According to an article from the American Obesity Association, 65% of Americans are overweight or obese. This morning, after running back into the house to get my travel mug for the umptenth time, I came up with a weight loss solution that doesn't involve diet pills or a change in eating habits. (Although, a true environmentalist wouldn't eat meat which is high in fat and calories.)

On the way to work, I came up with the following calorie-burning list that I do as part of my normal, daily routine. If all Americans made the same effort, we'd have a cleaner environment and a much skinnier population:

1] Forget travel mug, run back into house to get it. If the travel mug is upstairs, even better.

2] Forget spouse's travel mug (See above note about stairs)

3] Forget kids' reusable water bottle filled with filtered tap water

4] Start car, run inside, realize you will be inside longer than a minute, run out to car to turn off, run back in house to finish task

5] Run around house turning off lights, computers, monitors, TVs, etc.

6] Sort cans, plastic bags, paper, cardboard, etc.

7] Drag recycling bin down to curb, forget a couple of glass jars, run down to curb again (Long driveways like ours = more calories burned)

8] Pick your own veggies from backyard or local co-op garden, then wash, pick through, can, etc.

9] Chop veggies for dinner (No more grabbing pre-packaged thingamajig out of freezer and popping in microwave)

10] Forget bags at grocery store and run back to car to get them

11] Run inside Dunkin Donuts because the long line at the drive-thru would cause major idling and they won't use your travel mug anyway. (On the other hand, avoid this step completely.)

12] Walk or bike as much as possible to avoid driving gas-guzzling car

13] Shovel snow instead of using extremely polluting snow blower

14] Rake leaves instead of using extremely polluting leaf blower

15] Use one of those reel push lawn mowers instead of a riding lawn mower (We haven't taken this step yet)

16] Carry in 50 lb bags of wood pellets every night in winter

17] Hang clothes out to dry (We haven't taken this step, either)

Looking back at this list, I've concluded that the more forgetful an environmentalist you are, the more calories you burn!