The obesity epidemic is raging in the U.S. and catching up in countries around the world. It is entirely appropriate that individuals, academics, and the government would start taking a serious look at how to promote healthy lifestyles.   Sophisticated farming techniques and advanced irrigation produced a lot of cheap and readily available food.  This is both good and bad, as is clear from the many people eating themselves, literally, to death. Our goal should not be to emulate the examples of Hollywood actors and their hard-rock abs; they have expensive trainers and cooks at their beck and call.  A reasonable goal is to review the health charts and plot a path to getting into the healthy range using diet and physical fitness as components of the plan. By trying out a new sport, such as fencing, you can lose weight while thrilling to the excitement of a new sport.

Achieving an overall sense of well being requires some physical fitness. It seems like everyone knows this, but not everyone finds it easy to come up with a plan for keeping in shape. We all know that person who lives and breathes working out, but let’s face it, that is a minority!  Many of us are hard-pressed to find a spare 30 minutes in a day for exercise!   Something to remember is that physical activities includes all manner of fun activities. Finding the one that energizes and excites you is the key to developing a physical fitness routine that is easily maintained.   By knowing the physical intensity of the activity you choose, you can determine how much time you should spend to get the maximum benefit.