Take Action 2022: Be Healthy, Be Active

Many technological advances and conveniences that have made our lives easier and less active, many personal variables, including physiological, behavioural, and psychological factors, may affect our plans to become more physically active. Understanding common barriers to physical activity and creating strategies to overcome them may help make physical activity part of daily life. People experience a variety of personal and environmental barriers to engaging in regular physical activity.

Most of us are familiar with the most common barrier to a regular physical activity routine -- the lack of time. Work, family obligations and other realities of daily life often get in the way of our best intentions to be more active. There are many additional barriers that vary by the person and life circumstance.

While some of us are setting big exercise goals at the start of the year, like preparing for a marathon, others are simply aiming to put in the bare minimum needed to stay fit and healthy.

It is not easy sticking to a regular physical activity routine. There are many barriers that creep up when you least expect them - time, money, weather, self-consciousness, boredom and fatigue, to name a few. Don’t let your plans for a lifestyle of more physical activity be derailed one more time! SecondsCount has outlined a few practical solutions for some of the most common barriers to being physically active.

Imagine you’ve set your alarm to go for an early-morning run before work. But when it goes off at 6, the embrace of your warm, cosy bed is too enticing and you never make it out the door. Or perhaps you’ve packed exercise clothes with plans to hit a spin class after work. But then the allure of happy hour, or even your couch, persuades you to skip it.

Studies show that over 60 percent of American adults don't get the recommended amount of physical activity and over 25 percent of adults are not active at all.

Striving to achieve your fitness goals can be a frustrating and emotional process. We make up excuses on why we can’t get over the hurdle to achieve our fitness goals. Some of us lack motivation; others lack accountability. Maybe you can’t afford a gym membership or a personal trainer. Maybe your body has adapted, and you’re bored with the same monotonous workout routine. Or maybe you just don’t have the time to commit to workout consistently and meal prep.

Lifestyle disease: A disease associated with the way a person or group of people lives. Lifestyle diseases include atherosclerosis, heart disease, and stroke; obesity and type 2 diabetes; and diseases associated with smoking and alcohol and drug abuse. Regular physical activity helps prevent obesity, heart disease, hypertension, diabetes, colon cancer, and premature mortality.

Using hair to measure long-term levels of the stress hormone cortisol, UK researchers confirm the link between chronic stress and packing on pounds, as well as difficulty shedding excess weight.

In this section, we briefly review dietary and lifestyle changes that reduce the incidence of chronic disease. The potential magnitude of benefit is also discussed.

The good news is that Australians are living longer than ever before – but the bad news is that we’re not living healthier. More and more of us succumb every year to “lifestyle” diseases and conditions, which are caused by the way we choose to live our lives.

After decades in which the number of people choosing to cut out meat from their diet has steadily increased, 2019 is set to be the year the world changes the way that it eats. Or at least, that’s the ambitious aim of a major campaign under the umbrella of an organisation simply called EAT. The core message is to discourage meat and dairy, seen as part of an “over-consumption of protein” – and specifically to target consumption of beef.

A group of 14 researchers just set off a firestorm with a new series of studies that upends years of nutrition advice about meat. Their five systematic reviews, published Monday in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine, suggest there’s no health reason to eat less red meat — not even the bacon and salami we’ve been told for years to cut back on.

There’s no scientifically based or regulated definition for superfood, but generally, a food is promoted to superfood status when it offers high levels of desirable nutrients, is linked to the prevention of a disease, or is believed to offer several simultaneous health benefits beyond its nutritional value.

Tempted to go vegan, try fasting or give up gluten? Not so fast. Dietitian Melissa guides you to the best eating plan for you

Using social media isn't directly harming teenagers - but it can reduce the time they spend on healthy activities, such as sleeping and exercising, a study suggests.

We need to get off the couch, put down our phones and get 30 minutes of heart rate-raising exercise per day. That’s the message of the government’s Move It AUS marketing campaign.

As concerns are being raised about how social media influences young people's perceptions of their body image, sports scientists at Bangor University as asking whether and how social media affects our participation in physical exercise, and who and what are the motivators?

To address the challenge of juvenile obesity, effective therapeutic concepts focusing on lifestyle changes are necessary. A relevant aspect is the media use, which is associated with nutrition and physical activity patterns and is influenced by socio-demographic factors.

The increase of physical activity all over the world is compelling, but taking the first step is far more complex. Despite the strong promotion from local and international organizations, getting started and incorporating exercise into our busy lives can be a real challenge. In this digital era, it seems like the information technology can play an important role in promoting physical activity to achieve healthy lifestyle.

Concern about the obesity epidemic in America—and in many other nations—has galvanized health professionals, advocacy organizations, public policy makers, and ordinary citizens to demand action. Knowing precisely what actions to call for, however, is another matter. Many factors in
contemporary life have been implicated—factors related to both increased caloric intake and increased caloric output— but a coherent explanation of their relative importance, and mutability, has been slower to develop

If you grew up in Australia, chances are you’re pretty familiar with the healthy eating food pyramid. But surprisingly, the healthy eating food pyramid has not been without controversy. Past versions encouraged people to eat bread and cereal in equally large portions to fruit and vegetables — advice that now goes against today’s nutritional guidelines.

Currently, the most liked photograph on Instagram is an egg. While the reasons behind that may not be motivated by love of food, there’s no denying that food is huge on social media. In fact, pizza is the most Instagrammed food. That’s followed by steak and sushi. There are more than 1.7 billion recipe pins on Pinterest. BuzzFeed’s Tasty, a food oriented page on Facebook, has over 3.5 million followers.

With the average person now spending over two hours a day on various social media platforms, it’s only natural that the friends and influencers we follow online affect our real-world decisions around our well-being.

Mass media which includes radio, television and the print media is a great source of information for the society. Every day we are bombarded with images that come out of the television, magazines or the newspapers. The radio is yet another medium that has the potential to captivate our attention.

The concern over increasing rates of obesity and associated health issues have led to calls for solutions to the potentially unhealthy influence of television and food advertising on children's diets. Research demonstrates that children's food preferences are acquired through learning processes, and that these preferences have long-lasting effects on diet.

The internet and social media are changing the way which we eat. With the tap of a screen, food can be delivered to our doors in a matter of minutes. Scrolling through Instagram reveals perfectly curated meals with healthy hashtags for days.

rom trying a new workout we spotted on Facebook to jumping on the Instagram celery juice bandwagon, we’ve all probably made health decisions based on our social media feed to some degree.

Exercise Right is a public awareness campaign powered by Exercise & Sports Science Australia (ESSA). Our goal is to help Aussies to live more active lives and to understand where to get the “right” advice for their individual needs (regardless of age or health status!).

The American Heart Association recommendations for adults

Consistent with previous cycles of the National Health Survey (NHS), the types of exercise covered were walking for fitness, recreation and sport, walking for transport, moderate exercise and vigorous exercise. In 2017-18, data was additionally collected for the first time on workplace activity. 'Workplace activity' consists of two domains; moderate and vigorous activity, which was undertaken on a typical work day. Moderate exercise consists of activity that causes a moderate increase in heart rate or breathing, while vigorous exercise causes a large increase in a person's heart rate or breathing.

WHO defines physical activity as any bodily movement produced by skeletal muscles that requires energy expenditure – including activities undertaken while working, playing, carrying out household chores, travelling, and engaging in recreational pursuits.

University of Sydney opinion article

Nearly every food product requires a label with specific information that tells us what's in it, how to handle it, and where it has come from, to help us make healthy and safe food choices.