Pike County residents urged to get moving

By Loretta Tackett

Staff Writer

Pike Countians are urged to join Kentucky’s team in rising to a national challenge to lead more active lives.

As obesity and disease rates are on the rise, the National President’s Challenge urges citizens to get in the routine of physical exercise.

Rising obesity rates — 76 percent of Kentuckians are overweight or obese — and the fact Americans are becoming more sedentary has prompted the council to initiate the challenge to get Americans moving.

“We were made to move,” Challenge Executive Director Melissa Johnson said this week, adding the six-week program beginning March 20 is for everyone from 6 years old and up. “Every single body needs to move.”

The program will end May 15 in the middle of National Physical Fitness and Sports Awareness Month, giving participants eight weeks to meet the challenge of exercising the 30 minutes required each day, Johnson said. Children are required to participate in 60 minutes of activity, and since the list of 100 acceptable activities is so varied, meeting the challenge can be “fun and easy,” Johnson said, as long as people choose something they enjoy doing.

“We have a society of sedentary people and disease is on the rise,” Johnson said. “We are trying to let people know it’s easy to exercise ... and make it part of their routine.”

Even though participants can register at the council’s Web site, www.presidentschallenge.org, Johnson said the council urges Kentuckians to register via the state’s fitness site at www.gethealthy.ky.gov, Johnson said, adding, “Kentucky is one of our champions.”

The Governor’s Challenge is a program created in partnership with the President’s Challenge and urges Kentuckians, no matter what age or current level of physical activity, to set and achieve activity goals. The challenge comes from Get Healthy Kentucky, a statewide initiative from former Gov. Ernie Fletcher’s administration in 2007, aimed at educating Kentuckians about the values of leading healthy lives.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly two-thirds of adult Americans are either overweight or obese. Childhood obesity rates have more than tripled from 1980 to 2004, from 5 to 17 percent.

Excess weight is the second leading cause of preventable death in the U.S., and being obese increases the risk of heart attacks, stroke, high blood pressure, diabetes, arthritis, cancers of the colon, breast, and prostate, urinary incontinence, gallbladder disease, sleep disorders, and mental disorders.