An Unexpected Candidate for Your New Year’s Resolutions

“It is health that is real wealth and not pieces of gold and silver.” — Mahatma Gandhi

If I say that “exercising is important”, your likely response will be “psst… tell me something new” or “yeah, that’s something I’ll eventually get to”. But, I’m here to briefly talk about the mother of “exercising”, called “being physically active”. To understand the how important it is, we need to first understand its arch-nemesis, physical inactivity.

If physical inactivity looked like Godzilla, we would have paid immediate attention. Imagine a world where Godzilla killed 5.3 million people each year, wiping out large cities. That’s the number deaths attributed to physical inactivity each year. The problem is, its effects are invisible for long periods of time. When you consider obesity, a related but different problem, you can at least see it in the mirror and know that there’s a problem. But in the case of physical inactivity, you could look healthy in the mirror while its effects build up inside. With so many things in life that seek your attention, physical inactivity is often ignored. By the time its effects are showing, there won’t be any easy fixes.

Experts can’t seem to find strong-enough words to emphasize the dangers of physical inactivity. They call it “as damaging to health as smoking”, and “the biggest public health problem of the 21st century”. According to the World Health Organization, physical inactivity is the fourth leading risk factor for global mortality and a key contributor to coronary heart disease, high blood pressure, stroke, type 2 diabetes, colon and breast cancer, depression, and a number of other chronic conditions.

Here’s the good news: if you pay a bit of attention to it, you can easily address it. According to WHO, you’re considered physically active with 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity throughout the week. That translates to 30 minutes of brisk walking per day for 5 days a week. Another option is to take two 15 minutes walking breaks during the day, 5 days a week. To keep track, you could use our app, Stroll — Walking Tracker, or any one of the number of apps available.

Add “be physically active” to your list of 2018 resolutions. Once it becomes a habit, it will be a natural part of your life and your future self will thank you. Also, help your friends and family. When you chat with them, mention these:

>A healthy weight doesn’t mean that you’re healthy. Physical inactivity is as damaging to health as smoking.

>It is easy to fix. A 30-minute brisk walk a day for 5 days a week can fix the problem and there are many apps that can help you track.

Let’s do this!