Prioritising Health Has Never Been More Important

 

However one did draw me in a little yesterday, and it got me thinking.

The semantics of how/whether/how long we should or shouldn’t go out walking at the moment was the topic.

The old adage ‘why let the facts spoil a good argument?’ was in full force

But ignoring what ‘someone’s friend Karen overheard at Aldi’ last week as as an officially cited scientific resource, for now…

Something interesting is happening.

When Claire and I get excited because we KNOW a particular course/workshop/training etc. is going to be THE perfect solution for someone – and they have had any hesitation, it is almost always about one of these three things, usually in this order:

*********

Time

(I am so busy with work, rushing about I might not fit it in)

Priorities

(I tend not to prioritise paying for things for MY wellbeing)

Confidence

(I’ve tried things before and I never stick at them)

*********

Everyone other than a key worker – quite literally has all the time in the World.

If you have children at home, then it comes down to how you prioritise that.

Those are the same reasons people tend to give for avoiding exercise

The interesting thing that is happening is that many people are having to examine whether their reasons are actually excuses.

I set myself the challenge to walk 50km each week, with my extra time and I’ve done that so far – normally I’d be in the gym at the time it took to do that, and it would have been easy to just say ‘oh well, no gym – I’ll just have to wait till it’s open’.

Which is kind of one end of the spectrum – and I don’t say it to show off, but to quite literally walk the walk, and set an example.

If I am encouraging people to be fit and healthy – it feels a duty to live that lifestyle myself.

(Also I won’t lie, I like it, and it makes me look nice in short sleeves.)

But at the other, end – and excitingly – was the comment from a woman on the ‘debate thread’ who doesn’t normally exercise and has used her extra free time to START exercising.

This could be a wonderful outcome to a terrible situation at the moment.

A.s the proud mum of a nurse who is working in a hospital, they are readying exclusively for Covid-19 palliative care patients, the clapping and cheering on Thursday nights touched me deeply.

Unless you’ve seen it up close – you have NO idea how hard these professionals work.

Superhuman isn’t an exaggeration.

And how hard they worked to get there.

And how hard the government have made it for them.

But however this disease plays out, and we all desperately hope for as few victims as possible –

the fact that the free time has enabled people to get out in the fresh air, healthily exercising…

(not in groups, and maintaining a safe social distance, – before someone else shins up a Bold 3-in-1 soap box in Aldi)

…has got people are searching their souls.

All the things that used to be reasons… feel like excuses.

The things that used to seem important have suddenly faded away.

The realisation that without health – there is literally nothing – has hit home, hard.

And THIS realisation is what I hope is going to help the NHS, long term, more than anything.

If we all made health our priority, then this set of stats wouldn’t be clogging up the NHS arteries:

In the UK, being overweight is the second biggest cause of cancer (Cancer Research UK)

Around one in every 11 deaths in the UK is now linked to carrying excess fat – 50 percent more than the rate in France

The UK has the largest rates of obesity in Europe.

801,000 Hospital Admissions where obesity is a factor.

Obesity is responsible for 40,000 deaths a year.

(The Lancet)

then there’s smoking, then there’s drinking and mental health…

So with the TIME excuse vanished, and the PRIORITIES reason addressed – please trust me when I say,

(of course, sign up to our membership site when it’s open soon 😉 )

but actually

taking the government up on their encouragement to exercise once-a-day with a walk, would be the single best thing you could do for your health and the NHS at the moment if exercise isn’t something you normally do.

(yes, safely, social distancing and all the rest of it, Karen..)

Not 50k maybe, but round the block.

To the end of the road and back.

It doesn’t matter.

Get some Vitamin D, some fresh air, a change of scene and set in motion the vital habit of prioritising yourself, your body and the things that really DO matter,