers market.
  • I dont yet wash all my clothing by hand and happily employ the ‘convenience’ of a machine.

That said, 20 years ago I never thought Id be able to go gluten free and sustain the change for decades so I never know where my new DECONVENIENT lifestyle will take me.

Now you.

Is your domicile as *convenient* as mine used to be?  What’s ONE THING you could do today to move toward DECONVENIENT living?

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Comments

  3. DEconveniencing our lives. I simply love it. There are about 1,134,434,132 ways I can deconvenience my home. I live in the bedroom upstairs with the laundry, bathroom, livingroom, kitchen, etc all down stairs.. that helps some. But its now my mission to make it even less convenient.

    my boyfriend may not be entirely too impressed at first hahaha 😉 i kid i kid

    • So, I get why you would de-convenience things, simply to move more. But, here is the counter point. If everything is MORE convenient and we were all more efficient that should leave us time to exercise, no matter what type of exercise we choose. If I can save an extra 10 minutes here and there and conserve a little energy because I didn’t have to go up the stairs 10 times I may have the time, energy and desire to exercise more. Just a thought not trying to criticize the idea of de-conveniencing.

  4. Loved this! We live in such a world of convenience it is so so easy to fall into the “norm” of making our own lives more convenient not less.

    I need to look into this “bluezones” you speak of.

    I do believe you have struck a cord within me this morning! ??

    so many things I do see, even in my own home…in particular with my hubs the tech guru…reminds me of Disney’s movie WALLE! I remember watching it thinking how this could really be a future reality.

    It drives me insane when I hear someone say all.the.time…go get me this or that, when they are quite capable to get it for themselves, just would rather sit on their derrière!

  5. I have never heard of this book and I’m an avid reader. Must check it!! How is the tornado adapting to these changes…or are they just for you??

    • GREAT QUESTION. For me. Now anyway 😉 Id imagine the husband, too, would have to be DRAGGGGGED into it.
      He’s not playing 🙂
      yet.

  7. you are so interesting!!!! there probably are a million ways to deconvenience my home… crazy how these small little changes could really add up to getting people to MOVE more! although, i think my husband would not be very happy if i moved the tv remote lol

  8. I love the Blue Zones too! My community (via one of the local hospitals) is working on making the Power 9 part of the community culture.

    Our house has always had one bathroom. It’s upstairs. My office is downstairs. I drink a lot of water and tea. Needless to say I do a lot of stairs every day. 🙂

  10. I haven’t heard of the book either.
    And it has been out since 2009??
    The blue tape cracked me up, too, Mizzy.
    My husband would not be happy LOL

  11. My house is very inconvenient as-is. I don’t have a bathroom on every level and my laundry room is in the basement (and there’s no chute). What I view as a pain in the rear, maybe isn’t if I just change the way I view it.
    Thanks for this, Carla! Now, I’m off to run up and down the stairs 18 times to use the bathroom and do the laundry. 😉

  12. I really like what you share about your grandmothers.
    I tend to eat fairly well, but if I lived with that backdrop as you say I would eat even better.
    Great tips.

  13. I have heard about the Blue Zones on Dr. Oz. I always find the shows on it so interesting! I do admit that I am NOT deconvenienced & more convenienced for sure…. I do walk up & do9wn the stairs for a lot of things but that is about it… I honestly am not sure I could go all out – I don’t know.. I am willing to try in Hawaii! 😉

    Honest – super interesting post!!!! Lots to think about!

    • Me either.
      I would put mine in the cookie drawer so I could multitask LOL

      Actually I should put it by the chia, right Miz?

  17. It sounds awfully silly to me, but then thanks to my allergies I’ve always eaten pretty much only things my grandmothers (born 1888) would recognize. And I prefer to avoid stairs as much as possible, since my knees and ankles complain. I really don’t want to waste time moving about the house when I could spend it moving in FUN ways like walking or gardening. But I have a very active job.

  18. We’re working on the veggie/fruit idea. Since we just bought our house in the spring, I’m spending the next year designing/installing a massive set of veggie tiers in our backyard, as well as a mini-orchard in our front side yard. Not only will we likely have enough fruits/veggies for the two of us and then some, but it also takes less water than the existing sod, which I really like. Double win.

  22. The fiancé had a challenge at work competing against other employees on who got more steps over a period of 4 months. We did a lot more walking, we’d walk to places nearby instead of driving. There is probably a lot we could do to deconvenience. I love this!

  24. You KNOW I love this post. As I’m definitely NOT a marathon runner, I live by deconveniencing myself. I’ll take 6 trips to put away laundry, even though my brain recoils in horror at how inefficient I’m being. Hilarious.

    The only one I couldn’t do is leaving the water in the car. This would probably just end with my completely forgetting to drink enough water.

    Love this.

  25. Oooh…something new to obsess over – yay! 🙂

    I will have to give this one some thought. I do keep our water in a refrigerator in the garage, which means lots of extra steps. I fold laundry in the living room and make lots of trips to put it away…but I will have to think of what else I could do. I seem to constantly be taking a thousand extra steps at home so I may be pretty well deconvenienced there already.

    For me, though, it’s probably more about deconveniencing my office, since I probably spend more time here than at home. Not keeping supplies in my own office would mean more trips to the supply room…not keeping frequently-used files at my desk would mean lots more trips to the file room…I can probably work with that.

  26. I just started following your blog, and I haven’t regretted one minute of it. I also decided to deconvenience my house. I love this idea.

  29. this makes me feel better about my de-conveniences. i live a 15 minute walk away from civilization (well, as close to it as possible in dc) so i usually have to walk a lot, i’m just going to consider it de-conveniencing. missing the bus … also de-conveniencing. 🙂 haha, i like this concept. thanks for posting.

  31. Many years ago (like 15) when I used to be a teacher (middle school science) this was a topic that I was passionate about. I had many discussions with kids about the fact that we have turned into a lazy group of people because of all the modern conveniences that we use every day. I’ve always tried to keep that idea in the back of my head and remember that sometimes a convenience isn’t the way to go.
    Thanks for the reminder to be more natural!!

  33. I de-convenienced my life big time when we moved onto the sailboat – now that we are landbased again, still working on that MOVING A LOT but never heard it was an official THING before. Funny… and kewl!

  34. Oh, darn! And I just bought a slow cooker!

    My grandmother was told at 38 that she’d be in a wheel chair before 40 because of her arthritis. She decided to walk to the local market (imagine a permanent farmer’s market open 5 days a week) every day to get the fixings for supper.

    It was about 40 blocks (about 2 miles) each way.

    When she died at 89, she had never spent a day in a wheelchair.

    While I can learn to shop every day (like many do in Europe), my life is not set up to walk to a market every day. But I can still make the choice to buy the freshest ingredients and only enough for one day.

  35. I think my dedication to voluntary simplicity leads to a lot of these behaviors. I think it’s all about balance in life.

    I saw a study recently about longevity of Tour de France riders over a fifty year span versus the general population in France. The riders outlived them easily.

    I don’t think the whole population of California can fit into Loma Linda, lol!

  38. huh, this is a really interesting perspective. As someone with fibromyalgia, I’ve had to optimize my steps and movements for so many years, and put things at arms reach I’d I really wanted them. For example, bringing multiple bottles of water and snacks up at one time because I wasn’t sure if I would be able to walk the stairs for a few hours, But since loosing much of my excess weight, the energy difference is striking, and I find myself going up and down all the time. Get downstairs and realize I forgot to bring the dirty smoothie cup with me? no problem, run back up and get it now. Get to the office and missing my water bottle? run downstairs and get it. (obviously, loosing weight hasn’t made me less forgetful LOl!). I still have to pace myself, but it’s a stark mindset change for sure!

    One of the things I have done in recent weeks that I thought was a convenience and now that I think on it… I removed all 12 chairs from the dining room to the hallway for vacuuming instead of moving them just a little to vacuum around. this gave me the chair lifting bonus super power x12. 😀

  39. oh, and a side note of interest: my inlaws are from one of the blue zone cities, so I’ve heard them talk about it 🙂 Loma Linda CA is a very religiously-oriented, vegetarian-friendly city, and my father in law works with the Adventist Health Study collecting data around the world. 🙂

  41. Interesting idea that could really help all those people looking to build a little more movement into their lives without having to think and plan etc. Rather brilliant in fact.

    For me, I’d rather have the psychological benefit of convenience when the “task” part is important, and then voluntarily move when I feel like it so I can feel all smug and virtuous. I rarely drive when I can walk or bike, always take stairs instead of elevators etc., but if feels like a choice. I don’t have the determination or willpower you do to get work and chores done, and the last thing I’d want to set up is any sort of disincentive to get to my “to do” list which is often terribly neglected. But for most normal people, this is such an EXCELLENT idea!

  43. This old house is set up inconvenient already, and i’m on my feet all day, but i’ll keep this in mind and look more closely.

  44. Reason #103938o8098 why I think you are so amazing.

    Perhaps I should put my keys in the basement when I get home. That way, in the morning, I have to go down the stairs to get them (and back up again to leave the house lol).

  46. go you!

    I’m currently maxed out on all things inconvenient. LOL I raise my children by actively being with them. I am present with them when I interact with them…which is almost all the time that they are awake and at home. I cloth diaper my child and make most of our meals from scratch–I say as I eat a piece of left over pizza from the pizza I bought last night when I was just too exhausted to cook.

    But I do agree that constantly looking for new ways to make our lives more convenient does us a disservice. Not only do we fill our lives with “things” we could live without, but we often become lazier.

  47. Wow, these are great tips. I’m going to have to check out the book because I am intrigued to say the least.

  48. LOVE this idea! It seems already that I make my life less convenient because I’ll walk to one room, forget why I was there, walk back to see if I can remember, then walk back again. Now I will be much happier about it because I’m doing something for my longevity!

  49. I like it. I find myself deconveniencing in one important way, and it concerns food. I am buying less and less “convenient” produce (i.e., bagged salads) and and aiming for more and more local, right-out-of-the-ground stuff, which means I have to wash it and prep it myself. Same with other whole foods that sometimes have a tendency to be “prepped” and made convenient.

    Oh, and by the way, my grandmother who is 95 (and my great-grandmother who lived into her 90s) ate Oreos and Mallowmars 😉

  54. I’ve never heard of Blue Zones and I’m super curious. There are probably a number of ways we could make our home more deconvenient but at the same time, living in an apartment in NYC, everything’s pretty close at hand because the apartments are small! 🙂

  55. I don’t get it. Life should be fun. why make what can be easy harder? I would rather run 10 miles in the morning, garden for 20 minutes, bike to and from school to drop my kids off and do 3 loads of laundry, dishes, tidying in between so I can have fun when kids are home. Just another trendy idea.

  57. Totally curious about the blue zones and idea of making things less convenient. I absolutely needed that reminder as this whole recovery from hip injury is slow in part because I am sitting at my computer most of the day.

  58. I have to admit that laundry chutes are kinda fun and I was just thinking the other day how I wished that I had one!

    Aside from being useful for laundry they’re also great for entertaining kids!

  63. I am impressed. There are many comments as well. I’ve never heard of Blue Zones and I’m super curious. I will read more about it to get more knowledgeable about this.

    It was nicely written too. thanks for posting.

  65. What an interesting concept, so different than the way I lead life. I am always so busy I try to make things convenient so I can get it all done & have time to relax. But I love some of the tricks you’ve implemented too! So thought provoking!

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