One in two in Bunbury on the couch

The Olympics has in some form or another been around for hundreds of years, it has a rich history of human achievement.

The Olympic motto is faster, higher, stronger. We’re not all Olympians and you don’t have to be but personally shouldn’t we still be aspiring to that?

These athletes are idolised by people around the world for their physical ability and for their amazing abilities and physiques.

Somewhere along the way we seem to have lost the drive to be like them.

This week Medibank released stats that bought to light how much exercise Bunbury is actually doing.

Their Better Health Index data has revealed only one in two Bunbury locals have exercised in the past three months.

That’s a poor effort.

Some consider 50 per cent to be a pass, but heart disease probably doesn’t think along the same lines.

The Global Health Organisation has a long history of highlighting the ever growing sedentary lifestyle and the dangers that too much inactivity can have.  

Aside from the medical risks of problems like high blood pressure, high blood sugar, high cholesterol, blood clots and frail bones there are mental problems associated with low physical activity.

Lack of exercise has been associated with depression and other mood disorders like anxiety and low self esteem.

Lack of physical activity has even been linked to the dreaded cancer.

The lack of exercise locally may also have something to do with recent statistics showing that 70 per cent of Bunbury’s residents are either overweight or obese.

Lack of physical activity is clearly a cause but I’d also hedge my bets and say fast food is partially to blame too.

Fast food really is, like popcorn, just a vehicle for salt but unlike popcorn it’s filled with gross amounts of fat and sugar.

Salt and sugar are an insidious combination, we crave it and eventually dare I say we become addicted, that’s why it feels so good when we eat it.

The Live Lighter campaign has suggested fast food sponsorship tied to sports could lead one to assume it can’t be that bad to eat junk food, but that certainly isn’t the case.

For free thinking grownups like ourselves, I’m sure no one’s being hoodwinked into thinking Olympic athletes actually chow down on that greasy goodness but there is one very small group of people I think could be – children.

Won’t someone please think of the children?

The Pokemon Go game has got people out of their houses and now that they are enjoying nature, we must work together to find new and exciting ways to keep them stimulated. 

Why not grab some friends and sign up for a walking group, a dance class, a game of tennis or start an indoor soccer team. Whatever you feel you could be passionate about.

I have realised if I’m going to avoid actually looking like a hamburger by the time I’m 30, I’m going to have to exercise, especially after hounding my colleagues to get back into ballroom dancing because it would be “good for his health.”

I’ve been told one of my biggest flaws is ignoring my own advice, so on that note I suppose I better get out and do some exercise.

Medibank are here to help. They are planning to take action against Bunbury’s very average exercise stats by encouraging people to get up and take part in Personal Better Day.

The day consists of an extremely tortuous five kilometre run, walk or in my case wheezy crawl around the Big Swamp Wildlife Park on September 3.

- Blayde Grzelka