The Rural Voice, 1979-02, Page 8Cross country skiing and
crunchy granola come to the farm
BY SUSAN WHITE
Until a very few years ago anyone suggesting that farmers
didn't get enough physical exercise would have been hooted out
of any hall in the country.
Now even farmers admit things aren't the way they used to be.
"1'm so mechanized I just go from one tractor to another," one
hog farmer joked with Rural Voice. "My manure fork is rusting .
. . 1 haven't used it in ten years" he added.
It's long been recognized that physical exercise and keeping fit
is a terrific way to work off stress. Besides. hard physical work
that leaves you tired out is satisfying.
Let's face it, when you fork out a barn tull of manure under
your own steam you've got a pretty good feeling of
accomplishment; you've worked off that breakfast time irritation
with your kids; and you've burned up the calories from the
second piec eof pie you had for dinner.
But farmers who no longer need to shovel out under their
own steam have a problem.
Like a majority of Canada's adult population, they may be
overweight because of their less active lifestyles.
We know that farming, like a lot of other industries that have
been mechanized, offers much less chance to burn off calories
and keep muscles in shape than it used to.
But old habits die hard and a lot of us still eat. and choose
A lot of people call life
"The Survival of the Fittest"
You know,
a lot of people are right.
physically undemanding recreation as if we still used cross cut
saws followed a plow or did the household wash with ascrub-board
and wash tub, as part of our daily routines.
Retired farmers have a special problem. A man who's always
eaten three big meals a day (and needed them to keep up his
strength when he was farming) soon puts on weight when he
retires.
Even though his big exercise may now be a daily walk to the
PG. 8 THE RURAL VOICE/FEBRUARY 1979
post office, the eating habits he and his wife had when they
worked hard on the farm are still followed. Those habits included
a lot of sugar and fat foods.
Greta McKercher, a retired home economist and a farm wife
who lives at R.R.1, Dublin says "we eat much more intelligently
on the farm now. . .you used to get not just pie, but pie, cake
and cookies all at one meal."
Son: Hey dad,
let's go out and
throw the football around.
Father: Ask your mother.
1SOBEL EDDY is among the huge number
of rural women who are avid curlers. In the
background is Jan Warrilow, Goderich.