When you’re buying a home, its impact on your health may not be the first thing on your mind, but perhaps it should be! The data is clear that your health and well-being are significantly impacted by the people with whom your spend your time, and since most of us spend a good deal of time with our neighbors, picking the right street counts for more than curb appeal.

Neighborhoods “influence the extent to which people adopt and maintain behaviors linked to obesity,” says Dr. Mahasin S. Mujahid of Harvard University’s School of Public Health in Boston. “Even highly motivated individuals will find it very difficult to be more physically active and eat healthy foods if they live in environments that do not help support these lifestyles.”

You know the saying “When in Rome, do as the Romans do.” From Dr. Mujahid’s quote above, it appears the same could be said for neighborhoods! Once you move in, you are very likely to adopt the lifestyle practices that those in your neighborhood uphold. That means if there’s a daily running group at 5AM or a Thursday night volleyball league, you just may be inspired to join them. Likewise, if the normal Friday night involves all you can eat nachos and margaritas at the local Mexican place, you’re likely to adopt the same practices yourself.

So, when you are looking for a new home, consider looking for clues such as: Who is out running, biking, or walking at various times of day? Is there a pool? Is there a basketball court (or lots of driveways with hoops)? Tennis courts? Is there a gym or fitness center close by?

If you have been able to attend a party or two in the neighborhood before you move in, what is the food like? Is it a healthy spread with salads and fruits or is it unhealthy burgers, brats, and chips? What restaurants are close by and how many of them serve fast food? Pay attention to these clues to get a preview of what life as a resident might be like.

Of course you can have a positive influence on your surroundings as well. No running group? Start one! Bring a big salad to the block party and introduce your neighbors to your healthy lifestyle. But if you want to make it easier on yourself, you’ll choose a healthy neighborhood up front. Doing so can make a big difference in your own health and well-being, which means it’s worth keeping an eye out for healthy neighbors along with that 3 car garage and finished basement!

When women stop hating their bodies…

How would you finish that sentence? The vision that stretches forth at the end of that sentence is one of the things that wakes me up in the morning. I can’t quite see all the details but I just know it will be an epic shift. The chained-up potential we’d collectively unlock would be enormous. We’d do BIG THINGS.

Thinking about it reminds me of a Women’s Studies course I took at Cornell one year with my dear friend Joanne. Our professor, Sandra Bem, was asserting that we’d never really know what the world would be like with true gender equality until we experienced it – until fully half of our doctors were women, half of our Senators, half of our professors, half of our CEOs, half of our airplane pilots and so on. Her lesson was a powerful one for an auditorium of 20 year old women, and it gives me pause even today. The notion of true gender equality is one of those things with an impact so far-reaching that it will be difficult to fully grasp until it actually occurs.

Yet while we can’t just flip a switch and make it so, we can do our part to move the world a bit closer to the vision – by taking a job in a field dominated by men, by educating and inspiring our young girls, by cheering one another on instead of competing viciously for some tiny slice of the pie. No, we can’t fully imagine the end state, perhaps, but we can see the path. And we can walk our piece of it.

So too with body hatred. I’m ready for the day when women stop hating their bodies and step into their potential. The question is, are you?