Tonight, at midnight, Manitoba will be dropping the last of the public health orders. We will be health order free in Manitoba for the first time in a long time.

In 3 days it will be 2 years since we closed our doors for the first time, with public health orders following shortly afterwards that kept them closed for months.

Covid has caused havoc on our society, it's raised our stress levels, it's increased peoples waists, it's sky rocketed inflation, and its forced people apart.

Now, 2 years later, we have vaccines, the virus has gotten milder, and many people have had covid and recovered.

But, one important thing we need to recognize after all of this is how much worse this whole thing was made by the nature of our society.

We also have a obesity epidemic going on, and obesity has been one of the major determining factors of risk of severe outcomes from covid. Nutrition has been another major factor, and we live in a very fast / processed food dominate society. Stress has been a factor, and we are more stressed then ever (which many also link to the rises in ADHD, ODD and other childhood diagnosises)

2 years later, it's time to change those "Fundamentals", they need to include taking care of yourself. They need to include exercise, proper diets, healthy relationships, work/life balance and stress management.

Our "New Normal" is not about living apart, but improving our health from all sides so that we are able to face whatever comes next.

"The risk of severe illness from COVID-19 increases sharply with higher BMI." - CDC

"People who do little or no physical activity, or exercise, are more likely to get very sick from COVID-19 than those who are physically active." - CDC

"A new study has found that people who experienced increased stress, anxiety and depression at the start of the pandemic, were at greater risk of getting COVID-19." - University of Nottingham

"A diet characterised by healthy plant-based foods was associated with lower risk and severity of COVID-19." - Harvard Medical

"in patients aged 18 years and younger, having obesity was associated with a 3.07 times higher risk of hospitalization" - CDC

So lets make 2022 a year of lifestyle changes and getting healthy :)