The first two of five Active Ling Community Workshops this week will be held today at Maui's Cameron Center Auditorium from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and 5 p.m to 8 p.m. All workshops are free and open to the public.

Other workshops are:

Tuesday — 5 p.m. to 8 p.m., Cameron Center Conference Room 1 & 2

Tuesday — 1 p.m. - 4 p.m., Pomaikai Elementary School

Wednesday — 5 p.m. - 8 p.m., Lana'i Senior Center

Wednesday — 2:30 p.m. - 5:30 p.m., Moloka'i Queen Liliuokalani Children's Center

The State Department of Health's Healthy Hawai'i Initiative and the Maui County Physical Activity and Nutrition Coalition are hosting the workshops, which are designed to provide opportunities for people of all abilities to engage in routine daily physical activity and have access to healthy and affordable foods.

Active living is promoted by having bicycle- and pedestrian-friendly designs, mixed-use developments, recreational facilities, and schools located in walkable neighborhoods.

National guidelines recommend that adults should engage in a minimum 30 minutes of physical activity per day, and children should engage in at least 60 minutes of physical activity per day.

In 2007, about 26,000, or 24.1 percent of adults in Maui County were considered obese. Among regions within Maui County, Moloka'i had the highest rate of adult obesity at 35.4 percent. In the same year, about 13,000, or 12.1 percent of adults in Maui County were physically inactive, with higher rates of inactivity occurring in the Lahaina/Wailuku and Upcountry/Hana regions.

For more information or to sign up for a workshop call Sandra McGuiness at 572-1782 (on Maui) or Heidi Hansen-Smith at (808) 586-4495 (on O'ahu).