So, I'm sure you understand that it's important
to be physically active and healthy. It's
a pretty obvious thing to say, isn't it? Like
saying you'd rather live on land than underwater.
Or you'd rather call your friends than fax
them.
But just how important is being active and
healthy? Well, let’s look. In the entire
world, physical inactivity is the fourth leading
risk factor for mortality behind high blood
pressure, tobacco use and high blood sugar.
Physical inactivity is the main cause for
about ¼ of all deaths caused by breast and
colon cancer, diabetes, and heart disease.
Now, people aged 5 – 17 should accumulate
60 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical
activity in a day. But currently, only 7%
of youth are getting the recommended amount
of physical activity.
We have a similar problem when we examine
healthy living. Less than half of children
and youth are getting the recommended number
of servings or fruit and vegetable daily.
Without change, these children will have lifespans
that are three to four years shorter than
today's adults, due to obesity.
So, it's clearly very important to be physically
active, and healthy. And to work towards getting
better at it.
But here's the problem. Before you can make
changes and get to a position where you're
physically active and making healthy decisions
you've got to learn something called health
and physical literacy.
What's that you ask?...Ahem…Health literacy
is the ability to develop critical thinking
skills to make good decisions about your health.
Physical literacy is the ability to move with
competence and confidence in a wide variety
of physical activities.
It's like this: say you want to drive a car.
You don't just hop in the seat, and start
zipping around. You've got some basic skills
to learn first. Steering, stopping, parallel
parking. OK, maybe you still can't parallel
park.
The point is, you have to learn the basic
skills and strategies before you can drive.
Your health is the same way.
Let’s take physical literacy. To feel comfortable
and confident being physically active, and
therefore more likely to be regularly active,
you need to learn fundamental movement skills
like how to dodge, hop, skip, jump, kick and
overhand throw.
Once you’re comfortable and confident with
these skills, you can start to apply various
strategies in physical activities. For example,
when playing sledge hockey, you may be playing
defense so learning to ‘defend a space’
will be a very useful strategy. This applies
to hockey and basketball too! When you play
bocce or wheelchair curling, ‘avoiding obstacles’
will help you to score points and learning
'aim and accuracy' helps with jai alai and
squash.
It's the same if you want to be healthy. To
be health literate, you have to learn basic
critical and creative thinking skills like
planning, processing, drawing conclusions
and reflecting. Through these, you develop
the ability to make healthy choices like eating
well, avoiding smoking and making good decisions
about your emotional wellbeing.
Making good choices isn't like flipping on
a switch. We learn how to do it.
Health and physical literacy get you to a
place where you're competent and confident
in physical activities and making healthy
smart choices about your life. This will help
you get better grades, make friends and just
generally make you a happier, healthier person.
