Move to a location where you will naturally walk more and drive less.

Imagine that you are thinking of moving and you are considering two different locations: Sit City and Active Town.

You like Sit City because you can buy a great house for a good price. But there are a few problems with Sit City. There are no sidewalks in the suburb you would be moving to, and you’re concerned it would be hard to walk safely on the roads. There aren’t any parks or schools close by so you couldn’t walk there either. Your house is miles and miles away from a real town center and all you have close to you are strip malls. Strip malls mean most of your eating options are fast food restaurants and you’ll have to drive everywhere. And strip mall living means you won’t have stores close by offering quality fresh fruits and vegetables at reasonable prices.

You can see what your life will be like in Sit City. You will eat bad food, drive everywhere, and sit inside your house all the time watching TV. Year after year, you can just see the pounds being packed on.

You like really like Active Town, but it is a more expensive and the house is a smaller. It’s one of those new communities organized like older small town centers. Near your house is a mix of parks, shops, bike paths, golf courses, offices, and stores with fresh fruits and vegetables. You can walk everywhere and you hardly need to drive at all.

You can see what your life will be like in Active Town. You won’t have the giant house you always dreamed of. That hurts a little. But your life will be better in most ways that matter, kind of like how small town living used to be. There’s a main street where you can shop for fresh food and room to get outside and play. And you’ll have a better chance of meeting people too.

Which place should you pick to live? In making your decision, you may want to consider the impact on your weight. You may not have thought about where you live as having a lot to do with your weight, but it does.

People who live in a community where they can walk to shop, work, eat and socialize have been found to be thinner. The reason is simple: they walk more and drive less. A University of Maryland study found people who live in the most sprawling counties are the most likely to be overweight.

The best predictor of not being obese is, amazingly, having shops and services near where you live. The environment in which you live is the driving force for how much physical activity you’ll naturally get in your day life. Your environment also has a lot to do with the quality and cost of the food available to you. In Sit City you’ll naturally get far less exercise and worse food than you would in Active Town.

If you currently live in a Sit City you may want to think about moving to a place like Active Town. Moving may seem extreme, but it may be the easiest way for you to create a situation in which you will naturally walk more. Creating situations where you naturally walk more is the core of creating your Exercise Safe Zone.

Just give moving some thought. You may find this to be one of the most effective strategies you could ever implement.

Active Towns are Being Built

Active Town is not a fictional place, well the name is fictional. Verrado, near Phoenix, Arizona, is one impressive example of an Active Town development. Their vision of the future is to recreate a modern version of the classic American small town instead of sprawling suburbs connected by overcrowded roads.

You’ll find a small-town feel in Verrado. Many houses have front porches. There’s a core downtown with a main street lined with shops, cafes, and restaurants. Open spaces are scattered throughout the development and are an easy walk from homes. Neighborhoods are walkable and schools are close and accessible.

This is the kind of place where you’ll want to walk and that could make all the difference in staying on your diet. Verrado is not alone. Many communities like Verrado are now being built.