To think I'd be healthier if I left London

[Eastie77]

I am on half term break with DP and DC in a lovely rural/national park area. I've been for an hour long walk in the forest each morning and feel so much happier and healthier breathing in fresh, clean air. My skin looks better (may be imaging this as we've only been here 3 days but I've been make-up free and think my skin is glowing in pics we've taken).

I'm currently struggling with a post-pregnancy condition and have enrolled on a 12 week home exercise programme to help heal. I was meant to have started 2 weeks but back home had no opportunity whatsoever to begin as am so busy and stressed. I've been able to get up early and do the exercises each morning since arriving here. I've also been able to put into practice the healthy eating plan that is part of the programme.

In London none of this seems possible. I actually think my lifestyle is toxic. Up at 6am to start the crazy morning routine getting DC ready, one to childminder and another to school. Mad rush to work (office is close by bit inconveniently in the opposite direction to DC school). No chance to do a quiet walk. I mean I can walk obviously but I am breathing in fumes and the crappy London air as I do so. Our local council has launched a blueprint to ban traffic outside primary schools which is being copied nationwide and this is great but highlights how bad the pollution is here.

I try to eat healthily but plans often scuppered by staying late in the office so grabbing a takeaway on the way home. Weekends I try to batch cook healthy meals but it all seems too much sometimes. Maybe I'm just disorganised but I can't help thinking if I lived in a cheaper, smaller, quieter place I'd be healthier.

However for various reasons leaving London to live rurally is not an option.

Does anyone else think big city life is undermining their health?

I understand all of that but it's different on holiday. That's probably skewing things a little. I live in a rural area and hate it. I feel lovely and bored and regularly travel 3 hour round trips just to get the 'Buzz'from a large city.

Oh I'd miss the buzz for sure. But I think I'd be willing to exchange that for say, 1 year, just to be able to get my health back on track. Sorry things sound a bit tough for you atm.

It’s not the city that’s undermining your health (though clean air is a factor, I guess) it’s your routine. You had time to walk and exercise because you didn’t have to do anything else. If you lived in the country, you would be just as busy (possibly more so, as commuting etc could take more time out if your day) and everything would be the same, just with better views and cleaner air.

Definitely, my downfall is all the amazing restaurants and bars so it’s so hard to diet but blowing soot out of my nostrils every time I go on the tube is also probably killing me slowly and I hate walking around with all those exhaust fumes. Oh well.

I often feel like this on holiday! Pollution is definitely an issue. However it is partly not having to do the routine. It also depends on what you would do for work if you lived rurally? If you had a longish commute by car and had to drive your child to childcare or school then you may not have a much healthier lifestyle! I know I do a lot more journeys on foot in London as part of my everyday life than friends living elsewhere do because they can’t walk to shops, activities etc.

None of what you said is due to London though, except perhaps the air quality but it's not that bad.

Sounds like juggling children and FT work is the problem.

Apart from air pollution, I think you’re confusing the leisure of being on holidays with the countryside.

I know I was more aerobically fit when I lived in London, because I walked everywhere. Even though I still don’t drive now that we live in the country — I rely on a bus to get to work — the distances are too great to walk to just get places, mostly, as part of my daily routine (obviously I walk to the bus stop and then a mile to work at the other end), and there are no pavements, so I mostly need to ‘go for a walk’ or go for a run to get some exercise. And because life, childcare, work etc is just as busy as in London — and childcare hours are shorter here — it’s just as hard to find time...?

Well yes, the pollution in London, or any city, is going to affect you, which is unpleasant, but living rurally doesn't mean you don't have to get children to school or go to work.

You've only got the time to do the exercises and the walks because you're on holiday.

If you lived in a very rural area you might find that you had to travel quite far to get your DCs to school or yourself to work, which in itself could prove quite stressful.

I live in a small market town, so quite rural, and yes, there are good schools locally and all around and whilst a lot of people work locally a great many have to commute as far as London and it's a long journey.

And the shopping? No real shopping, apart from supermarkets nearer than around 10 miles away.

I wouldn't want to move back to London and I love where I live but there are drawbacks.

I moved out of London. I’m no less stressed and I’m now unfit.

Yup, busy in London but walked everywhere. In my town you need a car and in a short space of time my weight has ballooned. I’m by the sea, I never have time to enjoy a stroll along the beach.

Apart from the pollution, I was healthier in London.

A holiday is an entirely different thing. I expect those holidaying in London love strolling around and going to the theatre/museums/galleries and all else it has to offer. Living there, I dashed around and cultural stuff would be slotted in only if I had free time (rarely).

@Eastie77

Not gonna lie, I have a much healthier lifestyle now (and am much healthier overall) since leaving the city and moving to a clean, rural area with a very low population. I used to struggle with asthma, but it's virtually cleared up, and I go for lots of lovely walks and bike rides and walks by the river and canal, and in the woodlands. I have more stamina, I walk or cycle almost everywhere, and I am 2 stone lighter than I was when I was in the city.

I would never go back.

I mean, London is fab and everything, and it's a great place to live for a few years (especially when you're young/under 30,) but living there permanently. No way.

I live rurally and my commute by car to the next town to my nearest is 35 minutes one way. All on country roads except for a motorway stretch from one junction to the next. In my previous job I knew of Metropolitan Police inspectors who had taken the drop to PC when transferring force in order be able to afford to live closer to work and spend more time with their families. Why do people assume that rural equals long trips when in my experience it's large cities that mean forever journeys and London in particular being horrendous? Lovely long walks with the dogs in pollution-free air rather than hard pavements and breathing in constant vehicle fumes. Beautiful stars at night rather than orange light pollution.

Oh, and children wait at bus stops or at road ends for their transport to high school in the next town. You have to do the school run for primary but that's because primary schools are only about 10-15 minutes by car on average, if that. It's only around 20 minutes walk for me on an unpolluted road.

We left London and I'm healthier in some areas, less in others. I'm still not sure what I prefer if I'm honest!

I'm a lot less active through the day here as we have to drive to places, whereas in London I walked and cycled. As a result, I now get more general aches and pains and I'm more likely to pull muscles etc.

However, my eczema, asthma and hayfever have all disappeared or diminished to an almost non-existent level now I'm away from the pollution. I also didn't realise how much the constant noise of planes and trains contributed to my stress in London.

We've got great hiking trails and lots of outdoor options on our doorstep here. But equally, we don't have museums, galleries, theatres, intriguing restaurants, diversity and endless cultural events here.

Why do people assume that rural equals long trips when in my experience it's large cities that mean forever journeys and London in particular being horrendous?

Because for many people it's true. It might be different if you lived way out in the 'burbs, but I lived four stops on the Piccadilly Line from work in central London, and I could and often did walk it in 40 minutes. Here I have to walk out of the village to a main road and get a two-hourly rural bus to the nearest city. There are no pavements or cycle lanes, and cycling isn't safe on the A-road -- and I say that as someone who used to cycle in London.

There are some very good things about living here, but I don't like not being able to walk or cycle simply to get somewhere outside. (This wasn't a surprise, obviously.) The really good thing is the field footpaths for leisure walks -- but neighbouring villages are too far away for me to walk over the doctor's surgery or to take my son to nursery.

London commuters actually tend to be more active than those that aren’t. It’s quite common for me to walk 5 miles before lunchtime when I commute into London (I’m no slouch and take long walks when I’m in my home town too) . You just need to plan your commute to allow you more of an opportunity to walk.

I totally understand moving out of London wouldn't solve all my problems and there are challenges to living rurally. I just think a lot of the specific health related changes I need to make would be easier. We are staying with friends and they have 3 kids so certainly as much stress/juggling as us but they can incorporate healthy habits in their day to day. For instance they have forests and huge swathes of countryside on their doorstep so my friend is able to walk daily in clean air as part of her everyday routine (kids school is fortunately walking distance, I know this isn't always the case). I can walk DD to school and then to my office but we are breathing in crap as we walk and it's not exactly a relaxing, healthy stroll. If I want to walk through a nice forest I have to drive or take the dreaded tube to our nearest one.

Our friends kids play out for hours in the fresh air. My DC play in playgrounds next to busy roads.

Food-wise, there are farms near here and our friends get a lot of food at source.

Someone said the issue is I'm juggling FT work and kids but I have friends who are SAHM and also feel very unhealthy. It isn't so much about just not having time to do healthy things, it's more about the environment you are in that adds a level of toxicity to your lifestyle.

yabu
you are on holiday, so have less stress than at home.

apart from the air pollution london is a healthy place to live: lots of parks for exercise and leisure; shops with varied and cheap healthy foods; healthcare easily accessible; leisure centres affordable and close by; public transport...

try to emulate some of your holiday pleasures at home.

Isn't London one if the healthiest places in the UK statistically speaking? But you're right the countryside has many pluses.

DH (who is a east londoner who had to be dragged kicking and screaming out of london) says he feels much healthier since we moved out of London. In his case his excema has improved massively and he is less stressed as he knows he has to leave the office on time for the train rather than get a bus/tube at whatever time.

Plus the difference in air quality is amazing, I remember going for a jog once in summer on wimbledon common and just giving up and going home because i couldnt breathe! (but i have ENT problems)

Quite possibly. And people are right about the long hours being your problem, but that's are more likely to be necessary if you live in London. People do still have problems and poor health elsewhere of course, but the specific issues you and your family face sound like they are a part of your lifestyle in the capital.

I never lived in London but we did swap city life for rural life. And it's true the kids play outside a hell of a lot more. We lived in a concrete jungle with small outdoor space and had to cross a lot of junctions to get to a (small) playground. They are a lot more engaged with the outdoors now. And the air is amazing.

BUT we don't have more than a 30 minute commute. That's really the best change to our quality of life.

There's no point moving out to the country if you don't get home till 7.30pm and just want to sleep all weekend as a result.

Vulpine - there are specific parts of London that appear on the UK's healthiest list. One is wealthy Kensington and Chelsea. Many of the people who live there have rural retreats that they decamp to on a regular basis. London is also home to some of the unhealthiest areas in the country with the lowest life expectancies.

Camomila - I'm an East Londoner too I have several acquaintances who found their health problems vanished or improved when they left London. It can't all be a coincidence.

Green "apart from air pollution.." - there are children in London who literally cannot breathe because of this issue. It's not exactly a minor inconvenience

Erm I live in a national park and yes, it’s beautiful and we get lots of fresh air. But.. there are still jobs to go to and kids to get to school and the usual drudgery of everyday life! It’s lovely for sure, but not necessarily the dream you’re having on holiday!

I don't think my life would be a dream sugar. I think my health would improve. I'd like to move here for a fixed period of time to get my health back on track but unfortunately my current life/situation doesn't permit that...

What about working in another big city and commuting in from a surrounding rural area? If you get out of the south east it's often quite affordable and doable to have a 30 minute rail commute to a city centre job from the countryside.