Remember when we came home from school and we rode our bikes to our friends’ houses? Remember when we instinctively knew when dinner was ready and we headed home?
Many of us met the recommended 30 minutes a day of physical activity and we never even knew we were getting exercise. We were just engaging in our local level social networks and creating everyday adventures. Did we know that these adventures would be jam packed with our tomorrow’s life skills, communication lessons and tomorrows health messages?
If you were asked right now to think about a favorite childhood memory, what would it be? There is a good chance it would be about play and being outside in your neighborhood. The details for the afternoon baseball game or adventure were most likely made on the school bus. Once you were off the bus you still had a long enough walk home to fine tune the plan. Decades later the action of these meetings still are powerful enough to put a smile on your face.
We still can reclaim a piece of our childhood. The season of active play is here. Look for it in your backyards and your communities. Take a walk, plan a hike, or ride a bike. Communities are working hard investing in trail improvements and park amenities for persons of all ages and abilities. Changing the environments where people live, work and play is the new roadmap to preventive health care.
Check out your town or village recreation department websites. That mouse click you do, just might lead the path to changes in your blood pressure, weight, blood sugar levels and a host of other health benefits. Our parks are naturally good for your health!
Have fun!
By Susan Wilk
Coordinator, Creating Healthy Places in Suffolk County , a New York State Department of Health grant funded program to Cornell Cooperative Extension of Suffolk County’s Family Health and Wellness Program. She can be reached at 631-727-7850 ext. 385 or at srw32@cornell.edu.