The news will come as a shock to no one, but according to a study released today, Americans are getting fatter. 31 states showed an increase in adult obesity over the past year, and in 13 of those states, at least 25% of adults are considered obese. The sad thing is, as the study shows, the increases are for all the obvious reasons—lack of exercise and poor diet, the same things that have been causing increases in fat Americans for decades. But as always, the same obstacles are in place to prevent people from changing their habits. For low-income families, the cheapest food is usually the least healthy. What's someone on minimum wage gonna choose to feed their family of four, groceries from Whole Foods or $15 of burgers at McDonald's? And in our suburban world, walking places either isn't feasible, or else people just don't even consider it because they'd rather take their new Escalade out for that 3 block drive to the grocery store. It's alternately disheartening and disgusting. The study also recommends some tougher measures the government can take to combat this epidemic, but I really don't think putting more labels on cans of food is gonna cut it. At this point, it's cultural. As long as Americans identify ourselves by what fast food we eat, what soda we buy by the case, and how much of our favorite beer we pound down, we're going to keep getting fat. So, to all you fat fatty fat pants out there... here's Mike's tip for the day: Even though it's called "Diet" Coke, that doesn't make it healthy. Just slightly less bad for you than regular Coke.One aspect of the study did make me feel good, as Colorado is the thinnest state (no surprise there, either), although it still has a still seemingly high figure of 16.9% adult obesity. As for me, I feel like I've been doing my part to help achieve that skinny ranking. Since my little heart-to-heart with the doctor two weeks ago, I've worked out 11 times, and hopped on the scale yesterday to discover I've lost 10 pounds since I moved out here (I would assume most of that came off in the last two weeks—cutting out beer probably had a big effect), and am now nearly back to what I weighed in college. I've gotta say, obvious results like that make this working out thing kind of addicting... and it gets more so every time I have to tighten my belt.
1 comment:
Back to your college weight. But didn't you have a diet of Cheese Sticks, Deep Dish Pizza, All you can eat shrimp and beer in college? 8-)
Glad to hear that your new system is working for you!
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