Rethinking Your Priorities For A Healthier Lifestyle

Use COVID-19 as an excuse to improve your fitness and achieve a healthier lifestyle

Pete Estabrooks
Photo: Jessi Gray

If the COVID-19 outbreak was a surprise to you, it shouldn’t have been. A pandemic capable of having an effect on the entire planet has been predicted by scientists for years. And, considering we experienced H1N1 in 2009, you’d think we’d have been better prepared. We may not have been this time but next time? Look out future viruses, now we have it figured out. 

I believe that one of the outcomes of the pandemic will be rethinking our priorities. Fitness might take the place of travel. Health may become the next wealth. Tights have become the fashion standard. The new rock stars are front-line workers and health professionals.

Millions of us worldwide have been warned for years by our doctors, partners and irritating fitness guys to get that high blood pressure under control, to watch out for the onset of type 2 diabetes and maintain a healthy weight which improves almost all health indicators. And smoking? It’s 2020. Do we really need to tell you to stop smoking again?

We all knew these statements were true and we were eventually going to address them. Now that we’ve been given a second chance, it’s time.

Eating poorly and neglecting exercise will catch up with you eventually. You are a magnificent and glorious machine. Keep that in mind when you are considering swapping out that donut for an apple or another episode of Tiger King for a walk.

There are five significant conditions which, when paired with COVID-19, leave you at a greater risk of being seriously ill or dying. They include high blood pressure, obesity, type 2 diabetes, pulmonary disease and age. 

Here is where we are lucky; we have the power to mitigate these conditions and lower our risk for COVID-19 (and maybe the next virus too). With some medical intervention and hard work, we can make COVID-19 hit the road. 

This is your opportunity to step up, change and be responsible for the state of your own health. Through the simple actions of being aware of what you put in your body and maintaining an active lifestyle, you can free our healthcare system up for those who truly need it.  

Being fit is hard, fighting for your life is harder. We’ve totally got this. 


IMPACT Magazine Special Summer Edition iPad cover featuring Canadian climber and future Olympian Alannah YipIMPACT Magazine’s Special Summer Edition

This has not been a regular summer, and this is not a regular edition of IMPACT Magazine. In fact, it is an unprecedented issue that comes to you as a result of true grit and community support.

Read this story in our 2020 Summer Digital Edition.