Lifestyle


What should a nation’s number one priority be? I believe it should be the health of it’s citizens. No, this is not an essay on socialized medicine. Sure I could get into how 40% of our nation is without health insurance, but not in this post. I am big proponent of lifestyle as the best means to wellness. Currently America is leading the world in unhealthy lifestyles. A good portion of Americans lead depressingly sedentary lives. We are either sitting in the car, sitting on a couch, or sitting at a desk. With restaurants steadily increasing portion sizes and us being taught our whole lives to eat everything on our plate it is no wonder that auto manufacturers and airlines are having to increase seat sizes to fit our ever increasing seat sizes.

The average child in America watches two hours of television per day. I was one of those statistics when I was a kid. I was a “latch key child”. I’d come home from school turn on the TV and go through a package of graham crackers, a glass of milk, maybe a bowl of cereal, and some days I would eat a few spoonfuls of brown sugar to top it off. I would watch TV usually until I heard my mom pull into the driveway an hour or two later. Then after dinner I’d watch another hour usually two hours of TV. Today when I see kids outside playing, I want to go and shake their hands. I want to congratulate them on a start to a healthy life and better memories than episodes of Scooby-Doo.

A lot of adults don’t even encourage their kids to go outside and play. Maybe it’s laziness because it means they might have to go out too and throw the football with them. Maybe adults are plagued by the same society kids are. The society and culture that says no one has to get up and move anymore. Technological and entertainment “advancements” have ensured that none of us will ever have to move ever again.

What is it going to take to have a massive lifestyle change across our country? I am honestly not sure, but I think education and producing good habits at an early age is key. Parents need to take an active roll. It will take a lot of effort, which I know Americans hate, we all want the quick fix. Our medical community is more advanced than any other country. But it has not achieved much with our lifestyles ever countering it. Our country spends more on medicine than any other country in the world, but our life expectancy ranks 20th.

Unfortunately there are a lot of road blocks to lifestyle change. The conspiracy theorist part of me feels like our government does not want a lifestyle change in America. A large portion of our economy is based on our poor lifestyles; (fast food, alcohol, cigarettes, TVs, cars, video games etc.) But surely they have some economic education and realize our economy would not crash, it would just shift to other industries making the big bucks; (natural foods, health clubs, sporting equipment, out door gear, etc.)

Why doesn’t the government make the health of its citizens a priority and head up a campaign to encourage activity. I don’t just mean the typical Washington campaign of hand shakes, ribbon cuttings, and lots of photo shoots. I mean an actual effort with people and money doing something good. I confess though, that I am pessimistic. I really don’t think our nation’s leaders care. The FDA can barely protect our food guide pyramid. We were just given a new pyramid, but during the process of designing it, different food industries were lobbying for their products serving sizes to be increased so they could increase profits. Why do we even have nutritionists and scientists if we’re not going to listen to them?

Our presidents have always tried to lead healthy looking lifestyles. Clinton was often teased about eating at McDonalds, but he was an avid runner. George W. Bush was also an avid runner until a foot injury. Now I understand he does a lot of cycling. Unfortunately none of our presidents have modeled health in their domestic or economic policies. The quickest fastest way to maintain and improve our economy means catering to all of our lusts: fast food, oil/cars, TV, sex, etc. Did you know that the majority of businesses that take advantage of our nation’s small business benefits are fast food chains? One would think chains would be exempt, but our government knows it boosts our economy to have more and more fast food restaurants. I can’t argue with that, but what about our nations health? Isn’t that worth anything?

When it comes to our nation’s health, we can knit pick at government policies that stack the odds against us, but at the end of the day or rather at the start of each day we all have a personal responsibility to ourselves and our families. Here is where I get a little preachy:

I encourage everyone to look into wellness programs at their places of employment. More and more companies are starting these programs because studies show less sick days are used when employees are healthier. A lot of people say they don’t have time in a day to work out. To them I cite a recent study that came out showing that two 15 minute bouts of exercise has more aerobic benefit than one 30 minute session. A short walk in the morning and another at night not only would increase your physical health, but it would be a great way to break up the stress of the day and also get some fresh air. Or even use part of your lunch break to get a little exercise. Another great way to break up the monotony of a work day is to look online for simple exercises that can be done at work in an office or just sitting at your chair. On weekends try to do something recreational with friends or family (hike, bike, learn a new sport, anything). Park your car out in further parking spaces, or even ride your bike to the grocery store if you only have a few items to get. There is so much we can all do to improve our quality of life, but it takes some effort and a lot of ignoring our excuses.