You must teach what is in accord with sound doctrine. Teach the older men to be temperate. . . . Train the younger women . . . to be self-controlled. . . . Similarly, encourage the young men to be self-controlled. In everything set them an example by doing what is good. Titus 2:1-7, NIV.

Since I’ve been gathering information and writing scripts for the daily Got a Minute for Your Health? radio program, I have become overwhelmed by the scientific evidence for the health benefits of exercising.

Exercise is no longer an option; it’s a necessity for good health. It’s at least as important as good nutrition in feeling and looking good. Besides helping the heart, it strengthens immunity, controls weight, promotes mental health, and lowers the risk of developing diabetes, osteoporosis, and some cancers.

Dr. Ralph Paffenbarger, Jr., a professor emeritus of epidemiology at Stanford University, has researched the effects of physical activity in several long-term studies begun in 1960 on large numbers of Harvard University graduates. Based on his findings, he says, “Starting to exercise is comparable from a health-benefit standpoint to quitting smoking.”

The excuse “I don’t have time to exercise!” is something like saying, “I don’t have time to eat or sleep!”

People find the time to do what they really want to do. After all, you enjoy eating and sleeping enough to work them into your schedule. You’ve got to do the same thing with exercise—it’s just as important!

Besides, exercise doesn’t have to take that much time! Use the staircase instead of the elevator, park your car in the farthest parking place instead of the closest, get up from your desk every hour and walk to the drinking fountain, or go to the lounge and jump rope. All this adds up. When you arrive home, play basketball with the kids and then take a 20-minute moonlight walk with your spouse before bed. Make exercise a fun part of your daily schedule, and you can find the time!

But are people getting the message? Apparently not, for a 1995 survey of 15,000 households found that 60 percent of Americans do not exercise regularly. Ellen White challenges us to “take the living principles of health reform into the communities that to a large degree are ignorant of these principles” (Testimonies, vol. 8, p. 148).

Help spread the message, won’t you? Exercise isn’t an option—it’s a necessity!

What are you doing to spread the message of good health to others?
 

Used by permission of Health Ministries, North American Division of Seventh-day Adventists.