If You Do Nothing Else, Do This!!
You may not realize just how important regular physical activity is to your health. Regular physical activity is anything that gets your body moving.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC):

• 60 percent of Americans are not meeting the recommended levels of physical activity.
• 16 percent of Americans are not active at all.
• Overall, women tend to be less active than men.
• Older people are less likely to get regular physical activity than younger individuals.

According to the U.S. Surgeon General's Report on Physical Activity and Health:
Inactive people are nearly twice as likely to develop heart disease as those who are more active. This is true even if you have no other conditions or habits that increase your risk for heart disease. Lack of physical activity also leads to more visits to the doctor, more hospitalizations, and more use of medicines for a variety of illnesses.

The good news is that you don't have to run a marathon.
To reduce the risk of heart disease,
adults need only do about 30 minutes of moderate activity (something as simple as a brisk walk) on most, and preferably all, days of the week. This level of activity can also lower your chances of having a stroke, colon cancer, high blood pressure, diabetes, and other medical problems.
150 minutes each week sounds like a lot of time, but you don't have to do it all at once. If you can't do 30 minutes at a time, 10 minutes at a time is fine. Not only is it best to spread your activity out during the week, but you can break it up into smaller chunks of time during the day. As long as you're doing your activity at a moderate or vigorous effort for at least 10 minutes at a time.
Try going for a 10 minute brisk walk, 3 times a day, 5 days a week. Or, you could do a 15 minute brisk walk, 2 times a day, 5 days a week.
That adds up to a total of 150 minutes of moderate intensity activity.

If you are also trying to manage your weight and prevent gradual, unhealthy weight gain, try to get 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous intensity activity on most days of the week. At the same time, watch your calories. Take in only enough calories to maintain your weight.

Those who are trying to keep weight off should aim a bit higher. Try to get 60 to 90 minutes of moderate intensity activity daily, without taking in extra calories.

Give it a try, how about starting today?

Africa has the AIDS epidemic, Bill and Melinda Gates foundation spends millions of dollars for circumcisions.

America has the obesity epidemic, Bill and Melinda Gates foundation spends millions of dollars on stationary exercise bikes ?

Yeah and the treadmills will be bought by McDonald's and have their logo all over it... maybe even smell like the fries as they run...

So what are you guys saying??

Every house in America needs an exercise bike.

I wonder how much electricity usage America could offset if the entire country, or at least the majority of it, rode a stationary exercise bike with a tiny generator in it every day for at least a few minutes.

What about if everyone rode a real bike to work if you work less than 10 miles away from your work... how much fuel would we save and how much polution would we eliminate?!?

I'm leaning towards more efficient cars VS riding a bike to work. Here in Florida it can be hot and sunny out one minute, then all of a sudden you're getting rained on. It's always hot here, if you have to wear a black suit or something to work it's not going to be fun. Then there's things like running through paint that fell out of the back of a truck and getting to work with a "skunk stripe" on your back.

Everywhere I've ever worked would take twice or more as long to get to on a bike than it does in a car.

If you're a construction contractor a bike is pretty much out of the question.

I think the only people who would really be able to just start riding a bike to work instead of taking a car without having problems, is people who should be able to do their job from home anyways.

But yeah, it would cut down on emissions from cars big time until the green car thing picks up steam.

Thanks for being the party pooper, Joebert... way to burst my bubble!

Even though you have a point... it's not like people are really going to not do it just because it is not realistic... they aren't going to do it because it is not easy and convenient.

Ok, guys, those are very good points from both of you. But to get back to the original topic... if you do nothing else, at least try to take a 15 minute brisk walk twice a day. That's only 7 and 1/2 minutes one way, turn around, and walk 7 and 1/2 minutes back from where you started. You now have half of your 30 minutes done for the day!! And remember, this is to reduce the risk of heart disease.

I've been doing this all the time cause I've been commuting from home and at work which is a very good exercise even thou it's just a 10 min. walk around the corner. you can also do the above when you are in a building like the use of stairs instead of elevators.

I used to use the stairs all of the time when I worked on the top floor (I think 12 levels) at a job I had about 5 years ago. It was great exercise!

woah 12 levels you mean 12 floors ... that's really high for me ... but it's good thou because the higher the floor levels the higher the challenge is to use the stairs.

Yeah, 12 floors... I only had that job for about 10 months though so I wasn't doing it for that long!