I read up on the fitness industry and was compelled to write a blog post.
All stats and data from here come from two reports, one was Mintel’s Exercise Research Trends from June 2010 and the other from the IDEA Fitness Journal.
Here are some numbers to think about.
1) 17% of children in America are obese (gasp)!
2) 70% of adults in America are either overweight or obese. 70%!
3) The number of overweight people in the world has now surpassed the number of malnourished people in the world.
4) Around the world there are over 1bn overweight adults of which 300mm are obese.
My thoughts? I can’t get over the fact that 17% of America’s children are obese.
Fitness habits are instilled at an early age. And they don’t change very much as you get older.
Most people simply don’t exercise enough. Minimum recommendation according to the CDC: 30 minutes of moderately intense physical activity FIVE times a week. 60% of the world fails to achieve this. Even worse - you are 1.5x more likely to get a cardio disease if you don’t do your 30mins! Easiest way to get in 30 minutes of moderately intense physical activity in every day? Ride your bike everywhere.
A little bit on women. Women who work out are interested mostly in appearance improvements (this only makes intuitive sense to me). But unfortunately for women, exercise is seen as a chore. In fact, about 50% of women who say they exercise say they don’t enjoy working out and only 3/10 people exercise because it makes them happy. I wonder why this is and intend to investigate this myself with one on one interviews with friends.
Most surprising fact? About 3/10 respondents of the Mintel survey are interested in video games, heart monitors, computerized personal trainers, and online exercise videos. Basically, more people want to see fitness gamified! I definitely didn’t expect this. My take on this - buying fitness games alone won’t solve being overweight, one must build the habit and use them regularly.
In addition to regurgitating the data above, here are two things I know from personal experience about health & fitness.
Seeing other people live healthy & active lifestyles increases the likelihood that you also live a healthy and active lifestyle. Even seeing just ONE person at work regularly take breaks to go running, training, or even yoga increases the likelihood that you’re going to feel OK leaving work even if only for 30 minutes to do something similar. Also seeing lots of veggies & fruits on the plates of people who you eat with can increase the likelihood (and your motivation) for eating healthy. Simple - it’s social proof. I think people shouldn’t hide running, working out, and eating healthy especially if they’re in an environment that isn’t exactly supportive of those things. In fact, I believe the bold and carefree should flaunt their healthy habits - just a little - because if it changes the habits of someone else for the better then in a small way, they’ve made the world a better place.
Unless motivation truly comes from within you’re unlikely to make significant and sustainable changes. Different things inspire different people, but it’s worth doing a small search for the types of people that inspire us. When we have someone to look up to, it makes getting through the tough parts of your workout easier because you know what’s attainable at the end of it all. I’m particularly inspired by Zuzanna Light from Bodyrock and David Goggins, the ultra-marathoner and Navy SEAL because I LOVE Zuzanna’s slim and super-toned physique (and believe that with sustained healthy eating and working out I have a good shot at looking like her) and I love David Goggin’s persistence and endurance. There are different role models for different people, but having someone to look up to can make the visualization part of your fitness goal significantly easier. Perhaps you have a favorite yogini? A favorite hip hop dancer? A favorite actor or actress? What do their workouts look like? I believe finding a role model is a great first step when it comes to truly motivating yourself to making sustainable changes.
I’m going to end with this amazing quote by David Goggins.
“I have never taken the easy way. I have had to fail several times before I succeed at something, and sometimes it was at no fault of my own. But I run, bike, all of the above because I hate it. By hating it and doing it I grow. I know that people will never understand that, but that is the way I live my life. Why choose something you like to do? Because it’s fun? How do you grow as a person by doing fun things? You grow by testing yourself, by testing your mind to go where it doesn’t want to go. If you take the easy road, you get easy results. You don’t expect anything out of yourself. If you take the hard road,and you make yourself get through it, you will expect more out of your everyday life. If you don’t achieve and let people keep you down, you will stay down. Not me… I choose to get back up. I choose to look the unwanted in the face. I choose to go after the unwanted with a smile. I choose to suffer. And from suffering I grow.” -David Goggins
