Has this country gone mad?

You would have thought that being a health and fitness writer I would be thrilled at the idea of pregnant mothers being encouraged to eat more fruit but not when the government is considering giving mother's a cash payment of £190 as a 'fruit fund'. My problem is, how many mothers will actually spend the money on fruit? If mothers care about their health and the health of their children then surely they will already be spending money on fruit?

Then I read about the hymen repair operations being carried out on the NHS!! I can't believe that we are paying for these sort of operations. The practice of repairing women's hymens is highly controversial, I have very strong thoughts on this subject as I do about female circumcision. I can respect the wishes of others but feel that these operations should not be NHS funded as there is no health benefit to such surgery. The NHS is supposed to be about saving and preserving life not funding unnecessary operations that are based upon religion and not health.

Onto a report from the womens sport and fitness foundation whose recent report showed that 60% of women believed that they exercised enough when in reality only 20% of them actually exercised in accordance with current fitness guidelines. The classic arguement is true that many women do go the gym three times a week but don't actually exercise when they are there, instead they favour the coffee shop, steam room and sauna.

For me the most interesting finding was that most women avoid exercise as they have low body confidence. I think that many women feel they have to be in shape to go the gym, I know that many women who ring me regarding starting pole classes ask me if they need to be fit before they start or they ask if it matters if they are over a size 12. The whole point of our pole dancing classes is that anyone can do it regardless of shape, size or age. In fact I would rather take the women who are out of shape as they will notice the benefits even more.

We really should be exercising at least three times a week for a minimum of 20 mins a time, preferably more. We should be making sure we raise our heart rate and we should also vary the exercise we do. It is no good doing one high impact aerobics class and then doing nothing till the same time the following week.

Interestingly the most popular team activity for women is now football, although this will not make you rich when you consider that the Women's England team earn nothing and yet the average wage of a premiership footballer is £676,000. It is an interesting country that we live in. So much for equal opportunities.

Stay Healthy,

Sam x