In a very poor transition statement between paragraphs, I must selfishly say that I’ve discovered someone who has my ideal career. He travels the world, writes for the masses and gets to do both in the name of healthcare – our shared passion. André Picard is the public health reporter for the Globe and Mail. I saw him once; he moderated a panel discussion at a health conference on hospital wait times at my school during undergrad. However, at that point I wasn’t brazen enough to go up and talk to him and demand I become his successor. What a shame. In any case, Mr. Picard has written an interesting article about new empirical data that has been compiled by Statistics Canada. The article postulates what could be the cause for children today to be markedly more overweight and obese than twenty years ago. Picard goes on to say that leading a healthy lifestyle is more than hockey practice once a week or 20 minutes of school board mandated exercise, but an all-round commitment to actually being active in one’s day-to-day life.
I know that I firmly agree with him, and I recognize that living in the city that I’m probably more likely to walk somewhere than say someone living in the SUV-laden suburbs. However I’m also the holder of a TTC Metropass so the part of me who screams for value of my all-you-can-ride mass transit card battles it out with my active lifestyle self – but when it’s -30 outside, you can guess who wins when I take the subway one stop.
I’m sure I don’t have to tell most of you how hard it is to have an active lifestyle when you work an office job. You wheel around the tight confines of your cubicle and the furthest you go is to the printer or the bathroom. I work in a four storey building and everyone takes the elevator. I walk up the stairs (if I remember to throw my security pass into my ever changing purse arsenal) every morning, however when you can’t use the stairs after 6 pm because it’s not safe. And I’ve hardly ever left my workplace before 6 (or the sunset) so I wouldn’t know what it’s like to descend those stairs. I think someone told me the reason was that the stairs weren’t safe after 6 pm. And I’ve heard before that less than favourable people lurk in enclosed stairwells, but as firmly as I believe that activity needs to be intrinsic part of one’s life, I also believe that enough is enough with the fear mongering.
Now then, that’s not to say that I condone putting yourself explicitly in harm’s way like trying to run across a major highway for giggles. I’m just saying that there are far more “dangerous” things out there in the world that are far more likely to happen to you. In Picard’s article he mentions that parents now always drive their kids to school instead of letting them walk because we are convinced that they will be kidnapped. We want to be as cautious as possible, but to what end? Are we are going to stay inside our homes and not go out in the dark after a while? Isn’t that how the terrorists win? (I do jest.)
I am reminded of a news story from back in 2008 (whoa, that’s so last decade); perhaps you remember it, click on the link if you don’t. In
For the most part though, we all also fall victim (that’s a little ironic) to the bystander apathy effect where we don’t want to seem intrusive busy-bodies and embarrass ourselves if we overreact. That’s a bit paradoxical isn’t it? As a society we are overly cautious and anxious people, but when something is actually wrong, no one will do anything to help to avoid seeming overly cautious and anxious? To me, that’s just fucked up.
I’m straying a bit further from my inaugural point (that only goes to show how badly I need a real editor), which is our paranoia-caused sedentary behaviour will result in a much realer fate than being accosted for change by a homeless man. You just might develop type 2 diabetes -- unbeknownst to you, you might be slowly killing yourself and your family. Shock and horror should abound. And it’s not just the aforementioned paranoia doing it to us either. Picard’s article also talks about the kind of food we ingest on a daily basis. It truly is hard to have two working parents and still have the time to put fresh food without a little help from something pre-made on the table. The article goes on to say that parents are working longer hours to earn more money to try and provide the best of everything for their children. But at the same time while carting them off to horse back riding lessons, Scouts, or choir practice we’re eating McD’s in the van en route. To what end do we trade these things off?
I agree with Picard when he says that exercise alone is actually not the sole answer. Every terrible “as seen on TV” miracle home gym equipment does expressly say that you have to follow a diet plan as well. You just might be missing that part while you swoon over those washboard abs of the actors. Moreover, in order to escape these real, live (and completely preventable) atrocities we need to do more than regimented exercise alone, we need to adopt actual healthy (and incredibly simple) lifestyle habits and stop freaking out over ridiculous things you can’t control, thusly allowing paranoia to rule your life. These simple steps include: working a little less (an outrage!), eating more (in a nutritiously dense way) and feeling better (psychologically as a result as less anxiety, and physically because your body will thank you). And you can actually trust me on this one, I’m a gym major.
