We live in a country that has beautiful beaches, hiking trails, and snowy mountains. People come from around the world to participate in the variety of adventure sports and outdoor activities on offer in this beautiful land. You would think with these things being at our doorstep that we would take full advantage of them. But it seems we don’t.
According to NZCT 2012 Sport Fact Sheet [pdf] just over two-thirds of Kiwis are considered active, meaning, in this instance, that they do at least 2.5 hours of sport or leisure a week. But of that figure, only a third are a member of a sports club or team. The biggest barrier to people not being active is the lack of encouragement and time.
The outdoors and playing sport are often portrayed as part of New Zealanders’ heritage. Many people grow up playing Saturday sport, but as we get older it tends to fall by the wayside.
For me this is true. When I went off to university I spent the majority of my Saturdays nursing a hangover. Money went on cheap, nasty food and alcohol. This continued through my early 20s. Sport didn’t really feature – other than when I was watching it on the couch.
Now, I put my money into my mortgage and the rest into a gym membership. I also decided I needed to look after myself better, not only for me, but for my family. I go to the gym at 7.30am almost every day. Some days it’s a real struggle and I’d rather stay under the blankets or on the couch. But I find if I don’t exercise my moods change and I don’t sleep that well.
I’m making healthy lifestyle choices and feeling good is more important than some numbers on a scale. This whole idea of what we “must” weigh is half the problem.
I’m the biggest I’ve ever been. But I’m the fittest, strongest and fastest too. Every day I up my gym sessions and instead of measuring my success by my weight I measure it by how fast I can run, how hard I can punch and how far I can cycle. I can now bound up numerous flights of stairs without getting puffed.
Much is often made of the so-called “obesity epidemic”. We’re told – even though it’s not true for many people – that New Zealanders are big. On the sports field that can sometimes be a benefit. As a country, we are home to the best rugby team in the world; an athlete who has just won her 50th consecutive competition, and another who did a sub three-minute mile.
But these athletes are the exception, not the rule. Being “big” isn’t always a good thing. Stuff reports that our obesity rate is now at “crisis” point. The experts suggest we are the fourth fattest national in the OECD, up there with the likes of Mexico, the United States and Hungary. According to the Ministry of Health almost one in three adults are considered obese, while 34 per cent are overweight. 11 per cent of children are obese, and one in five is overweight. Shocking, isn’t it?
READ Ally Garrett's ‘All bodies are good bodies’, where she looks at body positivity, fat acceptance and eating ice cream as a radical act.
New Zealanders come in many shapes and sizes. What is small for one person is big for another. According to NPR, the waistline is the biggest obvious measure of obesity, but the default here, upon which the above statistics are based, is the Body Mass Index scale. This compares your height and weight and puts you on a scale of underweight, normal, overweight and obese.
The BMI is widely understood to be a flawed and outdated system and there has been a lot of discussion around why it doesn’t work. Because it doesn’t measure your muscle or bone density, many of our top athletes score as being overweight or even obese.
But at the moment the BMI is considered the status quo. According to the index, I’m overweight (along with 34 per cent of the country), but I go to the gym almost every day. I box regularly. I play indoor soccer, I cycle and run. And I haven’t weighed myself in months. Why? Because I’m making healthy lifestyle choices and feeling good is more important than some numbers on a scale. This whole idea of what we ‘must’ weigh is half the problem.
We are bombarded by images and messages from weight loss companies and gym equipment sales reps to “lose weight now”, “tone up”, “be sexy”. The emphasis shouldn’t be on losing weight – it should be on making the right choices to ensure that you are happy and healthy.
Sport and exercise play a role in shaping that lifestyle. These have not only physical benefits, but social and psychological too. The government recommends 30 minutes a day.
Time is a factor for many of us. We have busy lives with work, study, family and friends. Exercise is often the first to go when we don’t have enough time. But the video above suggests you can easily make time. And it says exercise doesn’t even have to be high intensity. It could be three 10 minute walks a day.
Being fat doesn’t necessarily mean you’re unhealthy, nor is being thin automatically a sign of health
In the Wairarapa Times-Age, Andrew Bonallack argues that we should start to treat overweight and obese people as social pariahs. And that we should introduce a fat tax, rather missing the point that being fat doesn’t necessarily mean you’re unhealthy, nor is being thin automatically a sign of robust health. Never mind whether or not the “fatties” have, you know, feelings.
It’s great that we live in a country in which we can have open and frank conversations, but we need to be encouraging rather than discouraging. (In fact, evidence shows that “rather than motivating individuals to lose weight, weight discrimination increases risk for obesity.”)
How do we encourage people to lead healthier lifestyles? Increase funding for sport development. Make sport more accessible for all. Subsidise entrance to sporting facilities like pools and gyms. Remove GST from fruit and vegetables. Offer affordable health care – doctors, nutritionists and dentists. Target work places with get active campaigns.
Lastly, we need to build a positive mental health initiative around having a healthy lifestyle. For me a lot of what sport and exercise offers physically also helps mentally. It’s amazing how good you feel both inside and out.
So how can we make ourselves, and our country, healthier and happier?
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