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I came across an inspirational person on 2 counts, firstly she had lost a massive amount of weight and secondly hiked up the face of Cradle Mountain in ballet type shoes.

Over a 12 month period this person through commitment and dedication went from a size 22 to size 16 in 12 months, a result of controlling her energy intake and walking regularly. An awesome achievement that demonstrates with the right mind set, anything is possible with the belief system in place.

The second part of the story is the not giving up and making do with what is available. The day before, this person went on a 6 hour hike and got blisters from her runners so not wanting to miss out on the walk to the summit of Cradle Mountain, she used her ballet style shoes to make the hike to the top. The section of track she climbed was marked “Extreme” meaning appropriate foot wear is recommended. With a top temperature of 15º and misty conditions, climbing over wet rocks is difficult at the best of times.

You can see from the photo the track follows the front of the face of the mountains in the background.

So it just goes to show that anything is truly possible is you really want to make it happen.

A recent Nielsen poll found that Austtralians are on average spending 17.6 hours per week on the internet with 75% of those users using social networking sites. More concerning is children spending up to 22 hours in front of the computer screen surfing the net rather than being involved in physical exercise.

With Australia’s obesity rate going out of control there needs to be a change in our technilogical behavior. More alarming is that this phenomenon is starting to lead to obsessive compulsive type behavior and stress.

Part of leading a healthy lifestyle is having downtime to switch off and disconnect. I find it concerning that people cannot resist the temptation to check emails after work hours on there new smart phones even if there is a high probability it’s work related.

As technological advances in the area of instant communication and connecting with information, we are slowly eroding any down time.

It’s interesting that people often site the lack of time or tiredness for not exercising or adopting a healthier eating regime but as a society we are prioritising gluing our eyeballs to the computer or mobile phone screen, be it looking at/sending emails, SMS messaging, instant chat and surfing the internet.

I often wonder whether life back in the 1950′s may have been better for your health without all the latest technological gadgets.

We are moving towards a fatter, more fatigue society and unfortunately the internet and social networking responsibilities aren’t helping.

Is the corporatisation of exercise a good thing? Is having fun and exercise associated with a soft drink creating or maintaining a future client base and developing brand loyalty?

I road past this Coca Cola inflatable castle on the weekend and was surprised at the expense that a corporation had gone to create awareness of there products and the association of happiness with a Coke product.
Right up there is the word happiness for all to see.

It is a sad day when we leave providing fun exercise activities to major corporations. The government seems to be very good at collecting alcohol and tabacco taxes but seems to short fall in proving health services to children and young adults.

More and more we are seeing the corporates looking at new marketing initiatives and the latest battleground is people’s health and wellness.

Today I was speaking to our painter about how our society is go, go, go and he started talking about how life was in the 1950′s.
It may sound like a bit of nostalgic but ne did make some interesting points.

Supermarkets didn’t exist so you purchased your fruit from the green grocer who often delivered freshly ripened fruit, so fresh and tasty that the peaches left an pleasant aroma in the air as he passed you in the street on his deliveries.
Even such things as Rock melons were apparently totally different to the variety we have today with the need for greater shelf life and transporation logistics requirring a more sophisticated fruit product when compared to this bygone era.

Bread wasn’t like eating a sponge covered in plastic wrap, it came striaght from the baker with less modified grains and different milling to the varieties we use today.

The average household comfortable paid off the house on a single income, no forms of instant communication so working outside the office just didn’t happen.

Less traffic on the road meant less pollution, less congestion and a safer environment for kids to get out on there bikes without the fear of being run over. With the advent of TV our painter remembers his older brother (12 years old) not getting home until 9.00pm as he was watching this new thing called TV from the window of a shop front, did the parents get stressed and worried, mmm, not really as kids often stayed out playing after dinner, no where to be seen.

Maybe just a case of nostalgia, or is there something to be said for living in the fifties.

There are great benefits to exercise, some may be not so obvious at the time.
To get to level 1 and 2, you can either take the lift and queue for hours or take the stairs and wal right through.

So you’re thinking that 347 steps to the first level and 674 steps to the second level seems a lot, well if you can manage to walk briskly for 30 minutes a day 4-5 times a week you will make the climb.

So next time the path of least resistance may be the car rather than walking, think about how much better you will feel by taking part in some regular form of exercise.
Climbing up 1021 steps is very achievable with less couch time and more movements with the legs.