I started the day at the launch of the Physical Activity Strategy...

Active Leeds : A Healthy City 2008 - 2012 sets out to address the challenges we face here in Leds with ensuring that everyone has a healthy and active lifestyle... important because it is the key to maintaining and improving our health and well-being. The Strategy looks at four aspects:

• Active Living;
• Active Travel;
• Active Recreation;
• Active Sport.

We need to carefully consider the Chief Medical Officer's recommendations that children should be active for 6o minutes every day and adults should be active for 30 minutes five days a week. Clearly we need to do more because there is a frightening increse in the number of overweight and obsese children as we move through the primary years. In reception 20% are overweight and 9% are obese. By the end of Year 6 the figures have increased so that 33% are overweight and 18% are obese. We also know that once a child moves into adulthood it is very very difficult to get out of the cycle of being overweight. So we need to look carefully at how we can ansure that every child does 60 minutes of moderate activity everyday with at least twice a week this inclding activities to improve bone health, muscle strength and flexibility. We also need to ensure that most of us engage in 30 minutes of moderate physical activity most days of the week.

Chris