Running away from your problems is never a good idea, unless that problem is diabetes. The key word here is to ‘run’, literally!

Most of us spend a large chunk of our day sitting, lying down or sleeping. The National Health and Morbidity Survey (NHMS) 2011 elucidates that 1 out of 3 Malaysian adults aren’t physically active. So it’s a laid back, easy going life for many people in this country.

NHMS goes on to report that women are more inactive than men, a statistical dominance similarly shared by adult urbanites over their rural counterparts. This prolonged sedentary behaviour may promote impairment of glucose control in the body which could increase risk of acquiring Type 2 diabetes. Physical inactivity accounts for approximately 27% of the cases. When healthy individuals reduced their physical activity by about half for three days, the spikes in blood sugar that occur after a meal doubled.

Physical activity is key

Regular physical activity can help you counter the risk factors that lead to type 2 diabetes – and possibly prevent it altogether. Physical activity helps your body to utilize glucose more efficiently thereby controlling its concentration in the blood at a normal level. For people with pre-diabetes, just roughly 20-30 minutes a day of moderate-intensity physical activity coupled with a weight loss of 5-7% by healthy diet significantly reduced the risk of progression to diabetes by 58%. Of course most of us would argue that work, chores, and other tasks keep us so busy and occupied throughout the day that we hardly get any free time for ourselves much less spend 20 minutes of it on exercising. But excuses don’t help prevent diabetes, actions does!

Slow and steady wins the race

Starting off is the most common problem and possibly the largest obstacle in being physically active. So start slow but keep it going, don’t overdo yourself otherwise you’ll quickly lose motivation and interest. As you get more used to your regime, work your way towards achieving a daily 30-60 minute session while increasing the intensity of your workouts or physical activity as you progress. If you can’t commit that much in one go, spread the time out by doing 10 minute physical activity at different intervals throughout the day instead.

Be active every day

Whether you’re a student, a working mom or a retiree, staying active can be easy and it’s never too early or too late to start. Consider these simple and practical tips to keep you active throughout the day:

Office workers

• Wake up 10 minutes earlier than your usual time and do some light stretching exercises.
• Walk up the stairs instead of the lift if your office is within the first five floors. If you have to take the lift, stop five floors below and walk the rest of the way up.
• While working in the office, take 5 to 10 minutes break to brisk walk in the office.
• Take a walk after lunch/dinner.
• Do rope skipping or stationary cycling while watching television. (if you don’t have these equipment, you can do simple exercise such as swing your arms while walking on the spot)
• During weekends, wash your own car.
• If you have young children, go for family outings in the park and play.
• Brisk walking for at least 30 minutes, 4 to 5 times a week.

Housewife

• Spend less time sitting down. E.g. avoid sitting down in front of the television for a long stretch.
• Do rope skipping or stationary cycling 15 to 20 minutes every day, at any time of the day.(if you don’t have these equipment, you can do simple exercise such as swing your arms while walking on the spot)
• Be more vigorous in doing your house hold work for example vacuuming, mopping, scrubbing or cleaning the windows.
• Walk to the market or shops if within walking distance.
• Brisk walking for at least 30 minutes, 4 to 5 times a week.

Elderly

• Do some light stretching exercises.
• Brisk walking for at least 30 minutes, 4 to 5 times a week.
• Stationary cycling while watching television.
• Avoid sitting too long in front of the television.
• Go for a walk after dinner.

Vigorous-intensity exercises

Once in a while, try a vigorous workout. You can apply the same activities from a moderate workout (so you don’t need to change your entire regime to suit) but with an increased level of effort. For example, consider jogging or running instead of speed walking and diversify your route to also include hills, stairs and elevated terrains to provide more resistance.

What are moderate-intensity type physical activities?

Additionally, you can do moderate-intensity type physical activities. Moderate-intensity type physical activities get you moving fast enough or strenuously enough to increase your heart rate and break a sweat but still allows you to talk and utter full sentences. This level of intensity physical activities can help you burn off 3-6 times more energy per minute as you would sitting down doing nothing. Examples of moderate-intensity physical activity include:

• Brisk walking
• Playing sports leisurely (i.e. badminton, basketball, football)
• Dancing
• Aerobic exercise
• Swimming

Just 30 minutes per day of moderate-intensity physical activities is all you need to burn those extra calories and maintain a healthy body weight. It also simultaneously reduce risk of type 2 diabetes, improve blood pressure as well as cholesterol levels, enhance your stamina and it also helps to work your muscles.

Limit physical inactivity

Keep “sedentary-ism” to a minimum. If you’re the kind of person that likes to watch TV, surf the net, play video games or just enjoys quiet laying-down-watching-the-ceiling time, limit it to about 2 hours or less per day. Even better, make a win-win schedule for yourself that’s realistic to your preference but also doesn’t neglect the main objective – which is staying physically active.

Start Young

Children today are also more susceptible towards being sedentary. The lure of electronic games and gadgets, TV programmes, and so on are hard to dismiss. Nevertheless, it’s still not an excuse. Parents should try to be role models for active lifestyles and provide children with opportunities for increased physical activity. So kids should get out there and move more! There’s so much to do but the key is to have FUN!

• Encourage free play or unstructured physical activity among young children such as walk or run.
• Play actively during school recess (i.e. teng-teng or kejar-kejar) or take part in school sports activity.
• If possible, walk or cycle to school.
• Help parents in the daily household chores, such as sweeping, washing own school shoes and mopping the floor.
• Encourage primary school-aged children and adolescents to do some physical activity such as push-ups, sit-ups, working with resistance bands, jumping rope, basketball or hopscotch.
• Encourage children and adolescents to engage in vigorous-intensity activities that are suitable for their age, such as running and chasing (eg. Police and thief), football, basketball, swimming, riding a bicycle fast), jumping rope, martial arts (taekwando, karate) or vigorous dancing.
• Limit television watching, video games playing and leisure surfing of the internet to less than two hours per days.
• If children are into electronic games, encourage them to play active video games such as basketball video exergames rather than sedentary ones.

Healthy, physically active kids also are more likely to be academically motivated and alert and physical competence builds self-esteem at every age. Next to not smoking, and eating healthily, getting regular physical activity is arguably the best thing you can do to avoid risk of diabetes and increase your overall well-being. Remember that any amount of physical activity is better than none and the sooner you start the higher your chance of preventing against diabetes. So run baby run!

This article is contributed by Nutrition Month Malaysia (NMM) 2015. NMM is an annual initiative jointly-organised by the Nutrition Society of Malaysia, Malaysian Dietitians’ Association and Malaysian Association for the Study of Obesity. NMM 2015 is supported by Legosan (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd (Biogrow Oats BG22), Malaysia Milk Sdn Bhd (Vitagen), Nestle Products Sdn Bhd, Serba Wangi Sdn Bhd (ecoBrown’s) and Yakult (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd. To learn more about preventing diabetes and other interesting nutrition information, drop by the Nutrition Month Malaysia (NMM)Facebook page or visit www.nutritionmonthmalaysia.org.my.