THE ORIGINAL AND MOST NOTED SPEAKERS' CORNER is located in the north-east corner of Hyde Park in London, England. It is, simply, where
public speaking is allowed. In our reformatted WELL newsletter, we
want to give you, our readers, the opportunity to contribute to the
body of knowledge concerning health. We want people to share our
newsletter with friends and we want you and your friends to share with
us, thereby, sharing with each other. Please keep your thoughts under
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OKI AM NOT ACTUALLY ON OPRAH (yet?) — rather, this post is only about comments I was asked to make about Oprah's "catastrophic" weight regain by Judith Timson, who interviewed me for her column, which appeared in [a recent issue of the] Globe and Mail.
To read what Judith (and I) had to say — click here.
Last week, Yoni blogged about the same topic — for his take on Oprah — click here.
I think Oprah has made the same mistake that most people make — they think there somehow must be a "cure".
Unfortunately, there isn't — there are only treatments — when you stop the treatment, the weight comes back — ALWAYS!
I'M SURE MANY INDIVIDUALS have recently made resolutions to live a healthier life in the new year — hopefully including a vow to increase physical activity levels. But where did the notion that physical activity is good for health come from?
Although there are many mentions of benefits of physical activity for longevity throughout history, it all really began with some groundbreaking research in the early 1950's. One prime example of this work is that of Jeremy Morris and colleagues who assessed the health of various workers according to the physicality of their occupation. In their initial study (published in 1953 in Lancet) they looked at the rates of coronary events (angina, heart attack, etc.) between conductors and drivers of London's famous double-decker buses (as pictured above from my recent London visit). Although the drivers and conductors were exposed to basically the same work environment, the drivers were largely sedentary, meanwhile the conductors walked back and forth through the buses, climbing the stairs to check for tickets.
As clearly depicted in the following graph (taken from a more recent article) the incidence of coronary events in the drivers was almost double that of the conductors, regardless of age. Similar findings followed comparing the health of postmen to government clerks, and that of San Francisco shipyard workers (manual versus administrative jobs), among others. In all, this provided some of the first scientific evidence of the beneficial health effects of physical activity — a notion which has since been considerably expanded upon.
Hopefully this little historical note, along with some of our prior fitness tips (i.e., benefits of a single exercise session,
taking the stairs) will aid in motivating some towards realizing their goal to get a bit more active in the new year.
HIS NAME IS NICK VUJICIC and he's 25 years old. He was born without arms or legs and given no medical reason for this condition. Faced with countless challenges and obstacles, He says that, "God has given me the strength to surmount what others might call impossible. Along with that, the Lord has placed within me an unquenchable passion to share this same hope and genuine love that I've personally experienced with more than two million people all over the globe."
Traveling extensively to over 19 nations, he's been extremely humbled by "the continuous opportunities that the Lord has given me to share my testimony along with the hope that I have in Jesus with people in so many nations and situations. My greatest joy in this life is to introduce Jesus to those I meet and tell them of His great desire to get to know them personally by allowing Him to become their Lord and Savior."
Sometimes you just need to speak your mind — get it off of your chest. I had one of those experiences yesterday.
Perhaps I am old fashioned but I have an expectation that if you have a position that deals with the public then you need to put your game face on and be pleasant — regardless of how your day may be going. I went from one experience where I was made to feel as though I was a huge inconvenience and bother to one where the person greeted me with a warm, genuine smile and was delighted that I had walked into her shop.
I will even go a step further and say that we need to be "sunshiny type people", not "rainy day type people". We have enough grief in the world as it is. We do not need to compound it in all of our interactions with people by acting as though we were baptized in lemon juice.
Try it the next time you are out for a walk or at work or shopping. Work really hard at being pleasant and/or thoughtful. Even just smiling at people will engage them in a non-verbal exchange of pleasantries. Not only will you brighten up their day, but you'll also feel better about yourself.
