San Francisco closed down officially on March 17, 2020.

It is now July 17, 2020.

I had trouble coming up with a post this week because I don’t even know what to say because we seem to be going backwards when it comes to navigating through this pandemic.

San Francisco never really reopened but now the plans to reopen have been pushed back and the state of California has closed down gyms yet again so we’re right back to where we were.

It feels like we squandered the last 4 months of sheltering in place and there isn’t much strategy on how to move forward.

There are no easy answers to this pandemic and the situation isn’t binary no matter what Facebook says.

I’ve been thinking about the roles Fitness/Wellness professionals play at this time.  What can we do to help people?

This week I talked to someone that I actually know who tested positive for Covid-19 and it sounded like it has really been a stressful experience.

I don’t take this virus lightly and I also don’t take the economic crisis lightly.

When I came across this Tweet below I thought: “Exactly!”

When it comes to virus prevention I believe we should be wearing masks when we are around other people, washing hands, and practice physical distancing, and getting outside if we want to socialize.

But what about one of the most obvious answers for prevention? Increased immunity and health.

In all of the discussions and arguments I see on social media, I don’t see many people encouraging others to begin to take their physical health and wellness seriously.  We are in the midst of a pandemic and physical health is on the back burner.

Make that make sense.

High Blood Pressure, Diabetes, Obesity, etc. are big problems in the Untied States and we’re seeing that Covid-19 is wreaking havoc on people with these underlying conditions.  The cluster of those diseases including: heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, stroke, and obesity is called Metabolic syndrome

It would seem to me that we should start promoting healthier lifestyle behaviors during this time to reduce the number of people with metabolic syndrome.

Instead of arguing about masks, let’s encourage people to eat fresh foods, put down the alcohol, get outside and walk, invest in some resistance bands (Less than $15 on Amazon), turn off the doomsday scrolling, and stop the pointless arguing on social media.

The truth of the matter is that Americans are unhealthy and have been for a very long time. I believe this has affected us in every single way including mentally and emotionally.

I don’t want to minimize the seriousness of this pandemic but I think there definitely needs to be more conversation about what we CAN do in relation to the health of our citizens.

I think it would be awesome if some of our leaders began to encourage Americans to start taking their health seriously.

Until then it’s up to those of us who have taken up the mantle of health/wellness to get loud about promoting healthier lifestyle behaviors.

Let’s hang in there…and keep on keeping on.