The Calculator

I came across a news item today and thought it blog worthy:

Most of us are aware of the benefits of healthy eating, exercise and all the other ya-da ya-da but still, many of us aren’t making changes.  I, for one, took six years(!) of thinking I really should … I’d feel better if … before I was finally spurred to getting off my duff and doing something. I had an aversion to getting out of breath and sweaty … the solution I finally discovered was yoga – breathing into those stretches, increasing the heart rate just a little bit, doing a little bit more each time, and then feeling so much better afterwards – not must limbered up but feeling so virtuous for having done it at all.  And then, of course, there’s the new puppy who absolutely must get his walks.  So, for me, those are the two things that get me away from this computer or out of my studio.

The news item – The Ottawa Hospital Research Institute and Public Health Ontario undertook a research study on longevity and life expectancy and report that the five worst habits are:

smoking,
drinking,
lack of exercise,
poor eating choices, and
stress.

Not a lot new there really – if one was critical of government spending one might wonder how much this study cost; however what piqued my interest was the calculator which computes how long you’ll last with the lifestyle you are leading.

Apparently, according to the study, less than 2 per cent of Ontario residents are actually in the healthy category and that more than half the deaths in the province are linked to these five “deadly sins.” Researchers say the combination can take more than seven years off your life.

So, you want to know about that calculator –  click here.  If it spurs on just one more to begin making the changes it’ll be a great day.