Fitness
HEALTH
G
N
I
T
T
PU
N
I
”
I
“
E
TH
E
S
I
C
R
E
EX
ntal
ncide
I
,
s
u
o
en
Indig
rcise
al Exe
, Integr
“Slim by Design”
author Professor Brian Wansink,
Consumer Designs, Behaviour,
& Nutritional Psychologist from
Cornell University places the
issue front and centre: “The
answer isn’t to tell people
what to do; it’s to set up their
living environment so they
will naturally lose weight.”
What Professor Wansink
maintains about losing weight
can be directly applied to
exercise and fitness.
Let’s take a quick look at
some relevant evidence: 15
percent of North Americans
belong to fitness centres but
approximately 67-80 percent
of those people admit to never
using their memberships. In the
European Union, the number of
memberships is approximately
half that of North America, yet
Europe’s fitness levels appear
to be considerably higher.
Having recently returned from
Eastern and Central Europe,
I see that his point makes
sense. Here in North America,
exercise is separated from daily
life, rather than integral to it.
European exercise is not only
integral and indigenous to their
lifestyles, but perhaps more
importantly, it’s incidental. It
happens as an unimportant
part of something else.
10 | whiteoaksclub.com | fall 2015
WALKING
With far less dependence on the car,
Europeans walk for nearly all purposes:
work, shopping and leisure. The number
and magnitude of pedestrian-designated
areas of towns and cities dwarf those in
North America. Large areas of cities like
Salzburg, Austria and Istanbul, Turkey
are no-cars designated. If you can’t go
there by car, then you have to walk.
GROCERIES & SHOPPING
For most North Americans, weekly
grocery shopping happens at a massive
supermarket, involves a ton of bags and
wouldn’t be possible without a car. In Europe, grocery shopping is a daily process
and involves a weight-bearing exercise
called carrying your grocery bags home.
FAMILY TIME
The extent to which the evening stroll is
part of the culture in Europe is surprising to most North Americans. Consider
smaller living accommodations, with
less accessibility to air conditioning in
warmer weather, and Wansink’s criteria
of living environment is met; the after-dinner stroll with all members of the
family is key. On our first couple of nights
in Istanbul, we were overwhelmed by
the sheer number of folks out walking.
CYCLING
Again North American dependence on
the car seems to mandate fewer bicyclededicated paths. In the core of Vienna,
Austria, dedicated and two-directional
bike paths are completely separated
from roads, tram lines and sidewalks
allowing the cyclist to move quickly and
without the intimidation of fast-moving
motor vehicles. Travelling by train, we
passed many small towns where hundreds of bicycles were parked while
their riders took transit to work in the
large cities - another example of exercise
conditioned by the living environment.