Opening Remarks by Minister of State for Health, Mr Chee Hong Tat, at the launch of Rep with Steps, Friday, 19 February 2016, at Woodgrove Secondary School

Mr Chee Chit Yeng, Principal of Woodgrove Secondary

Teachers and students

Good morning.  

1.    I am very happy to launch the inter-schools steps challenge, or Rep with Steps. It is heartening to see so many young people participating in this challenge and taking steps to lead a healthy lifestyle.

2.    Rep with Steps, which means “represent your school with steps”, is a friendly competition for students from secondary schools and junior colleges to engage in various activities to collectively clock steps over a 10-week period. The winner will be the school with the highest average number of steps per student. About 20,000 students from 27 secondary schools and junior colleges will be taking part in the competition.

3.    The Health Promotion Board started an island-wide movement under the National Steps Challenge to encourage Singaporeans to lead active lifestyles. This has been a very successful initiative. Since November last year, about 126,000 people have signed up.

Keeping Active and Eating Healthy Go Hand-in-hand

4.    Besides keeping active, another important component of healthy living is watching what we eat. Being physically active alone is not enough because if you increase your food intake, you could end up consuming more calories than you burn during the exercise. It is easy to underestimate how many calories are present in our favourite dishes. For example, one plate of char kway teow contains 750 calories. To burn this off, an average adult will need to take more than 16,000 steps! How about two pieces of roti prata with egg, with a cup of coffee for breakfast? Well, you would need to walk close to 17,000 steps to burn off these calories.

5.    It does not mean we cannot have these food items, but the key is to moderate the amount and frequency of our consumption, and to complement this with regular exercise.  In this way, we can still enjoy ourselves and keep healthy at the same time.

6.    Lastly, healthy living has to start from young because it is a habit. So this point, I am reaching out to the schools and especially every one of you, that we hope that you not only help us but be healthy yourself. Help us encourage your friends and family members to stay healthy.  And to join all of us on this journey to better health for all Singaporeans.

7.    Thank you.