National Women’s Health & Fitness Day
Today, an estimated 50,000-75,000 women of all ages will participate in local health and fitness events at more than 500 community locations across the country as part of the 14th Annual National Women’s Health & Fitness Days. This event, the first of its kind, will always be held the last Wednesday in September as part of National Women’s Health & Fitness Week celebrations throughout the United States.
The goal for this national event is to encourage women to take control of their health: to learn the facts they need to make smart health choices, and to make time for regular physical activity.[1]
So, ladies, where do we stand?
In 2015, 30% of women are overweight and another 37% are obese[2], per the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Of that 37% of women who are obese, the average workout time is a mere 11 seconds per day of vigorous exercise (that’s about an hour a year)[3].
Compare that to TV watching time per day, which is a staggering 4 hours, 11 minutes for women, according to Nielsen[4].
Pardon my French, but what the hell are we doing?
These statistics are ghastly.
It’s not a function of time.
I know this, because I have friends, colleagues and clients with busy, full lives, some of whom are single, working moms balancing that on top of the stressors that daily life brings us and they still show, day in and day out, that making our health, fitness and nutrition a top priority is doable under any circumstance.
And we can’t all blame it on cost.
Yes, it’s a factor, a huge factor at that, but we can’t simply say it’s too expensive to eat well, shrug our shoulders and keep piling on the fries and soda, as if there were no room for balancing the budget of food shopping.
What’s the excuse?
It’s too hard? It’s too expensive? The kids won’t eat veggies? There’s no time to go to the health food store?
Not good enough.
Priorities need to be made, and time allocated to important tasks accordingly.
Where there is a will, there truly is a way, but the desire to make positive change must be intact, first and foremost.
If you’re feeling stuck in a rut, perhaps you, like a client I had years ago, Michelle, will have an epiphany at some point, to set you on the path toward optimal health.
Michelle, who had been overweight for years, and was gaining each year, had her wake up call one afternoon when she picked her young son up from school.
Her was six at the time, and asked her in earnest why she was so much bigger than all the other mommies.
She held back tears the whole drive home until she was safely behind the doors of her bedroom when she then let the floodgates open.
What kind of an example was she setting for her kids?
How had she let herself get so big?
It didn’t happen overnight, and you can believe it took years, not months, to reach a healthy weight that allowed her to feel pretty dressing up to go on a date with her husband, not get winded walking up the stairs and be able to run around with the kids.
But she did it.
Think about this today, on National Women’s Health Day and perhaps you can find that little spark to help you get, and stay your course.
Today can be the first day of your new, healthy step in the right direction!
[1] “FitnessDay.com.” FitnessDay.com. Fitness Day, n.d. Web. 30 Sept. 2015
[2] “More Than Two Thirds of Americans Are Overweight or Obese.” Time. Time, n.d. Web. 30 Sept. 2015
[3] Mosbergen, Dominique. “Study Reveals Just How Abysmal Our Exercise Habits Are.” The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, n.d. Web. 30 Sept. 2015.
[4] “Nielsen: Women Watch More TV Than Men, But Connected Games Consoles Are Changing That.” TechCrunch. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Sept. 2015
