Visit the restaurant where you can pay for your meal with exercise

As our lives become more sedentary, people are looking for creative ways to keep themselves and the community active. Owners of a London restaurant have decided to help inspire people to move by introducing a new method of payment for their lunchtime menu – a six-minute high-intensity workout!

The pop-up café is called Run For Your Bun is open until the 13th of January in Covent Garden and was created to encourage people with a sedentary lifestyle to get more active.

The above receipt shows exactly how much patrons pay for their food. This customer paid just six minutes of exercise for her pitta pocket with grilled haloumi.

It’s not just the Londoners who could benefit from this new exercise economy, either, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), women aged 75 and over reported higher rates of sedentary lifestyle (47 per cent) than men (35 per cent) of the same age group. 

As our lifestyles become more sedentary, it has also been found that our health and wellbeing has declined as a result.

“Low levels of activity are identified as a risk factor for a range of health conditions, including cardiovascular disease, diabetes and osteoporosis, as well as being a strong contributor to levels of obesity,” the ABS reports. 

Even more worrying than that, recent research has found that physical inactivity is the fourth leading risk factor for mortality worldwide, contributing to 6% of deaths and is a leading changeable health risk that contributes to disease and injury.

Read more: Australia’s shocking ranking on world’s booziest countries list

You don’t have to visit the pop-up café to get the benefits of this great initiative, though, you can do it yourself at home, simply follow these handy tips:

• The next time you go out for a meal, go for a walk or do some physical activity before or afterwards. Not only will it help you digest but it will get your heart rate up and get your blood pumping.
• Take breaks throughout the day to move. That might just mean a walk around the block, taking the stairs instead of the escalator, or simply walking around a shopping centre. Keeping active is key.
• Join active groups in your area. Not only will that mean you are keeping active, but you might just make some new friends along the way.

How do you combat a sedentary lifestyle? Would you visit a cafe like this? Share your tips with us in the comments section below.