Welcome to 2006. I am certain that this is going to be a good year, so we need to cheer up and infect our immediate environment with positive vibes. We need to speak and declare positive things for 2006 and what we say shall come to pass.

I hope I find you in good health. It's that time again when many Zimbabweans will resolve to lose weight. Health clubs will run membership specials, hoping to draw in legions of people freshly committed to making 2006 the year they finally shape up, slim down and feel good about their bodies. But if history repeats itself, most people will have fallen off the weight-loss wagon before June, some even before March. More than half of people who begin exercising drop their program within three to six months.
We know why. Exercise is hard work, and weight loss doesn't happen overnight. So many of us are seasonal exercisers, weekend warrior exercisers, start and stop exercisers, and too many of us just expect too much from ourselves. People get frustrated because they don't see immediate results, and they hit the couch. That's precisely why it's important to remember that exercise does a lot of other good things for you, things that aren't measured in kilograms or waistlines but that are still key to your overall health and well-being.
As you recommit to your health in 2006 it might help to focus on the benefits of exercise rather than focus on the pain. Regular exercise reduces your risk of osteoporosis, diabetes and obesity. Essentially it means you live longer. A recent study on exercise and longevity found that people who exercised on a regular basis lived longer than their couch-potato counterparts, and the more they exercised the longer they lived. The analysis, published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, showed that participants who reported exercising the most had a life expectancy at age 50 that was more than three years longer than those in the lowest activity group.
Exercise contributes to your mental well-being and helps treat depression. It helps relieve stress and anxiety and increases your energy and endurance. A British study of about 200 workers found that people who took exercise breaks during the day said they felt more productive and more tolerant of job stress than when they didn't exercise.
Even half an hour was enough to do the trick, and the exercise didn't have to be strenuous. Participants typically spent 30 to 60 minutes at lunch engaging in yoga, aerobics, strength-training or playing sports.
Another study of nearly 500 sedentary adults in the Archives of Internal Medicine confirmed that exercise is heart-healthy i.e. it reduces the risk of heart disease and high blood pressure and that you don't have to run a marathon to derive benefit. Even briskly walking for half an hour on three or four days a week improved cardiovascular health.
Exercise also helps you to get rid of the hidden fat. I hear some of you saying, '… yeah right, tell us something we don't know!' I am not talking about the fat that you can pinch or the type that's burying your waistline. It's the deep, even more dangerous kind that accumulates around internal organs and contributes to diabetes, heart disease and other problems. You sure want to get rid of that if you can.
You can build a stronger back by doing regular exercise. For those of you who work in offices and do white collar jobs being a desk jockey takes a toll on your backs. So get moving to keep your spine in shape. While other forms of exercise also helped to strengthen the back, yoga did so more quickly. Exercise also keeps joints, tendons and ligaments flexible making it easier to move around.
Diabetes cases have soared in recent years, along with obesity rates. Many people with type-2 diabetes do not have their disease under control, which puts them at risk for early death, blindness, kidney failure and limb loss. Research has shown that most cases of type-2 diabetes could be prevented with a healthy diet and regular exercise. If you already have diabetes, exercise can help prevent the disease from worsening and makes it more manageable.
For those of you worried about aging, it reduces some of the effects of aging and helps you maintain a youthful look. Exercise does make you sleep much better and you wake up refreshed. If you are still not convinced a gym or an aerobic class is a good place to meet new people and network, you never know whom you may need to take your business to another level in 2006.
If this all seems too difficult you can sneak exercise into your day. This you can do by taking the stairs instead of the elevator or going for a walk during your coffee break or lunch. You can also walk all or part of the way to work, with our fuel problems this could be handy.
If you exercise, eat a healthy diet , have regular medical check ups and pray I can agree with you right now that we make a declaration for 2006. That, 'disease has a right to exist but it will exercise that right elsewhere, outside our bodies'. Believe this and meditate on it and have a healthy 2006.

Till next week take care of yourselves and each other. And remember, '…in all your getting, get understanding.' (Proverbs 4 vs 7).