Details of an Australian Medical Association report released recently revealed the incredible hours some doctors are working in our hospitals. A 7-day study in August 2011 showed the maximum hours worked per week increased from 113 in 2006 to 120 in 2011 and the longest recorded shift went for 43 hours!
Our doctors are wonderful but still humans and it is scary to think of the effects such long hours are on them not to mention the patients.
My real concern is that is it ever going to be any different?
With the expected increase in lifestyle diseases to impact all sectors of society (like type II diabetes showing up in younger people, increasing obesity rates, the ongoing effects of cancer and heart disease).
You all know my advice:
Invest in your health every day…fresh foods, plenty of water and 30 minutes of moderate exercise..
I reckon it is a good return on investment..do a bit every day & I get to be fit and healthy when I am 100 years young. Good deal.
Invitation still stands:
What is on your mind? Give me a yell…or tell me on a scale of 1-10 how you are feeling today..love to hear from people who want to be part of the ‘healthy vibrant tribe’.
Feedback welcomed: please share your thoughts with us. I would love to be part of your ‘life journey’.
Cheers Rossco
Here is my new tag ‘Getting better, not older’
LIKE it? Please LIKE it on my AndFITT Lifestyle Coaching Facebook page. Thanks!
Decisions, decisions, decisions: to blog or exercise.
I could go for a 60 minute bike ride on a beautiful day or sit and punch out 200 words on exercise and do an intense 30 minute Tabata workout..so I made a choice as I wanted to do both and proves I can do both if I am flexible and apply lateral thinking.
What an amazing effect 30 minutes invested in moderate to vigourous activity can have on your entire day, week, life for that matter. Exercise stimulates the brain, fires up the immune system (good for this cold weather), improves blood sugar levels, reduces blood pressure, cholesterol, stress, depresssion and helps reduce weight...all seem fairly beneficial outcomes to me.
Moving has always been part of our evolution....we evolved to be 'mover's' (and some of us 'shaker's as well) constantly on the look-out for food..for 200,000 plus years we have evolved to 'move'. The amazing recent BBC series called The Origins of Us clearly pointed described our evolutionary path and How to Green a Planet saw us 'stand up and grow tall'.
It seems back in the day we were walking 20 kms per day hunting and gathering, looking for prey & also avoiding being prey for other animals (hence our amazing 'lizard brain' that protects us from danger but that is another blog topic)..but these days it seems we have lost the desire to move and consequently lost all the positive benefits it brings us...worse it seems we have become a whole lot heavier which adds to the disincentive to move..........
So in 60 years we have managed to now have more 'overnourished' people in the world than under-nourished'...quite a feat if you excuse the pun but our feet have suffered and become less used as a result...more cars, less walking, more food, less chewing....all manifesting as chronic lifestyle diseases including the rapid escalation to the totally preventable type II diabetes.
So how much exercise is needed?
Any is better than none..good.
5 x 30 minute sessions per week is great & can be broken down into 3 x 10 if you are so time poor not to be able to find a 30 minute block 5 times a week. Mix it up..walk in different places, find other tribal members to move with, do some interval walks between the light poles, get the heart rate up...just move it..for your body's sake.
PS Pushing a shopping trolley around the local supermarket doesn't count as being a hunter and gatherer as far as exercise goes according to my way of thinking..but I could be wrong.
So my 30 minute blog time is up..time for 30 minutes of Tabata training. Let me know if you want me to design Tabata programs for you..you only need yourself.
