Boris Johnson Launches Obesity Strategy Transcript July 27

Boris Johnson: (00:00) I've always wanted to lose weight for ages and ages and like I think many people, I struggled with my weight, go up and down but since I recovered from coronavirus, I've been steadily building up my fitness. I don't want to make any excessive claims because I've only really just started concentrating on it, but I'm at least a stone down. I'm more than a stone down. But when I went into ICU, when I was really ill, I was way overweight. I'm only about five foot 10 at the outside and I was too fat. Boris Johnson: (00:34) I start the day by going for a run with the dog and quite a gentle run, but actually getting faster and faster now as I get fitter. The great thing about going for a run at the beginning of the day is nothing could be worse for the rest of the day. Once, if you're really going hard, if you really take some exercise at the beginning the rest of the day will be a breeze. Boris Johnson: (00:58) So there are health reasons, but it also, you feel much better and that's the number one thing I would say you actually feel more full of energy if you can get your weight down. The other thing obviously is that if you can get your weight down a bit and protect your health, you'll also be protecting the NHS. Boris Johnson: (01:19) Gyms are great, but you don't need to have a gym. There are amazing things on your phone these days, amazing apps, fantastic trainers that you can watch on YouTube. What we're doing now with our Better Health Strategy is just trying to help people a little bit to bring their weight down, not in a excessively bossy or nannying way I hope. We want this one really to be sympathetic to people, to understand the difficulties that people face with their weight and the struggles that everybody faces or many, many people face to lose weight and just to be healthy.