by Anne Keller and Jen Zeuner

Let’s face it; unless you are independently wealthy or still live with your parents, most of us generally have too much on our plates. Not literally, like in an Olive Garden unlimited bowl of pasta way, but in the sense of work, family, errands, etc., etc. Excuses for not exercising become easy when the act of simply opening the pile of mail sitting on the couch for the last week seems like too much of a time burden.   

For a good portion of our early years, that was the case for us Tomato owners. It’s a contradiction of sorts; we lived in Fruita and opened a business here because of the biking, and then the biking stopped happening when the business grew.  It’s a vicious cycle that didn’t make either of us very happy until one day an owner of a similarly minded business clued us in that it took him actually scheduling himself one hour per day of exercise (in his case running) to make that cycle work in his favor.

It felt like a light bulb moment; you mean, we can really do that? One hour of uninterrupted time, spent outdoors, doing whatever activity you choose, on a daily basis? I realize that might sound like a luxury, but think of the alternative? For us, that would mean cranky owners, cranky staff because of it, and unhappy customers because of cranky staff; in that case, the hour seems perfectly justifiable. Here’s the great thing about making that commitment; effectively you are making a commitment to you and your well-being: putting down the phone, turning off the computer, and getting out into

Here’s the great thing about making that commitment; effectively you are making a commitment to you and your well-being: putting down the phone, turning off the computer, and getting out into fresh air for at minimum one hour per day. For us, this hour alternates between dog walks in McGinnis Canyon, or a mountain bike or road ride.  We hike in

For us, this hour alternates between dog walks in McGinnis Canyon, or a mountain bike or road ride.  We hike in snow, rain, and sunshine (we only ride in the sunshine though). We watched countless wildflowers appear this spring, saw numerous eagles this winter along the river, and coyotes with pups just recently.

We biked on trails alone on Monday mornings, or with parking lots overflowing with happy out-of -towners on Sunday mornings. I completely caught back up on Serial and This American Life podcasts during solo road rides.

The great part about life in the valley? We can access these things easily within our allotted hour. I’ve lived in a city; that hour spent outside in many places in the U.S. would be taken mostly by commute time. It’s a fantastic part of Fruita life that in five minutes we can be at the McGinnis trailhead or the Kokopelli.

At this point, we’ve been scheduling ourselves for our ‘hour’ for a few years now. It doesn’t happen every single day of the year, but I’d say it happens 95% of the time, which feels like pretty ok odds. Add to that the fact that we close on Sundays and Mondays and it feels like despite the many hours spent working on or in the business, we’ve been doing a good job at also enjoying the resources we came here for.  

We often get asked why we don’t stay open on Sundays or Mondays, why we close at 9 p.m. as opposed to later, why we don’t deliver?

The number one advice cited is that we ‘could make so much more money!’ And it’s true, we could. We could do more, make more, be busier, expand, franchise, etc. We appreciate the suggestions.  But, really at the end of the day, it comes down to the fact that we moved here so that we could be part of a community and enjoy what this area has to offer.   We make sure that enjoying our community and landscape is a priority, even if it is only for an hour a day, and that feels so much more priceless.