Exercise takes a new priority in our lives

It was like the whole island had breathed a tentative yet massive sigh of relief.

This is also a time to reflect on the lessons that have been learnt in the last 69 days of lockdown and what can be taken forward.

When the restrictions came down in earnest, the essential ingredients were left as being allowed out to buy food and medicine, for some people to work and for all exercise for up to two hours.

It is the first time in island life that exercise had been placed at the top of what we need to live. In time, this may be seen as creating a positive step change in habits and lifestyles which could have huge benefits for society.

Whether consciously or not, everyone was made to realise how important simply moving was for both our physical and mental health – and day after day we thought about what to do with our mandated two hours.

For some it would have taken on importance and became routine for the first time – those healthy habits created in the time of one health crisis may just help flatten the curve of another slow burning one – obesity.

Boris Johnson’s experience of Covid-19 appears to have shaken him into action, recognising that there is mounting evidence that obesity puts people at increased risk of suffering worse symptoms.

When governments have looked at age as one of the defining benchmarks to what people can and cannot do as Covid-19 hit, it was a blunt, unsophisticated and unnecessarily discriminatory tool. Ostensibly what really matters is how healthy we are to start with and that is something we can all take control of.

We have been willing to accept the greatest restrictions on our freedoms and a £500m. hit to the economy to try and eliminate Covid-19.

It will not be the last pandemic – tackling the growing levels of obesity is one thing that will put us in the right place to cope with the next.