Hi everyone, I hope that you are having a great start to 2016. I have decided to write this article as I am really passionate about making a fitter, healthier and stronger Australian population, no matter who you are.
Here are some hard facts:
1. 2 in 3 Australian adults are overweight or obese based on Body Mass Index.
2. This is 10% more adults being overweight or obese than in 1995.
3. 1 in 4 Australian children are overweight or obese
4. If you are in an outer regional or remote area of Australia you are 15% more likely to be overweight or obese.
Being overweight is known to be a high risk factor for cardiovascular disease and other chronic, life ending or altering disease.
There is a great saying that I have heard, “There is no cure for heart disease.”
So, why is this so important?
There is a lot of talk at the moment about the health system, and our politicians cutting funding for health programs across the country. Many of the programs cut from my experience have been about helping people who are suffering from chronic diseases or where we are trying to prevent chronic disease.
So, I completely understand the Government’s decisions, as the absolute need on our hospital system is breaking the health departments across the country. It is the year 2016 and people are still dying by the thousand of heart disease. It is a strange idea, to think that in 1995, I was just starting to think about wanting to go to uni and help people be fitter and healthier, and we were told categorically that we have to help reduce people’s risk of heart disease and we have to help improve health and fitness of people.
So, what stops people from seeking this help. Surely it is bluntly obvious, you look in the mirror, or you try to do something and you puff from walking up a set of stairs, or trying to get up and down off the ground becomes difficult.
To change something we have to invoke discussion. We have to turn that discussion into accountability upon every single person in this country. Don’t be fat and if you are, then get fitter. Because you can be fit, and overweight and that is a much better scenario than being overweight AND unfit.
Please come to people like us as a volunteer, rather than a patient of a cardiac, diabetes or other life-altering disease program. It is so much better to prevent something with a little hard work, than try to maintain something without being able to work hard because a doctor has told you you are not allowed to.
My next part of this article addresses how the lack of global help around mental health, in my opinion is crippling what we can do to realistically help a large part of the population:
Motivation is stolen by lack of energy. This is caused when you are overweight by your body hating itself for you generally feeding it too much food.
There is so much evidence about getting fitter, in terms of your physical and ESPECIALLY your mental health. If we analysed every single person in Australia who are overweight or obese, and rated their depression or anxiety and fitness scores against each other, there would be an absolute certain relationship between lack of fitness and increased depression or anxiety levels.
We need to support people at risk of depression and anxiety by giving them a positive platform to train in with people who care about their welfare over everything else. Who cares if it takes someone 1 year to achieve something that someone else might achieve in 1 month? Because sure as hell, that person that worked bloody hard for 1 year is now going to feel awesome by the fact they have done something they probably thought not possible.
So, get one of your friends, your family members, sit down, talk about doing something positive together. You can start by just going to a park and kicking a football, walking down to the shops, or even talking about exercising and asking the person where they would like to start?
We all know someone who just refuses to go out of their comfort zone, or says that exercise sucks and all the rest of the things that people say when they feel really uncomfortable about something. Maybe the reason for saying no is more about how you feel than not actually wanting to do something.
So, remember, that for all us health and fitness professionals who love to be fit and healthy, life for some is not all about how much we can lift, how far you can run or what game you won on the weekend. It is about just trying to get up in the morning, and breath for long enough so that you can eat breakfast and shuffle to work because you know without work leaves no money and that is the only thing holding that individual together, the fear of not having a job and having no money in which to do the basics in life. Just going to work feels like running a marathon, and exercise on top of that is just too hard to think of.
If you are in a deep hole, and you think you cannot get out, then please understand there are people who are put on this earth to listen, to understand and then to help you make a plan and stick to it. I guess you just have to find those people and then when you do, listen to them, speak your mind and then let them help you take good actions that you are comfortable with.
So, the title of the article was is Obesity the challenge or is the cause of obesity the challenge? You decide. The obesity challenge is just one part of a very complex situation that Australia MUST do something about as a country of people with a long-standing reputation as being tough human beings. It is time for us to stand up with our mates and get back to taking pride in our health and our fitness.
REFERENCES:
http://www.aihw.gov.au/overweight-and-obesity/
http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/psp/46/5/1142/