Things Look This Way to Me

Editorial by J.B. McKinley 10-14-07

Fit & Healthy Goal

Who in their right mind could argue with a goal of having more of us be more fit and healthier? Certainly not I. I also have no doubt that I’m part of the target population at which the survey now circulating around Morristown is aimed.

I have nothing but praise for these people and organizations who would like us all to be slimmer and go to the hospital or doctor less often. As for state agency involvement I wonder if the real concern is because they’d like to lower healthcare costs before government is so overwhelmed by expense that it must start cutting benefits or practicing some kind of medical triage. Still, that’s an OK motive. Practically all of us would earn more if we weren’t paying for rising healthcare costs. So, leaving all questions of motive aside, everything about being fitter and healthier is laudable. But, how to achieve such a goal – that is the question and it’s a tough one.

I started to take the Lamoille Valley Fit & Healthy Making Healthy Choices Easy Choices survey and it asked hard questions. To be honest I really had no ready answers. Here’s a sample: What factors in Morristown contribute to the problems of being overweight and /or a lack of physical activity? What assets could we build on in our community to improve problems of being overweight and/or a lack of physical activity? Well, when I started to answer these questions I thought that basically the same guys and gals who were fit back in school days are still fit. They’re the ones who join all the adult teams and take up after work skating at LARC, etc. It seems to me that the degree of physical activity we choose to practice is almost a matter of habit. Exercising when accustomed to not exercising is like quitting smoking. It’s an attitudinal change. Doesn’t matter what’s available until the attitude changes.

Then, I thought, how come my attitude changed sometime after I hit my 30s? As a kid and teen, like many of my peers, even though I wasn’t a team sports guy, I was always outdoors and in the woods.What happened?

On reflection I actually think the change had something to do with working. Before our heavy, busy, working years, perhaps many of us had time to accomplish both halves of our lives – the sedentary things like reading (or today computer use) and our physical activities. Who’s got the time for both when first we work 40 or more hours? And now, Mom and Dad both work full work weeks. Maybe that’s when we prioritize. If we choose sedentary things to put at the top of our list – then who wants to take a walk in the woods at 5 a.m. or step into those X-C skiis when one gets home after dark?

Finally, for the moment, I put aside my copy of the Fit & Healthy survey because I couldn’t see an easy way for folks to balance their lives between the active and the sedentary. It’s going to take a sea change in attitude for folks like me. After all, we who our doctors would graciously label as less than fit and needing a little help with weight loss are already quite likely aware we are shortening our lives. If the threat of early death can’t change us, what can?

Certainly, the answer will have to involve fun. Make it fun to exercise, or at least, make it so I don’t notice I’m exercising!