Editors letter

Hello and Welcome
to the October edition of EM. Health and keeping fit are normally things we tend to put into our 'B/F' file - you know the one where it's all on the long finger and while we should be doing it, we'll put it off for one reason or another for another while! It's certainly not something we want to do with the evenings getting darker, the days shorter and the weather bleaker (excuses, excuses!).

However, we are all reading and seeing with our own eyes a lot of obesity, particularly among young people, and we really should be more conscious of our future well-being. We have no excuse today - most small towns have some kind of gym or keep-fit facility available to them, even rural villages usually boast a 'weight watchers' type evening. And if you are one of those people, like myself, who doesn't like the idea of a 'regimented' keep fit plan, then a 20-minute walk a few times a week would be a good and acceptable start to keeping us active, as well as in good shape.

Every visit to a doctor will now entail the questions 'do you smoke?' and 'how much exercise do you get'? While many may have quit the dreaded cigarettes, a lot of us have to admit that our health and well-being are not top of the list in our day-to-day priorities.

If you are one of the people commuting daily in heavy traffic, being driven to school/college/work and/or eating junk food because our busy lives dictate eating on the run, then you need to look seriously at your lifestyle. Don't put it off until it's too late or the task seems insurmountable. EM has tried each month to deal with the many health issues and concerns that people can come across at some point in their lives. We have tremendous assistance and advice available to us in the company, particularly from our Occupational Health and Safety section. Why not take up some of that advice now? Don't put it into your 'B/F' for the Spring (which is always next year). If there are any topics you would like covered in particular, or any questions you would like to ask, send them to us and we will endeavour to get them answered or the topic covered. Enjoy.