Obesity
This is a subject of deep concern at Government level in many countries and one we need to take very seriously for both our future health and that of future generations.
Being over weight has major health implications. Apart from the extra weight putting physical stress on the muscles and bones, it also puts a lot of stress on our internal organs especially the heart.
Health Problems Happening Now
The result is that we reduce our average life expectancy and are basically speeding up the death process and taking the children along for the ride. The majority of us know the health implications of being over weight, yet we go around with the “it will never happen to me attitude”. Well it will and it is and now we need to do something about it before it’s too late.
No Excuses!
We can make many different excuses for the increase in obesity. For example, it is the fault of the fast food industry or the fizzy drink companies that get their machines into our schools, colleges and directly advertise at our children; or it’s the government for not getting on top of things soon enough or just making life so expensive that we have to work longer and therefore don’t have the time to look after ourselves. Maybe the government should supply us all with nannies who will look after us, feed us and put us to bed.
At the end of the day, except for a few illness-related exceptions, the blame lands squarely at our own feet. We have the luxury of choice but it is because we make the wrong dietary and lifestyle choices that we find ourselves faced with the danger of obesity.
Not Enough Time?
Our lives seem to revolve around money to pay our bills and buy our food, petrol, clothes, holidays, etc. We wake in the morning, grab breakfast, go to work. At work we have a quick lunch of whatever is available. We finally get home exhausted and want to relax. We cook one of those ready meals and go to bed. We have even less time when we have children to look after. There seems to be no quality time for ourselves. However, if you break the working week down to hours available you might be surprised.
Plenty of Time!
Allowing on average 10 hours a day for work and travel and 8 hours a day for sleep, in a 5 day working week of 120 hours we are using up to 90 hours or ¾ of our time. That sounds a lot, I know. However we are still left with 30 hours – more than a day of time – to do what we want, which can include cooking good food and exercising. Add the weekend to this and we have a total of 78 hours per week that are not being used for work, travel or sleep.
If you want to be healthy you need to exercise a minimum of 3 times a week for an hour. So now you have 75 hours left. Let’s say it takes 3 hours per day for food preparation for breakfast, lunches and dinner. Of course it should take far less than that, but even with that much time you will spend 21 hours preparing food per week. Wow! That is a lot – but it still leaves you with 54 hours of complete ‘you time’.
It’s Your Choice
There are always going to be exceptions to the rule but for the majority of us we have no excuses left. We can blame anyone we like but in the end we have had the lifestyle choice and we chose the easy option. We are all becoming very lazy and we don’t need to be that way.
Worst of all we are leading a bad example for our children and future generations. We could be literately leading them to an early grave because it is just too easy to go to a fast food restaurant or have a take-away. It should be a case of living life and not just surviving, I don’t mean to sound self-righteous, I am equally guilty of the lazy bug and it does take a lot of effort. But for the majority of us we have choice. Isn’t it time to make the right choice and make a change?
