SCOTS Commonweath Games and Sport Minister Shona Robison kicked off a nationwide campaign to get healthier.

With public sector organisations on board, she is encouraging the private sector to get ­involved with Holyrood's 'Fit in 14' campaign.

Last night we featured the fitness drive by Police Scotland, following the launch of our own Active 2014 campaign where our partners NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde are also running a Staff Active scheme for their 38,000 workers.

At the' Fit for 14' launch, where Asda was the first company in Scotland to pledge support, Ms Robison said the Scottish Government was committed to encouraging people to make physical activity a part of their daily lives.

And she praised our Active 2014 campaign, saying it was a perfect fit for the Commonwealth Games legacy programme.

"We're wanting to make it easy for people to be active in whatever they do, whether it's walking or taking up a new sport, it doesn't really matter as long as they do more activity than they're doing at the moment," she said.

"We know the health ­benefits are huge, so any campaign that can encourage people to do that is a great part of the legacy."

'Fit in 14' has been developed with NHS Health Scotland and focuses on identifying key milestones over a 10 year period after the Games.

Wearing a pedometer, Ms Robison said she tries to fit in half an hour on an exercise bike every day.

"I spend a lot of time ­sitting in the car and want to get my muscles moving so that suits me, but you've got to work it around your own lifestyle otherwise it's not sustainable," she said.

"I like to be active, it's just building that in during the week when I'm in Edinburgh and back and forward to Dundee. So that for me is an extra way of just getting the blood pumping after being in a sitting position for a lot of the day.

"It is whatever people can do, small changes to their day, it's not about huge changes, we're not asking people to run a marathon."

A lack of physical activity results in 2500 premature deaths in Scotland each day, costs the NHS £91million annually and is the ­second biggest cause of mortality.

With more than 20,000 employees in Scotland, Asda has committed to putting physical activity on its health agenda.

The Evening Times' Active 2014 aims to improve the health of Glaswegians in the year of the Commonwealth Games and build a lasting legacy of physical wellbeing.

Working with partners Glasgow Life and NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde we'll be creating exciting opportunities for individuals, communities and businesses to get active as we bid to improve the health of as many people as possible.

The message is that even the smallest of changes in activity and lifestyle can make a huge improvement.

angela.mcmanus@ eveningtimes.co.uk