The art of Healthy Living in Singapore today, started back in 1992 by then-Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong to ensure Singaporeans were aware of the benefits of a healthy lifestyle. Today, Singapore is celebrating 20 years of Healthy Lifestyle with new initiatives and usage of digital/social meda Health Tools to share and engage Singaporeans. Singapore lifestyle is very stressful with our hectic pace and demands of working life and globalisation. Therefore, a Healthy and active sporting/recreational lifestyle is important to balance out the stresses that we all faced. From the indicators, we can see that more Singaporeans are more involved in physical activity (e.g look at the number of community, competitive runs from 10km to 42km to 100km) along with more emphasis on a sporting recreational lifestyle too.
Singaporeans nowadays are increasingly using digital/social media tools/channels/platforms to obtain information. Therefore, Health Promotion Board (HPB) has expanded its digital touch points, ranging from Facebook and Twitter, to designing locally-relevant health apps to enable people to make healthier choices. In short, health on your screen and your fingertips! Today, let me share with you two exciting, useful and interesting Health Tools! They are –
HealthyMEtv
- healthyMEtv: healthyMEtv is the region’s first digital health channel, designed as a one-stop destination for programmes on well-being and healthy living. As Singapore’s first transmedia health platform that is available for viewing via any Internet connected device – computer, tablet, smart phone, smart TV – healthyMEtv will air over 1,500 TV programmes and videos in its first year. It will also have some content in Mandarin, Malay and Tamil to inspire and motivate viewers. Do check out the HealthyMEtv link here!
The Healthy Lifestyle Index
- The Healthy Lifestyle Index: How healthy do you think you are? Most of actually overestimate our own health. Measure your perception Vs. reality with the Healthy Lifestyle Index. It is a concise online questionnaire developed by HPB and is customised to the Singapore context. See how you fare across 10 different health domains. Learn how your general health behaviours measure up based on your current lifestyle. Do check out the link here!
- The Healthy Lifestyle Index is the first tool of its kind to be rolled out nation-wide in the world. The index is in the form of a quick questionnaire of ten questions, each covering one of the following ten health domains: Body Mass Index (BMI); physical activity; diet; smoking; alcohol; sleep; stress; depression; social/emotional support and health screenings. This index helps to assess the overal health behaviour of the participant and it is developed to provide advice and recommendations on appropriate HPB programmes to support the participant with help and changes to their health behaviours and lifestyle.
I am an avid advocate for Healthy Living, I tried to reach a balanced healthy lifestyle with sports and recreational activities e.g. running and trekking. It can be very challenging given our current lifestyle, workload and stress to find the optimal balance in both areas of work, leisure and recreation. While I can’t say that I am in perfect balance or harmony since work sometimes override the other leisure, recreation and healthy lifestyle. Moreover, our diverse rich food from both local and cuisine all over the world makes us food lovers/eaters thus we eat more than we exercise!
That does not mean we cannot achieve a healthy lifestyle and still enjoy our food! We know to be more conscious of our lifestyle, the amount and type of food we take in and last but not least, we must also exercise, keep fit and healthy! With the launch of healthyMEtv and Healthy Lifestyle Index, these two tools would be able to help you (and me) towards that healthy lifestyle balance that we all desire. It’s not going to be the same journey for everybody due to our different jobs/industries, lifestyle, habits etc etc. Some may find it easier to achieve, some find it might a bit longer. Nevertheless, we must not give up the goal of a healthy lifestyle and living.
I always have this personal philosophy that the Best Wealth is Health and I valued it very deeply because of a number of injuries to my whole body over the years. With the injuries on my body, I really appreciate the value of being injury free (that would allow me to do more sporting and recreational activities). Even though I am carrying injuries for life, I still work towards a Healthy Lifestyle and balanced it with the recreational/sporting activities that would suit me in my current state. Of course, I confess that the diverse food culture and choices is big fight for me to keep a healthy lifestyle (e.g. oily deep fried food like fried chicken) and it’s a challenge to myself to limit myself and not eat too much (I still can eat them!).
Remember folks! Your Health is the Greatest Wealth! Keep fit, sporting and active healthy lifestyle!