Take 10…and Carry On!

By Amy Campbell I'm taking a liberty this week with the ever-popular quote from a World War II British safety poster: Keep Calm and Carry On. If you're wondering what the context is here, it's exercise. Yes, I know you've heard and read numerous times that exercise is important, and that you should aim for at least 30 minutes, five times a week. The question, though, is are you doing it? Grim statistics Researchers at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) looked at survey data from 450,000 American adults across all 50 states. Folks were asked about how much aerobic activity they got outside of work, and for how long. The findings probably won't surprise you: Only about 20% of people got the recommended amount of exercise (at least 2.5 hours of moderate-intensity activity per week, according to the US government). That means 80% don't get enough. People most likely to exercise were between the ages of 18 and 24; least likely to exercise were adults ages 65 and older. Perhaps not surprisingly, people who were overweight or obese were less likely to exercise. Also, Hispanic Americans were found to be not as active as whites. Why don't we exercise? Unless you've been living in a cave for the past 10 to 20 years, it's pretty hard to ignore the messages everywhere that a) exercise is good for us and b) we need to do more. But the reality is that, for the most part, we don't. We've gotten the message, but somehow, that message hasn't taken hold. "I know I should exercise more but&...
Source: Diabetes Self-Management - Category: Diabetes Authors: Source Type: blogs