I go the gym about four mornings every week. I've been practicing jiu jitsu for nearly six years in that same gym, and it's about "that" time.
Starting this week we will get an influx of new students and workout partners. That population will be cut in half by Feb. 1 and by March 1 it will just be us regulars again. It's an annual cycle where the faces sometimes change but the outcome is always the same.
I get it. Some people don't have time. I get up at 4 a.m. to create time, but not everyone can do that for various reasons; family needs, work, etc. Some people don't have an interest. I get that too. I'm not the fittest guy you'll ever meet, and I don't particularly enjoy going to the gym (or getting up before the sun), but I sit behind this computer all day and can only sit on my butt for so long.
You know who else spends a lot of time riding their back pockets, and who also doesn't have a lot of extra time? Truck drivers.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, seven in 10 long-haul truck drivers are obese – a rate twice that of other U.S. adult workers. It's not a secret that it's really difficult to maintain a healthy lifestyle if you're a professional truck driver. Well... it's not difficult necessarily; it's just ridiculously inconvenient.
CCJ's What Drivers Want survey, which we conducted during the month of November, shows that 6% of respondents (company drivers and owner-operators) think driving has been bad for their health.
"Truckers are starving on the road," one respondent wrote on their survey, "and most truck stops that have food, it’s fast food and not healthy."
