What is your community doing to promote healthy living?
Tennessee isn’t alone in the battle with a poor health epidemic. Nationally, we fail at eating correctly and exercising the recommended amount. Any bit of tobacco usage is too much.
In Tennessee, we’re fortunate enough to have The Governor’s Foundation for Health and Wellness (Healthier Tennessee) to lead citizens through the process of improving their lifestyles. In the 2013 Awareness and Engagement Study Among Tennesseans that we conducted for Healthier Tennessee, we found out that only 3% of residents are engaging in behaviors that are considered healthy. This means that only 3% of Tennesseans are eating five or more servings of fruits and vegetables per day, exercising five times a week for at least 30 minutes at a time, and refraining from tobacco usage.
To combat residents’ unhealthy lifestyles, Healthier Tennessee launched a campaign that integrates multiple strategies to try and encourage Tennesseans to eat better, start exercising, and quit using tobacco.
“Drastic changes in diet and physical activity are usually overwhelming and hard for people to maintain,” Governor’s Foundation for Health and Wellness CEO Rick Johnson told me. “But making small, simple changes in your daily routine can, over time, add up to a big health difference. Changing your day a little can eventually change your life a lot.”
One initiative that Healthier Tennessee is using is called “Small Starts.” Their website lists more than 50 small things people can do daily, or weekly, to get into healthier habits. Things like walking around while talking on the phone, swapping out one sugary drink a day for a glass of water, or making a list of things you can do to distract yourself when you get a craving for tobacco are all little steps that will hopefully lead to bigger changes. In addition to Small Starts, Healthier Tennessee produced a television commercial
that has run statewide to promote the idea of starting now—not waiting!
The initiative is reaching out to Tennesseans in places where they live, work, worship, and learn – the places where effective tools and support can lead to positive behavior change. Strategies and tools that can be owned and implemented by individuals, workplaces, faith-based organizations and schools are being made available at no charge through the healthierTN.com website.
I encourage you to visit the Healthier Tennessee website to learn more about the cause and how all of us can take discrete steps to lead healthier lives. To download the white paper detailing more results of the study, click here.
