SLiNK magazine launches #BAM campaign
“Currently 2 million fewer women than men participate in sport and exercise regularly. Last year, Sport England found that of the 9.4 million women aged 14 to 40 in the UK, 75 per cent (7.1 million) would like to be more active.” – Sports England
So why aren’t we? Why is there a disconnect between what we want to be doing and what we are doing and isn’t this the area we need to focus on tackling first?
#BAM – Body and Mind wants to refocus our attention to the idea that health is a concern for all and something we all need to be actively engaged in, not just something for those of a certain dress size.
We need to remove the barriers and the misleading information given to those wanting to engage in a healthier lifestyle. When we discuss health, nutrition and fitness within the media, the end goal is always weight loss.
But with this comes a minefield of body image issues, guilt trips and a feeling of failure when ‘goals’ aren’t met and this can often lead to people (especially women) giving up totally or not even starting to engage in healthier activities.
Sure you’re encouraging people to create a ‘perceived visual health’, but if this road is fraught with feelings of distress and failure and the consistent voice of ‘guilt’ then mental health is once again being downgraded in its importance and we really need to stop doing that.
But..
– What if we stopped assuming that a certain dress size was healthy and remembered that in order to live a healthy lifestyle we all need to engage in physical activity alongside a well balanced diet and the positive feeling from simply treating ourselves well will have a brilliant knock on effect on our minds too.
– What if we were all spurred on to exercise because it was really good for us and made us feel awesome without just worrying about how many calories we could burn on the treadmill and instead simply focussed on getting fitter?
– What if we worked at eating healthily and nutritiously because it actually helps us function better and worked out a way to make food manufacturers more responsible for what’s in our food, not just mindlessly follow the latest fad diet to ensure that we ‘look like we know what healthy is’.
What if we genuinely encouraged people to be actually healthy, not just ‘look healthy’.
#BAM is about all those things.
It is about realigning the idea that mental and physical health hold equal importance in our lives. #BAM wants to encourage and inspire women to be active to get fitter and to feel great, not to focus on dropping on dress size. #BAM wants to help educate a generation about great food choices and top nutritional tips and most importantly #BAM wants to remove the guilt trips and feeling of failure that can often arise if you miss a gym class or grab a take out.
To launch this campaign SLiNK have created a series of initiatives:
* A new YOUTUBE fitness show in conjunction with Fitness First:
– Up Out and Active will take you through a specially designed home work out that focusses on upping fitness levels. The 20 minute HIIT workouts will ensure maximum fitness improvement. With three levels (beginners, intermediate and advanced) this is a workout series for all levels but also means that participants can graduate to harder levels as they find their fitness improving.
“I was really dubious (and out of breath) when I started the program. I hadn’t really gone to the gym in a decade but the steps were easy to follow and at 20 minutes I can slot it into my life a couple of days a week. The improvement is incredible. It’s the little things like being able to run for the bus and just feeling my physical ability improving. I’ve moved onto the intermediate level now and can’t believe the beginners level used to feel so hard. It gives such a sense of achievement.” – Rivkie
The series will also trial gym classes and bootcamps to give viewers ideas of fun extra activities they can do, as well as also creating special taster home classes, like dance videos that viewers can do from at home or with friends, to remind them that exercise is supposed to still be fun.
* A new food show in conjunction with fashion designer Anna Scholz, ‘Anna’s Kitchen’
– Anna’s Kitchen is all about showing viewers how to make fun, delicious and nutritious meals. The recipes aren’t over complicated but they are packed with great ingredients to leave you fuller for longer. As a leading fashion designer in the plus size arena, Anna is very vocal and visual (her instagram is a feast for the eyes) of her healthy living regime. It was her instagram of delicious dishes that inspired us to ask Anna to join the magazine’s new #BAM initiative.
To launch #BAM
* SLiNK and Anna Scholz will be hosting a panel discussion for the media ‘What Does Healthy Look Like’ – dates, panellists and location to follow – a discussion on body image, nutrition and fitness.
* A social media day – -THIS IS WHERE WE NEED YOU!
Encouraging men and women alike to #BAM alongside a positive undertaking you are going to do that day. It could be getting off the bus a stop earlier, it could be heading to a gym class or preparing a healthy dinner – it could simply be taking that 10 mins to recharge or have some quiet time.
We all have to take ownership of our own health and wellbeing and do so in a way full of positivity not negativity.
So it is time to take a stand, be brave, make an impact. It is time to change the way we visualise health in the media and create an altogether more positive approach.
#BAM – Body and Mind
What #BAM will you do today?
Both these new series can be scanned straight from the page, or watched on SLiNK’s youtube channel www.youtube.com/slinkmag