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The average American sleeps over 106 days per year.
The average American watches almost 78 days of television per year.
The average American surfs the Internet nearly 30 days per year.
The average American eats for nearly 23 day per year.
How much time does the average American spend on exercise?
Less than 20% of the American population participates in regular exercise. Of those 20%, 65% spend less than an hour doing it. For 80% of this Great Nation, the average amount of time spent during the year on truly sweating is less than 1 day.
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Sleep and food are necessary. Television and the Internet are not.
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And no, it’s not just lack of exercise; it is also what we are doing with the time we COULD be spending exercising (staring at a screen, mindlessly eating). It’s a double-whammy. Mindless eating is not about hunger or nutrition. It’s not even about pleasure, as a fine meal can be. But junk/fast-food is not the enemy. It’s what we are doing with it that is – a topic for another post I suppose.
I digress.
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So what’s your health worth to you? 20 days? 10 days? Would you believe that you could significantly help yourself with just 6.5 days a year? 6.5 days.
Can you spare 6.5 days?
That averages out to 3 hours per week.
I can already hear some people saying, “I don’t have an extra 3 hours per week.”
I hear you. Loud and clear. Time is precious. Choices have to be made. Issues must be tended to. But I take you back to the statistics above. How many hours per week do you spend in front of the television or the computer?
Be honest.
I have friends who are constantly traveling, constantly working and literally don’t have the time. They don’t watch TV and time spent on the computer is for work. For them, I’m not sure what the answer is. Some kind of multi-tasking?
But there are others. Other who complain or come up with excuses.
3 hours a week.
Not only are you receiving the benefits of physical exertion during that time, you’re getting the added bonus of not sitting in front of a screen, munching on HFCS (high fructose corn syrup).
So let me re-phrase – can you re-allocate 3 hours per week?
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Isn’t your spouse/child/parent/friend worth 6.5 days?
Run Luau Run 
Those are some crazy statistics! I couldn’t imagine a life without exercise. Although I do spend a lot of time on the computer and watching TV I would like to think I balance it out with daily exercise 🙂
As long as you’re finding balance, I think you’re doing fine. It’s the complaining that drives me nuts.
I can’t tell my patients to do something I don’t, so, I practice what I preach, an hour and a half every other day of strength training, intense strength training too. And I train mostly for myself, although my family benefits from it without question. DOAM is welcome to join me, anytime too:)
Love it! Keep preaching and practicing!
I saw a cartoon this week that said, “What fits your busy schedule better, exercising one hour a day or being dead 24 hours a day?”
That’s awesome! Simple but true!
love this..and so true. It makes me crazy wen people say they don’t have time…and yet can tell you the recaps of any TV show on. Grr….
I whole-heartedly agree…which is why there’s a TV in front of the treadmill in my house! 😉
Wow! Those are some scary statistics! Great post once again. Hope you don;t mind, but I’m gonna’ share this all over the place!
Share it Brother!
Awesome post Luau! Only 3 hours a week – it’s all about shifting perspective and you have a wonderful way of doing just that – I can hear this echoing all across social media land!
Thanks Mary! Hopefully people will realize just how small of an adjustment it really can be.