We read about it, we may intuitively agree with it and yet many of us find it difficult to do… but then our brains are not wired to make change easily.
The “what” is: Engaging in an active lifestyle. Evidence is piling up that Canadians’ physical-activity levels are dropping while indicators of chronic disease are getting worse. Integrate the fact that our population is aging and these facts threaten to balloon health-care costs even higher. (Oh not to be a policy maker in the years to come!)
McGill University will shortly launch the Bloomberg-Manulife Prize for the Promotion of Active Health. The prize’s broad focus on all areas of physical exercise and lifestyle is unique to Canada, and maybe in all of North America. It’s timely as alarming numbers of Canadians are ignoring even the basic recommendations (recently reduced by Health Canada) for maintaining an active lifestyle.
Like in so many other areas involving consistent change, researchers believe they have to address and increase peoples’ motivation. A lack of time is the most frequent excuse for not being active and yet we all have the same number of hours in a day… don’t we?
Another factor is that Canadians still think physical activity and diet are only important for people who are overweight. No!
So it comes down to a change in behaviour. One of my heroes in this effort is Dan Buettner author of Blue Zones… his name has become synonymous with a healthy lifestyle in our family. His research has found the common denominators in a variety of international communities that have contributed to healthy aging… and they are so simple to adopt and to foster.
When we eat a DanB style meal we all say "This would make Dan proud!" When we use the broom the cleanup outside versus one those insanely noisy blowers we again congratulate ourselves. Heck, we saw an elder manually trimming a 12-foot high hedge the other day and congratulated him saying he would likely live to be 100. His response, "I am already 86." Wow!
However, even our family sometimes needs extra motivation. Mine is simply this… take a look at our burgeoning health care system now… read the reports… read the challenges… check out the projected costs…and then create a mantra… perhaps like this…
"My continuing good health is dependent on me. I create time each day to stay physically active. By so doing I am avoiding the public health care system which is not for me".
Very thank the authors share such a good article, hope the author continue to work hard, published more interesting to share with everyone
Posted by: coach purses | Wednesday, June 15, 2011 at 07:43 PM