Did I read that correctly, that a recent survey found 70 per cent of civil servants were in the obese category!

Surely not, well not too many in the Prime Minister’s Court, when I was there, and not too many when I visited other ministries.

Few “fat” (as one could say in the PPC - Pre-Politically Correct, days) friends, on the “cocktail circuits,” few “mamil’s, (Middle Aged Men in Lycra)”riding bikes!

No, in Australia, while you see a lot of very large people emerge from Macca’s with a burger with the lot, or a bucket full of chicken, and always with lots of chips, one feels, that they are not quite yet, at the sizes you sometimes see in Walmart.

But they are getting there, and at many places, they are already well advanced, despite television commercials for ever promoting, healthy lean cuisine, thin models, lanky men with six-pack abdomens.

Daily, from before sunrise, again before sunset, during a lunch break, feet are pounding the pavements, by the lakes and rivers, on the beaches, jogging, walking, doing laps in the pool, visiting the gym.

Those living near the sea, tone the torso, with a pre or post work swim.

Cars sharing roads with cyclists and motor-cyclists, special bike paths for all, workers who refuse to pay exorbitant parking costs, which rise like weeds in the garden, special bike stands all over the cities.

A multi-million dollar fitness growth industry, promoting everything from cosmetics, sunscreens, clothing, fitness contraptions, calorie counting and distance travelled information on the wrist, footwear, weights, sports drinks, bottled water, to name but a few.

Fitness is extolled by governments, people are rewarding their bodies, in that ‘slim in the gym’ way, the healthy promotion of society.

What is more, it is an advocacy, which keeps on giving.

Think of all those doctors, specialists, orthopaedists for broken bones, or the coming ‘consequences’ through the need for hip and knee replacements, dieticians, health food stores, physiotherapists, masseuses, the list of beneficiaries, just goes on and on.

Sure, it gets hot in Bahrain, but the mornings are indeed, an hour stolen from paradise, and the evenings too, glorious and balmy when the sun has done its worst.

Plenty of time to walk and exercise and often the beaches, if they are not covered in bottles and detritus, are wonderful, with the warm waters there to exercise the ankles and calves.

Plenty of air-conditioned gyms, with even the smallest dumbbells, to tone muscles.

There are too many vegetables for salads, and health foods.

All that is required is to make your body a temple, or mosque, if you prefer, combine exercise with healthy eating and ward off things like colds and flues.

Bahrainis also have a disproportion of diabetes sufferers, and although it doesn’t automatically come to all people, where it does, its effects can be mitigated by weight loss and exercise.

So men and women of the Civil Services, other “over weight-ers,” the challenge is yours!