What is it about the importance of health and fitness that people don't understand?
You would have to live in a bubble not to be aware of the daily news hitting our screens about the general lack of health which has become prevalent in most populations of the world.
There is a ticking health timebomb that is waiting to explode, and it gathers more momentum with every passing day, week and month as modern humans go through their daily life and fall into more and more bad habits.
Personal fitness, or lack of it, is a present-day problem, in an age where most people work in offices and don’t do enough exercise – let alone eat healthily.
In cave man days, and even in society as it was lived up until the second half of the 20th century, mankind was reasonably active in day to day existence, didn’t eat processed food, and consumption of sugar was minimal.
Nowadays it’s completely different, with some things that people may think are progress which are really not necessarily positive when you stand back and look.
As time has progressed, humans have changed their behaviour, as society has developed and we are all more stressed and time-deprived than ever.
And there are lots of scary statistics out there which show that we have a long way to go with our understanding of how our daily habits really impact our lives, and it’s not just the UK that has this problem.
When it comes to health issues, there is plenty of reading out there and information about how our behaviour affects us, and how it is changing.
Some eye-opening stats which we should take heed of
The World Health Organisation has revealed that physical inactivity is now identified as the fourth leading risk factor for global mortality.
So here is the proof that not exercising enough shortens your life.
They say that inactivity levels are rising in many countries with major implications for the prevalence of health problems like heart disease, strokes, cancer, diabetes etc and the general health of the population worldwide.
And here in the UK, the British Heart Foundation revealed that in 2012, in England, 59% of men and 54% of women reported spending five hours or more per day sitting or standing at work, in other words not moving around at all.
The NHS reported that in 2015/16, 26% of adults were classified as inactive (fewer than 30 minutes of physical activity a week).
And other NHS statistics are just as stark, revealing that 58% of women and 68% of men were identified as overweight or obese in 2015. The overall rate of obesity increased from 15% in 1993 to 27% in 2015 – so almost double in just over 20 years.
Children are also at risk, with over 1 in 5 children in reception, and over 1 in 3 children in year 6 being measured as obese or overweight.
Only today (21.5.18) it was reported that childhood obesity rates continue to rocket and have now overtaken those of the USA for the first time. And 29% of Scottish children are now overweight or obese, according to the latest reports.
Clearly something must change.
In the USA the same problems are rife. The President's Council on Fitness, Sports & Nutrition has recently reported that less than 5% of adults there participate in 30 minutes of physical activity each day, and only one in three adults receive the recommended amount of physical activity each week.
They also predict that by 2030, half of all adults (115 million adults) in the United States will be obese.
So how can we stop this seemingly relentless trend towards poorer health and lack of fitness? And what can we do to help prevent this happening to us?
The answer is everyone needs to make changes. Many people are scared of change, and find it difficult to implement.
But the good news is that only small, incremental changes to daily habits can in the end make a huge difference to our overall health.
And after starting to make a few changes a bit at a time, as you see the benefit it encourages you to keep making more changes, until you have adopted a whole new lifestyle which you never thought could be possible.
Long term habits are the things that need to be changed, and that takes time to put into practice – there are no easy, quick fixes.
It takes time and patience, but the rewards speak for themselves and you will feel fitter, healthier and happier once you have learned how to put positive habits into practice and built them into your daily life.
For more about this subject, and some practical advice on how to change things around, read our other related blogs here and here.
And here’s a great video download showing you some really simple exercises you can start doing right away, wherever you are and whatever you are doing – try them once and you will be hooked…..
