YP Letters: Big culture change needed to make us exercise

EXERCISE is not a dirty word. Reading Darren Padgett’s five priorities for 2016 encouraging children, communities and businesses to lead active, healthier lives, he threw up some depressing statistics that answers all of the questions about the high levels of obesity at all ages within society (The Yorkshire Post, January 4).

For Darren’s well-intentioned goals to succeed, there needs to be a massive culture change and change of mindset towards exercise. This is still a dirty word for many. As each day, whatever the weather, I ride to my local newsagent for the morning’s The Yorkshire Post. I feel sure my neighbours are astounded that, with a car on the drive, I ride a bicycle to most places and are dumbfounded to know within a year or two my next Government hand-out will be a free television licence!

My daughter has a full time job with Weight Watchers travelling about to promote healthy lifestyles with a balanced diet but when I have heard her chats to classes of the organisation, she never mentions the part regular exercise plays in keeping the weight down, along with eating correctly, although the Weight Watchers manuals deal in some detail with this, as well as identifying which foods and ingredients to avoid.