The next time you’re having the Monday morning blues, try again. You could be having a Healthy Monday instead.
Sales and marketing wizards around the nation have garnered popular support for such holidays as Halloween, Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day. Now some of them are tackling Mondays. Led by publicist Sid Lerner, the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University in New York has launched a Healthy Monday campaign.
“After all,” Lerner said, “Friday has become pay day, Saturday is play day, Sunday is pray day – so we want to make Monday health day.”
If Lerner and his colleagues are successful, Mondays will become the day of the week Americans pay attention to lifestyle habits that lead to good health. That sounds like that could do some good.
But a part of me is wondering, “Why limit it to Mondays?”
In my profession I think about health seven days a week. Here’s why the marketing gurus have picked Monday as “the day that all health breaks loose.”
Why Monday?
Monday is the beginning of the work week. That makes it a good day to get your week organized and planned. You can start each week off right by reviewing priorities, setting goals and renewing your commitment toward behaviors that you’ve chosen to work on for better health.
If you’ve got an exercise plan, for example, having a specific day every week to serve as a reminder could encourage you to continue your routine. And if you’ve been slacking off, it could spur you to take charge and get back on track toward your goal.
“Many people think about the need to change, but take no steps to change,” said Audrey Cross of the Mailman School, who directs the campaign.
“Adding a compliance date tells us just when we need to take action. It adds the when, and the weekly recurrence of Monday adds that specific, regular and repeated stimulus or reminder to act.”
Why now?
Our country faces epidemic proportions of several chronic diseases. The incidence of diabetes has doubled over the past 25 years. More than 90 percent of middle-aged and older Americans are expected to succumb to high blood pressure during their lives. A stroke claims a life every three minutes. And heart attacks still cause more deaths each year than the next four leading causes of mortality combined.
Many of the risks for these top killers are unhealthy lifestyle habits that can be changed.
“Whether it’s smoking, overeating, unprotected sex, inactivity, excessive sun exposure, etc.,” Cross said, “our lifestyle actions have led to a nation suffering from an increasing incidence of preventable diseases.”
Together, these chronic ailments take more lives each year than accidents, homicides, suicides or infectious diseases combined.
Yet, the United States spends billions on cures and only pennies on prevention. The Healthy Monday campaign seeks to turn that around. The promoters urge businesses, organizations and citizens to focus on setting and renewing commitment toward lifestyle-related health goals each and every Monday.
The Healthy Monday concept, which encourages people to make healthy choices not just once a year, but every week of the year, can give people a better shot at reaching their health goals, Cross says. Plus, if you fail to reach your goals any given week, there’s always another Monday coming when you can regroup and try again.
So there you have it – Healthy Mondays. If you have an opinion about this idea, let me know.
Contact Dr. Elizabeth Smoots, a board-certified family physician and fellow of the American Academy of Family Physicians, at doctor@practicalprevention. com. Her columns are not intended as a substitute for medical advice or treatment. Before adhering to any recommendations in this column consult your health care provider.
2006 Elizabeth S. Smoots.
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