You know you’re tired of staying indoors and staring at that computer screen. It’s time for an outdoor adventure – made even more invigorating when someone else pays for the whole deal. So just sign your name and you may be one of four lucky duos to win a $2,000 certificate for an adventure trip for two – plus a $1,000 airfare voucher.

And if the thought of the outdoors is making you thirsty, you could also win a year’s supply of Honest Tea or Honest Ade, which you can sip while riding the Mountain bike you might win if you are one of eight runners-up prize winners. All courtesy of Honest Tea and the Sierra Club. So start clicking… the deadline is 3/31/10, but they’re awarding some of the prizes even sooner.

Governor Mark Sanford of South Carolina is no longer considered missing. Though he seems to have disappeared for a few days over Father’s Day, his staff now says he was just out hiking  the Appalachian Trail and could not be reached. And it is only a “coincidence” that he was out there on Naked Hiking Day — yes, there is a naked hiking day on the trail — celebrated on the first day of summer. (No, that is not the Governor in any of these photos.)

The Governor has still not returned, according to the Christian Science Monitor but his wife says she is not concerned — he was writing something and needed his space. The staff say Naked Day had nothing to do with his disappearance. And the Park rangers say that they do not condone or encourage Naked Day — and people caught out in nature au naturel could get fined.

Who says hiking can’t be sexy?

For more on hiking the Appalachian Trail — any day — go to their website. Clothes optional.

By Susan Seliger

If you want to feel trim and fit so you can get outside in the great green world, forget diet pills, carb-counting and weight-tracking. Just remember one simple trick — think small.

We’re talking utensils here.

No doubt you’ve heard that the key to healthy eating and losing weight is eating smaller portions. But that takes self-control. And who has that?

Well, you can trick yourself into exerting portion control simply by using smaller plates, smaller bowls — and, according to a medical study, smaller serving spoons.

Researchers In a study from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign found that people who used larger serving spoons gave themselves 14.5% more ice cream – and those with larger bowls, gave themselves 31% more ice cream.

When the test subjects used both a large spoon and a large bowl, it was an even bigger disaster — they ate 56.8 % more ice cream than those using smaller tools. And these subjects included nutrition experts who you’d think would know better! Hey, we’re all just human — and, it turns out, slaves to our utensils.  (The American Journal of Preventive Medicine published the study.)

See– smaller is beautiful!

I wonder if sitting on a smaller chair could have a similar effect on your … No? Not the same? Darn.

Photo credit: wwww.veggievampire.net

With fears of swine flu spreading, sales of hand sanitizers and anti-bacterial soaps are soaring. But studies have shown that you don’t need all those chemicals and high-priced, individually-packaged cleaning products. The best steps you can take to prevent getting sick from swine flu – in addition to a host of other more serious infections, including salmonella, strep, staph, E. coli on down to the common cold — are far simpler and considerably more eco-friendly.

You can’t avoid exposure to these common disease-causing critters – they are simply present in the world around us. But you can take simple steps to keep yourself and your family safe from dangerous infectious viruses and bacteria.

1. Stop Shaking Hands

Unless you’re a politician, you can keep the hand-pumping to a minimum. Kissing hello and goodbye on the cheek may actually be even safer than a firm handshake – and a lot more fun.  If you can pull it off, consider blowing kisses (though admittedly, this is a far cuter gesture when executed by a baby). Or perhaps you could single-handedly bring back the Eurotrash custom of air kissing — sure it’s been deservedly dissed as  pretentious, but it’s oh-so-sanitary. We all must be brave when facing down epidemics.

2. Clean Your Computer Keyboard

Especially if you share your computer with the family or co-workers, it is vital to disinfect this gadget that your fingers come into contact with for hours every day. Use straight alcohol – no, do not spray it on the keyboard. Spray it on a clean cloth or paper towel and then wipe the keyboard several times. (Did I mention turning off the computer first? Do I have to tell you everything?)

3. Wash Your Hands – but you’re probably doing it wrong.

The Mayo Clinic and the Centers for Disease Control say that the single most important step you can take to stop the spread of infectious diseases is to wash your hands. (See Mayo Clinic article.) Soap and water can be even more effective than some hand rubs with alcohol.

Ok, maybe you’ve heard that already. But what you may not know is that just washing is not enough – you have to do it right.

As Melinda Beck points out in an excellent Wall Street Journal article on fighting disease with soap and water, doctors have known about the importance of hand-washing

“since 1847, when a doctor named Ignaz Semmelweis suspected that maternity patients were dying in his Vienna hospital because med students treated them right after working on cadavers. When he instituted hand-cleaning, the deaths fell sharply…. But many people don’t do it often enough, or long enough.”

4. The best technique – rub, rub, rub and take your time.

You have to scrub both hands, inside, outside, interlacing fingers and then rubbing energetically, like a miser who has just discovered that his stock portfolio did not really drop 40% in the last four months – for as long as it takes to sing Happy Birthday to You twice. Melinda Beck recommends that if you get tired of that tune, you can try Rub a Dub Dub or any other ditty that lasts at least 15 seconds. There is no mention of trying The Black Eyed Peas latest hit “Boom Boom Pow,” but really, I think you can take it from here.

5. Don’t touch the doorknob on your way out.

So you’ve just washed your hands, sung a heart-rending version of “I Did It My Way,” and you figure you’re clean as a whistle and safe from germs. Then you unlock the bathroom door, turn the door knob – and boom – you may as well not have bothered washing your hands.

Here’s how that scene should have gone. After washing, you wipe your hands with a paper towel (yes, it is safer than blow-drying, as you’ll see if you just keep reading), and then use that towel to turn off the water faucet and to grab the door handle on your way out. Even in your very own bathroom at home, door locks, light switches and door handles are the hard-to-clean surfaces that play a large role in transmitting disease.

6. Do not touch your eyes or your nose with your hands.

Yes, this is a hard one. As soon as you even think about not touching your nose, it starts to itch. Especially when you are on the subway or train or plane and someone has just passed by coughing. Remember, the germs on your hands are not dangerous at all until you put them in contact with the vulnerable eyes and nasal passages. Solution: cover your face if someone nearby is coughing or sneezing, but do not actually touch your face. And as for rubbing your eyes or nose – just make sure you carry tissues with you, and cover your fingers with the clean tissue before you (gently) dab your eye or scratch that itch.

7. Hand sanitizers work – but not all of them

It’s fine to buy hand sanitizers and schlep them around with you if you are spending a lot of time beyond the reach of a sink. They work – but only if they are at least 60% alcohol.  Otherwise, soap and water work just as well.

Photo credit: www.Moonbattery.com

May is biking month in New York City – and this traffic-choked town kicked off the celebrations last weekend with The 5-Boro Bike Tour, the largest recreational cycling event in the United States.

I was there, May 3, 2009, for all 40+ miles. Just me and 30,0000 other bikers, who showed up, despite the wind, the cold and the rain that pelted us mercilessly every turn of the wheel.

Now usually this bike race is one of the most exhilarating biking adventures imaginable. It is well-organized — the city shuts down auto traffic on a 40-mile path stretching through all five boroughs of the city and turns the streets over to the bikers. There’s no better feeling than pedaling along wide roads that you usually see filled with honking, tail-gating, belching autos now packed with cyclists to make you feel alive and eco-virtuous.

And before I tell you about this year’s race — I recommend everyone sign up for it next year. Keep this web address handy as you have to register to ride and it fills up fast: http://www.bikenewyork.org

This year, however, it was wet, and cold, and windy and rainy. In short, miserable biking conditions. And did I mention, wet? But the race proceeds, rain or shine. So nearly 30,000 of us – some on bicycles built for two, some parents towing babies behind in covered carts,(I coveted those covered carts) and even a few unicycles — cycled from the base of Manhattan, up through the Bronx, down the FDR drive over the 59^th Street Bridge into Queens, down through Brooklyn and into the home stretch up the straight-uphill climb of the Verrazzano Bridge into Staten Island.

Usually there are many fun rest stops along the way, to munch on snacks provided by sponsors of the race, and rest up on green hillsides before moving on. This year, however, the rest stops offered no shelter from the foul weather – unless you count the port-a-potties, which I do not. . My biking buddy and I decided we would just press on – so we stopped only once, for 20 minutes to eat a soggy sandwich. That may be why by the time we reached the home stretch my body was drenched, (plastic ponchos have a way of lifting up as you ride to welcome the rain), my sneakers were making squishy, water-logged noises, and my knees were screaming for mercy with every pedal-stroke.

But it’s a great feeling to watch motorists stream by (on the other side of the highway that was not closed off) watching all the cyclists and being reminded that there is another way to travel. Ok, maybe not in the rain – and maybe they were just thinking we were nuts to be out there in the rain, but still…

This is one thing I know… you won’t find a parade of 60,000 more amazing calf muscles than I saw last weekend anywhere else on earth. Or 30,000 crazier but indomitable biking spirits.

Get outside and enjoy the beauty of nature on Earth Day. Are you willing to venture further than your backyard, but you don’t know where to go? Here are some cool tools and great resources to help you rediscover the wonder of it all.

1. Visit a nature preserve: The Nature Conservancy has a cool tool – just click on their map or the state-by-state listing and discover a nature preserve near you.

2. Take a hike: The Localhikes web site provides information on local hiking opportunities near both large and small metropolitan areas in the United States.

3. Go hiking, biking and backpacking: Trails.com will help you find the places to go whether you travel on two legs or two wheels.

4. Biking and/or horsebackriding in the US: Rails to trails Conservancy is a great resource for biking trails and an organization devoted to converting old, unused rail lines into wonderful biking, hiking and horsebackriding trails. Check out Trail Link.

5. Scenic Drives: If you have elderly relatives who are not up to a strenuous walk, but still want to enjoy the beauty of nature, take a look at these lists of scenic drives and scenic byways will help. Get into that electric vehicle or hybrid (we know you have one), roll down the windows and see what nature has to offer.

Top 10 Scenic Drives on Gorp.

US Dept. of Transportation.

Scenic drives on Trails.com.

Photo credit: www.BecomeNatural.com

Thank you, friends, for contacting me about yesterday’s post (with 5 tips for losing weight and going green) asking for more tips – here you go.

Reducing your carbon footprint while you reduce your love handles is simpler than you think. The large quantities of meat the typical American consumes is one of the biggest eco-problems – and one of the easiest to fix. Consider this morsel from a new book, Go Green Get Lean, by Kate Geagan: If you switch to a vegetarian diet for just two weeks, you can reduce your carbon footprint by 122 pounds and your calories by nearly 12,500—that’s 3 ½ pounds gone – in 14 days!

Need more motivation to green up your eating? By scarfing down the average American’s diet, according to Geagan, you generate far more carbon dioxide emissions (2.8 tons per year) than you do by driving a car (2.2 tons).

Change is easy – OK that’s a lie – but it isn’t complicated at all. The key to developing new eating patterns depends as much on your attitude toward food as what you consume. So here are a few things to think about, so you can lose weight, save money, and take steps to save the planet, too.

1. Forget 3 squares — eat 6 smaller meals spaced evenly through the day.

Though we were all raised on eating breakfast, lunch and dinner, some diet experts say it’s healthier to keep the metabolism stoked evenly throughout the day. Consume 6-7 small meals of 200-300 calories each, every 2-3 hours. It works on several levels: first you get used to eating small portions – and you realize that these smaller (and greener) portions can be just as satisfying. Second, it keeps your metabolism revved, so you burn more calories as you eat. And third, you won’t ever get really hungry – so you won’t overeat at mealtime. How can you — it’s always meal time.

2. Don’t go shopping when you’re hungry.

You know you buy more when you’re famished. And fattening snacks seem so irresistible in that state of mind that you don’t notice that these processed foods (like potato chips and flavored crackers) cost more per pound than the most expensive meats and exotic fruits and vegetables. Before you leave home, grab a carrot or some gum to munch on while you shop. And stick to the list.

3. Go meatless – try tilapia: it’s the little black dress of the fish world.

Cutting out meat yields a big cost savings. And it’s about the single-biggest green modification you can make in your diet. Going vegetarian can reduces your carbon footprint by over 5000 pounds annually, according to Josh Peterson in Planet Green.

Even the more expensive fishes, like salmon (rich in those valuable anti-aging, anti-oxidant Omega-3s) are often less expensive (and better for the planet,) than many cuts of meat. For an inexpensive alternative, try tilapia – a mild white fish with lovely texture that works. It’s the little black dress of the fish world –you can dress it up, dress it down, so versatile it works with any kind of spices and flavoring or just on its own sautéed in organic olive oil with a splash of lemon. (Top 20 Tilapia recipes.)

4. Cut out sodas – lose two pounds per month.

Sodas are expensive and packed with sugar. If you eat as much sugar as most Americans do — 150 pounds per year – you’re releasing 855 pounds of carbon into the atmosphere. Just by cutting consumption in half, according to the book Go Green, Get Lean, the average Joe could cut 7,500 calories a month. That’s about two pounds per month.

5. While eating – do not watch TV or talk on the phone — focus on every mouthful.

Ever finished a meal, looked down at your empty plate and barely remembered having eaten? What a waste of calories – and enjoyment. Mindful eating is the key to weight loss. You maximize pleasure (so eating less doesn’t feel like deprivation).

It’s simple: do not multi-task. Concentrate on every mouthful. Smell each bite before chowing down (your sense of smell is hundreds of times more sensitive than your taste buds.) Chew each bite 25 times (start counting) before swallowing. Invite a friend to join you. Open a bottle of organic wine, pour a small glass (see tip on small plates), and discuss the food, your lovelife, the environment (anything but the economy).

Feeling thinner, greener and richer already, aren’t you?

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Photo credit: From blog Because noone asked