Healthy Green Habits

Baltimore Sun @ baltimoresun.com

You're working out regularly. Taking in less fat and less sugar. Feeling good about yourself. But are you doing what you can to keep the planet healthy too? Here are seven ways to exercise in a greener fashion.

1. Donate your used fitness shoes. Try Soles4Souls (soles4souls.com), which made donations to victims of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and the Asian tsunami in 2004. Nike also accepts shoes and recycles them into sports courts around the world.



2. When participating in a race, walk or other event, carry your own water or sports drink in a reusable plastic bottle (if you don't mind the extra weight).Not only will it save on paper cups, but you'll be certain you're drinking the same fluids you use during your training, says Bruce Rayner of Boston-based Athletes for a Fit Planet. Rayner's overall take on being a greener athlete: "We're all familiar with 'recycle,' but there's also 'reduce' and 'reuse.'"



3. Leave your car in the driveway and ride your bike to the gym (especially on weekends, when you have more time).If you have an old bike, keep it around to use for short neighborhood errands.



4. Carpool to races.



5. Wear eco-friendly training clothing.And if you belong to a group, encourage club officers to pick clothing made with recycled polyester instead of the regular virgin polyester.



6. Sign an "eco-pledge" created especially for athletes, at AFitPlanet.com/pledge."You can actually make a formal public commitment to being environmentally responsible," Rayner says. "It starts people thinking while wearing their environmental cap. I've had people come up to me and talk about how [the pledge] changed the way they've done things in their daily life."



7. Designate a cleanup day for your running, cycling, inline skating or fitness club, where you agree to pick up the garbage along your usual route.Runners and skaters could put a garbage pail in the seat of a baby jogger and push it along, so they don't miss their workout.