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T_i_B Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Dec-28-03 07:56 AM
Original message
Blair hopes gym will fix it for fat UK
Sod that. I'm off for a pie and a pint. :eyes:

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/health/story.jsp?story=476482

Feeling fat after Christmas? Pondering a New Year resolution to re-establish visual contact with your feet? Fear not, help is at hand - the Government is to set Britons daily exercise targets in the latest attempt to get the country off its collective couch.

A draft report by Sir Liam Donaldson, the Chief Medical Officer, urges ministers to tell people what physical activity they should engage in and for how long
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AP Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Dec-28-03 08:23 AM
Response to Original message
1. Most Americans are going to recognize this as a good idea,
just as they'd recognize no up-front school fees as a good idea.

So would Swedes, probably. And the French. And Norweigans. And Dutch.

Sorry.
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sweetheart Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Dec-28-03 09:33 AM
Response to Original message
2. yet he opposes giving it a tax break
so that the preventive medicine of exercise is not a public good, but treating heart conditions of fat people IS... as usual, blair's got it unside down... i wonder if he butters the bottom of his toast... ;)
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AP Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Dec-28-03 09:35 AM
Response to Reply #2
3. gyms don't need a tax break to get people to sign up.
If they could give people a tax break for USING gyms, that would be something else.
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AndyTiedye Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Dec-28-03 10:03 AM
Response to Reply #3
4. Gyms Suck, and they Smell Awful
I get my exercise on the dance floor
and on the mountain biking trails.

Put a dance floor and a sound system in the gym and dim the lights a bunch
and I'll be there.
So will lotsa other people.

School PE classes taught most of us to detest exercise
(like everyone who wasn't a jock).
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Skittles Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Dec-28-03 10:22 AM
Response to Reply #4
6. I'M WITH YOU, ANDY
I have dozens of aerobic tapes I exercise to - they are cheap and convenient. I cannot stand the thought of being around a bunch of f***ing sweaty people and using public showers. Double :puke: :puke:
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Frederic Bastiat Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Dec-28-03 11:28 AM
Response to Reply #4
8. Yeah and dancing is for wusses
I'd like to see you mtn bike during a Canadian winter. Gyms are great unless you're one of those that are easily intimidated.
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Skittles Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Dec-28-03 11:49 AM
Response to Reply #8
9. excuse me
some of us just don't need the herd mentality of gyms. And I wasn't aware that Canadian winters are replicated in sweaty, smelly gyms.
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T_i_B Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Dec-29-03 03:39 AM
Response to Reply #3
11. Well can I have a tax break
If I jog 10 miles a day in the countryside without forking out the extortionate fees needed to join a gym and do that on a treadmill?

I cannot see the point in driving to the gym to go on a walking machine when I can walk there and back for no cost. This fitness stuff sounds to me like somebody at the top has shares in Fitness First. :eyes:
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sweetheart Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Jan-03-04 04:14 PM
Response to Reply #11
12. but we're in the countryside
and geesh, the past week was so rainy, windy and wet, that no outdoor exercise of any real merit can be done.

If a gym is preventive medicine, i have no problem with it being given VAT free status for people who are keeping the pounds off... better that than cardiac care in later life at public expense at the NHS.
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T_i_B Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Jan-04-04 07:52 AM
Response to Reply #12
13. And when the weather changes?
No point being in a sweaty gym when you can be outside in summer, particularly in conditions like we had this summer.

It has to be said that you do see joggers and the like out in all conditions in my experience.
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sweetheart Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jan-07-04 03:53 PM
Response to Reply #13
14. wind in north highlands and shetland
Indeed as you say, and i've jogged in all weather... but the wind of the north highlands has indeed been a killer. It's too bracing and really does disuade the resolute jogger.

Shetland is not known for its jogging, nor are the highlands... and i know why. :)
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Skittles Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Dec-28-03 10:21 AM
Response to Original message
5. we introduced fast foot to the Brits
that'll make 'em fat, just like us. I grew up in England and was so disappointed when I visited and saw a g.d. MCDONALDS there. :(
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Lydia Leftcoast Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Dec-28-03 10:44 AM
Response to Original message
7. Although not as far along as the U.S.,
the U.K., by all accounts, has been heading in the direction of dismantling public transport and encouraging driving.

If they would reverse that policy now and emphasize rebuilding their public transit system and bike paths, they could go a long way toward slimming the population down.

After all, the traditional British diet isn't exactly Weight Watchers approved. What has changed since the old days? People are driving instead of walking and cycling.
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Dirk39 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Dec-28-03 11:57 AM
Response to Original message
10. Kraft durch Freude
So is there a real hope that someday the Americans and the Brits simply have to stop to attack other countries, 'cause they simply can't move over the borders anymore or their planes will crash?
Eat, eat, please eat. Don't let the commies tell you bad things about lecker american food, they just hate us for our....
Schadenfreude in Germany,
Dirk
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