Have you given up when you felt like exercise was too difficult?

With the recent FDA approval of yet another magic pill to help people lose weight, it seems folks are allowing themselves to become less concerned with the reality of how much damage inactivity can do to their health and well being.  It seems so much easier to swallow a caplet than it is to get up and move.

We must stop and take a good look at the big picture.  Men, women and children have all gotten heavier since 1960.  The average weight for men and women in 1960 was about 24 pounds lighter than in 2002.  And on the same note, children were about 9 pounds lighter on average in 1960 compared with in 2002.

While there are no exact hard facts yet to say poor diet and exercise habits are solely to blame, it is almost obvious that with the technological advances society has enjoyed, people are less likely to be as active and eat as healthy.

Take, for instance, getting from point A to point B.  In the “old days”, we would have walked or biked to the grocery store and back for our daily staples.  It would have taken maybe 30 to 60 minutes more to accomplish this daily chore, but we would have been getting much more benefit health-wise.  Now, with all the places we have to go, people we have to meet, and things we have to do, we don’t “have time to waste”.  Things have to be done at a much quicker pace so we can get on to the next item on our to-do list before the Joneses get ahead of us.

In today’s frenzied and stressed lifestyle pre-packaged meals that can be thrown into the microwave are much more appealing than taking the time to prepare a nice home-cooked meal using fresh and wholesome ingredients.  And yet, modern creations like frozen microwave dinners lend little to growing a healthy, strong, long-lasting body.  Who really knows what their chemical concoctions consist of or what they do internally once they’ve been ingested.

All the conveniences of modern times have lead us to becoming lethargic. Society is beginning to take on an attitude of “less is more” when it comes to motivation for activity.  It’s so easy to be complacent.   It seems many people try to relax after a hectic day of work, errands, taxiing the kids, meeting with the PTA, and juggling all the other scheduled tasks by slipping into a comatose TV-watching session instead of adding a bit of stress-relieving, reviving, health-preserving exercise or activity.  What a shame that we have an abundance of conveniences that are actually too convenient for our own good.

So many gadgets and gizmos that “help” us do our everyday work are leading us to exchange calm and easy-going traditions for the mad pace of the 21st century and all its accompanying “gimmicks”.  We’ve learned that things can get done in nano seconds compared with hours or days.  We’ve been programmed to think that everything should be nearly instantaneous once we push the right button.  So no wonder we lose patience if we don’t see immediate results from a 20 or 30 minute bout of “exercise”.  We all want a quick fix or a magic potion to achieve the “dream body”, “perfect weight” or some other false representation of ideal health status.

What happened to the carefree days of swinging on a swing in the park, playing with the kids and pets in the yard, taking time to organize a neighborhood game of basketball or kickball, or taking a family walk each night after a homemade dinner?

Even though we have modern amenities, we can still reach back into our “olden days” files and find ways to enjoy life with easy and fun activities.  Let’s not give up.  Let’s grow up – healthy, active, strong and wise.  And let’s do it together with friends and family.

If you want more information on specific ideas to add to your daily life in order to have fun and become healthy right at home, call Julia Johnson, Certified Personal Trainer in Chandler, Arizona at 480-264-9567.  She will come to your home, complete a full health assessment and consultation FREE OF CHARGE and get you and your family on the path to getting more active and living strong and healthy.