My exercising schedule has lately
succumbed to inconsistency. The evening soccer with the village boys near our staff
residence quarters has over the months always been a ‘must do thing’ especially
for someone like me who loves stress relief after a long day of work. My former
work in the city (Kampala) was quite a different arrangement all together. After
some seven or so hours of work, I would board a taxi back to my small apartment
and catch a couple of movies or listen to music playing in the background as I
rested by or fried my dinner. Definitely, weekend would be a climax. Catching a
few drinks at a local club or visiting some friends was a usual weekend program.
Save for some details like pork feasting, pool games and so on.
I guess my urbanized lifestyle during
my former work may not sound so close to your picture or experience of the usually
fancied ‘urban lifestyle’. Many city dwellers, especially those that usually or
even occasionally have some money stuffed in their wallets from their earnings love
the up-town life. They young professionals, mid career and older fellows often stuff
their tummies with excess alcohol and unhealthy but seemingly ‘modern’ fatty diets. In fact, even many
teenagers that I meet in ‘happening places’ puff chunks of cigarettes and booze
large as a sign of swagger. Some destructive up-town attitudes like; ‘‘who
has time for a daily evening or early morning jog? or where
is the swagger when you get seen riding a bicycle in the neighbourhood?
or which
modern campus girl goes out on a date and orders for a traditional dish instead
of fries (chips), chaps and chicken? ”have fuelled in this era. Then
here comes the up-town mums plus some few dads who have to buy chocolate bars
or an ice cream or some other junk foods for their 5 year old sweet heart son
or daughter every evening as they retire from work.
Anyways, all the thoughts about urban
lifestyle came up as I dug up in the archives on how NCDs (Non Communicable
Diseases) are eating up our communities. NCDs are those diseases or conditions
that are not caused by a disease causing organism (like bacteria or viruses)
but rather their risk of occurrence is highly determined by lifestyles. Such
NCDs may include; diabetes, cardiovascular conditions, obesity, and certain
cancers. The World Health Organization estimates that by 2015, about 2.3
billion people will be overweight and about 700 million will be obese.
Apparently, obesity and overweight are some of the major risk factors known to
lead to diabetes. Diabetes which is a major killer and chronic illness that
accounted for nearly 285 million patients (6.6%) aged between 20 to 79 years in
2010 according to the International Diabetes Federation. Obesity and overweight are as well linked to
increasing risk of cardio vascular (heart related) problems including hypertension
and dyslipidemia. Proper functioning of internal organs especially the kidneys
are as well disrupted due to overweight and obesity. Uncontrolled alcohol
consumption, smoking, poor dieting (such as excess consumption of fatty foods,
highly processed foods, junky foods, foods with high amounts of carbohydrates)
and living a sedentary life style (characterized by lack of adequate physical
body activity) are the major factors contributing to someone becoming obese or
overweight.
In this regard, adjusting one’s
lifestyle to better feeding and exercising is a means to a healthier body and
mind. In addition, the controlled use of alcohol and cigarettes plus other
general health practices such as routine medical check-ups, sanitation and hygiene
are key. I already began on the mission of selling the benefits of physical body
exercising to my elder sister that works in city. I am glad she is already
thinking about it strongly. Enabling people to increase control over and
improve their health is my and your role as a health promoter.
