Posted: Wednesday, July 13, 2016 10:15 am
I really almost passed out when I read the following statement: A recent paper published by the Mayo Clinic (Loprinzi et al. 2016) reports that fewer than 3% of American adults are living a healthy lifestyle. Seriously, with all the billions of dollars spent on gym memberships, diet programs, and fitness equipment, how can we not be improving our health? Before I got all wadded up, I continued to read past the headlines of the article to see exactly what the research used to define a healthy lifestyle. The researchers in this study defined living a healthy lifestyle as meeting four criteria.
• Sufficiently Active- 150 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity each week
• Eating a healthy diet based on The USDA’s Healthy Eating Index (HEI)- The Healthy Eating Index (HEI) is a measure of diet quality that assesses conformance to the Dietary Guidelines for Americans Based on a 24 hour recall
• Non-smoker- based on serum cotinine levels
• Having a recommended body fat percentage- 5-20% body fat for men, and 8-30% for women
The results below came from 4,745 adults that participated in the study:
• 71.5% did not smoke
• 37.9% consumed a healthy diet
• 9.6% had a normal body-fat percentage
• 46.5% were sufficiently active
• 2.7% had all four characteristics.
• 11.1% had none of the characteristics.
The research went a step further to look at these characteristics in different combinations and the association with cardiovascular disease. To read more about this copy and paste the link provided. (diseaseww.mayoclinicproceedings.org/article/S0025-6196(16)00043-4/abstract).
That is sobering information for a fitness professional. Has our industry failed the American public? Have we unintentionally made wellness something to strive for, but never achieve? Have we given the misconception that fitness is about a set of rules that no one can live up to, and ultimately get frustrated and quit? As I have mentioned several times, fitness is not necessarily about the girl or guy at the gym that has on the spandex pants and the cut off shirts, with ripped biceps and a six pack set of abdominals (not to say these individuals do not work hard and are very fit) but it goes a step further. Wellness should not be intimidating but inviting! If we have presented fitness as a set of overwhelming rules, I for one apologize. As a health coach, my job is to listen a lot and talk less, so I can understand where my client is in terms of body image, self-efficacy, self-esteem, stress levels, former failures, future goals and a host of other information that will help me to understand their journey and the obstacles they have faced in the past. I can then help that client along the journey to well-being.
Instead of just telling people what to do (or yelling at them to do more reps or heavier weights), we must begin to coach behavior change and provide the support that it takes to sustain the new healthier behavior. We all need encouragement in our lives, with so many negative things going on all around us, let’s begin to focus on being positive toward well-being, which may look a little different for every individual. It’s easy for me to walk into a gym and feel very comfortable, but give me an excel spreadsheet and I feel very inadequate. At that point I need someone to be patient with me and coach me on the complexities of excel spreadsheet formulas, the benefits of learning a new skill, and the importance of practicing the new skill. I need encouragement and support.
I want to encourage you to start moving toward incorporating these four principles into your daily life and perhaps ten years from now (and hopefully sooner) Americans can be one of the healthiest populations in the world!
See you in the gym!
