This is what we knew 7 years ago! What is going to change in the next 7 years? We need to make changes NOW!!! I do not want to bring children into a world that is plagued with disease. Why are you?! We are all connected, this effects every one of us and we ALL need to band together to come up with better solutions. Obviously what we have done in the past is not working. Children cannot make this decision for themselves. As adults it is our job to protect them and we are failing. WE are killing them. We are responsible.

Overweight and obesity have tremendous consequences on our nation's health and economy. Both are associated to numerous chronic diseases, including coronary heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and some cancers. Even more alarming is the childhood obesity epidemic that is climbing in numbers every year. James Baldwin was quoted at the 2003 California Child Obesity Conference.  Mr. Baldwin stated, “Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them.” Child obesity is not a problem with the children.  It is a problem with the adults in society.  However, the complexity of the declining health and increasing obesity situation that our country is facing today cannot easily be broken down into one easy solution. It is very certain the need for change is crucial and extremely time sensitive. More importantly the need for strong, creative, and passionate leaders to revolutionize the current preventative health systems that are in place are essential to the success of redesigning a society that encourages healthy behaviors. 

I am one of those leaders and here’s my beef:

If you are alive today it is not news to you that we have a HUGE problem in our country today. 50 years ago it was very uncommon to see any overweight or obese people in society, let alone obese children, people would stare, point and laugh. Funny how the tables have turned in that short amount of time, now it’s uncommon to see healthy people.  If a healthy person is seen in public; heads turn, whispers spread about how they must only eat raw vegetables and live in the gym or be on some crazy low calorie diet between all the ‘normal’ people around. The truth is; with over half of Americans overweight or obese it’s now a social norm to be that way and a taboo to be healthy. As a preventative wellness advocate and a social outcast heath nut there are a few rants that I need to get off my chest about this “Obesity epidemic”  if you are offended its because you know it’s the truth.
1. Obesity should not be considered a disease! People decide to be obese.  Everyday, every decision, every minute matters and has major affects to your health. Small choices that are made every day determine if a person is going to be healthy. The reason that obesity comes along with so many other real diseases is because our bodies were not made to carry around 100s of extra pounds of fat. God made our bodies to be amazing and the majority of us are turning them into disease packed landfills! Your body is your temple you only get one treat it with some respect.
2. Overweight people should not work at places that facilitate healthy living programs unless they are willing to make the healthy lifestyle changes themselves. NOTHING gets under my skin more than extremely overweight orpeople leading more overweight people on a health quest. First of all why would you follow someone that doesn’t know how to get healthy for themselves and secondly how is that person going to help you? They need help!
3. Health insurance should not have to pay out claims to preventable conditions like obesity. Think about it; your auto insurance policy would not pay out your loss if you deliberately crashed your car, why should health insurance be different? If you deliberately plan to ruin your body by the choices you make why does the rest of the population have to pay for it with increased health insurance rates?
4. Childhood obesity!!! AHHHHH this is by far the worst! We do not have a childhood obesity problem; we have an adult obesity problem. As adults we are completely responsible for all the unhealthy children that we are cursing with our bad habits. I can understand if you as an adult want to make unhealthy decisions but how can you look at your children and know that you are responsible for killing them slowly by making the same unhealthy decisions for them. Probably a better decision is to give them cigarettes, beer and the keys to your car, their chances of living healthy are much higher. I am dumbfounded when people say, “I only keep it in the house for the kids” (referring to junk food, soda and other unhealthy crap). So you don’t think its okay for you to eat it but you are willing to feed it to your kids? What?? How about adults deciding that PE is not important in school or that cafeteria lunches are less nutritious than what we feed inmates at the local jails. What is wrong with our country?
5. Excuses! Seriously, if I hear one more ‘overactive thyroid’ excuse or ‘I have big bones’ excuse I’m going to pop a blood vessel! For F**k sake people what are we going to come up with next? Take some responsibility for your actions!

Are you angry? Offended? Upset? GREAT! AWESOME! FANTASTIC! You should be! That was my intent.  I am passionately discussed with the health of our country and need a tribe of equally as angry people help make a change. Me ranting and raving all by myself does not get much done. There is no question that drastic changes need to be made within our society before its too late and we’re all dead. There is no question that it is going to take time and that we are going to need more than just a few ‘health nuts’ to make the necessary changes.  It is also clear that what we have been doing in the past is NOT working and that it needs to stop immediately. I do also understand that our society does not embrace healthy living, which makes it extremely difficult to live a healthy lifestyle. Notice I said ‘difficult’ not impossible.  For every one positive action we are bombarded with ten negative reinforcements that support unhealthy living. For example, you go a to a boot camp class (P) on your way there you buy a Gatorade to drink during class(N), drive 1 mile to get to class (N) , drink muscle milk to refuel afterward because you read in a fitness magazine muscle milk was the way to go now (N), pick up Burger King for the kids and husband on the way home (N), eat your prepackaged garbage diet food instead(N), watch TV for 3 hours, don’t want to miss the biggest loser (N), start getting hungry half way through the episode but don’t eat because Oprah says to close down the kitchen at 7pm (N), go to bed starving because there was no nutritional value to  your dinner (N), wake up half way through the night with hunger pangs and drink a warm glass of milk to go back to sleep (N) and finally wake up in the morning to refuel on only carbs (fruit and cereal, high fiber of course) and coffee to start the whole cycle over again (N). Most people are fooled to think they are doing the right things. Its not! Look at the statistics they are getting worse. We need to get fired up, mad and start demanding change! The great thing about America is that we always seem to get what we want. Pretty sure that is what got us in this mess in the first place.

Here's a Start:

• Take responsibly. Stop making those excuses and realize that you are in control. The world is not a turmoil place where random things happen to people. We make decisions everyday that affect every single outcome in our life. Once you start to take responsibility for everything in your life and realize you are where you are because of the decisions that you made, you are then able to move forward. Isn’t cool to know that you are in complete control? Isn’t cool to know that you have the power to change? That is really the only solution! To change we need to take responsibility for our current situation. Best advice I have ever heard in my life:

Excerpt From The Traveler's Gift: Seven Decisions That Determine Personal Success
by Andy Andrews
From this moment forward, I will accept responsibility for my past. I understand that the beginning of wisdom is to accept the responsibility for my own problems and that by accepting responsibility for my past, I free myself to move into a bigger, brighter future of my own choosing.

Never again will I blame anyone else for my present situation. Neither my genetics or the circumstantial ebb and flow of everyday life will affect my future in a negative way. If I allow myself to blame these uncontrollable forces for my lack of success, I will be forever caught in a web of the past. I will look forward. I will not let my history control my destiny.

The buck stops here. I accept responsibility for my past. I am responsible for my success. I am where I am today - mentally, physically, spiritually, emotionally, and financially - because of decisions I have made. My decisions have always been governed by my thinking. Therefore, I am where I am because of how I think. Today I will begin the process of changing where I am by changing the way I think.

My thoughts will be constructive, never destructive. My mind will live in the solutions of the future. It will not dwell in the problems of the past. I will seek the association of those who are working and striving to bring about positive changes in the world. I will never seek comfort by associating with those who have decided to be comfortable.

When faced with the opportunity to make a decision, I will make one. I understand that God did not put in me the ability to always make right decisions. He did, however, put in me the ability to make a decision and then make it right. The rise and fall of my emotional tide will not deter me from my course. When I make a decision, I will stand behind it. My energy will go into making the decision. I will waste none on second thoughts. My life will not be an apology. It will be a statement.

The buck stops here. I control my thoughts. I control my emotions. In the future when I am tempted to ask the question "Why me?" I will immediately counter with the answer: "Why not me?" Challenges are gifts, opportunities to learn. Problems are the common thread running through the lives of great men and women. In times of adversity, I will not have a problem to deal with; I will have a choice to make. My thoughts will be clear. I will make the right choice. Adversity is preparation for greatness. I will accept this preparation. I will be prepared for something great! I accept responsibility for my past. I control my thoughts. I control my emotions. I am responsible for my success. ...The buck stops here.


The rest of the book is amazing too!

Peas & Love,
Shanna ’10

So it’s the end of January if you are like two-thirds of the new years resolutioners you are not longer sticking to the promises that you made yourself only three short weeks ago. That’s sad isn’t it! Three weeks ago your world was going to be changing, three weeks ago you were going to be half way to 10 lbs lighter, three short weeks ago you were going to make it to the gym at least 3 times a week and eat at home 5 times a week. Its amazing to me how three weeks of regular life is enough to knock more than half of the population off course of their goals. Why is that? I personally gave up new years resolutions because they became expectable to not follow through. It became okay to fail. Make a goal and tell everyone around you when it’s not the first of the year, I bet you will be more likely to stick with it. Nobody wants to be a failure in public, but that brings me back to the same question, why do so many people announce to the world every single year that ‘this is gonna be the year……. (fill in the blank)’ and then quit only 3 weeks later. I’m a little biased so I’m going to specifically talk about health and wellness here. I wanted to know more. Here’s what I found. For the most part the people that are making new years resolutions to lose weight are more than a few pounds overweight. According to a survey of more than 1,500 men and women conducted by researchers at George Washington University Medical Center, overweight and obese individuals strongly believe that exercise and diet are extremely important to their success. In the study, about 18 percent of respondents belonged to a health club while 82 percent did not. About two-thirds were overweight or obese. The more someone weighed, the lower their assessment of their own health. Yet despite being well aware that they need to exercise, negative feelings about the health club environment kept them from doing so.
“Both overweight men and women were intimidated by the health club itself, the environment and the staff. They were both uncomfortable about exercising around fit people,” Miller said. “The message to health clubs is they need to do more to make overweight people feel unself-conscious and comfortable.”
But overweight people can’t wait for health clubs to change, said Gregory Florez, a spokesman for the American Council on Exercise.
“It’s the ultimate conundrum, or Catch-22,” Florez said. “Obese people certainly know they are obese and they need to lose weight, and in many cases are quite motivated. However, they almost universally have a history of failure. They have tried every bestseller diet. They have tried every diet pill, legal and semi-legal. They have watched every infomercial.”
As a health professional this is very sad and at the same time very insightful. First of all it’s sad because so many gyms, personal trainers, dietitians and fitness professionals let the bottom line take the place of helping change peoples lives. Everyday desperate people look to us for answers, they trust us with their lives and we (as an industry) have let them down. Gyms that push fitness programs and training sessions without teaching the importance of nutrition, doctors and dietitians that slap their name on untested products (the worst is athletes that do this!), crazy juices, extremely low calorie diets, undergarments that squeeze you into smaller sizes….. I could go on forever! If you are in the wellness or fitness profession it is your job to do the research. It makes me sad that so many lose track of that. That so many only care about making profit and they are willing to hurt and even ruin lives to get it. With that being said, I have also met thousands of wonderful people in the fitness and wellness industry that have huge hearts and are working to educate and empower people to make that change. It is encouraging to know that there are still  good people on your side, as you are looking for truth in billions of lies that we are bombarded with in the media. What I am most intrigued about is that fitness establishments really are not helping the obesity epidemic they might actually be making it worse. The more I think about it the more it makes sense. I sometimes even feel intimidated to be working out in a gym. So what can we do to fix it? I say we because this is a society problem. We are all affected by it. Health care costs anyone?

Here are some of my ideas:

For the general population:
• Stop being so damn annoying at the gym if you are in great shape. Men: you don’t have to grunt we know you’re strong. Ladies: thongs are not appropriate for the gym it is not a club.
• The TV is filled with garbage! Stop getting health tips from it! The extreme techniques that are used on the Biggest Loser are not good advice to share with your overweight friends. Stop spreading their lies!
• If you are not an expert on health, please stop acting like one because you are in shape. Advising someone on his or her health problems is dangerous if you are not educated on the subject matter. And no, reading Mens Health and doing P90X does not make you an expert.


For the group that feels uncomfortable:
• Get psychiatric help first! People that are extremely overweight have an underlying issue that needs to be addressed before any progress is going to be made. The food and exercise part is easy once that is taken care of.
• Find a professional you TRUST and work with them to come up with unique exercise programs that makes you comfortable.
• The more you exercise the more comfortable you will feel.
• For the most part, people admire your courage to change, the ones that don’t really are just very insecure about themselves. “Next time you feel belittled by another person’s criticism, recognize this: the same thing for which that person criticizes you actually exists in his or her own being, and is perceived as bad. You are that person’s mirror for his or her own “disowned part” – Robin Meade Morning Sunshine! How to radiate confidence and feel it too.   
• Try different forms of programs to find one that you like. You have to like it or you are not going to stick with it period. Online support groups, walking groups, out door boot camps, private personal training studios, there are a lot of different ways to get the exercise that you need besides getting a membership at a gym.  


For fitness professionals:
• Do your research! Find out what types of programs work specifically for that person and make sure they are comfortable with it.  
• Teach the importance of good nutrition. Preaching about only exercise without nutrition is like teaching baseball by only going to the batting cages and ignoring the rest of the game. Never going to work!
• Ask your clients how they feel.
• Make sure the underlying problem is fixed.
• Stop pushing the fads and flavors of the week! Its irresponsible! And stop telling people to go to GNC to find their own products; the teenager working behind the counter has no idea what is in the sparkling containers on the shelves. Again, your JOB to research and share relevant information.  

PLEASE SHARE YOUR IDEAS!! SO WE CAN HELP CHANGE THE SITUATION!


Peas&Love,
Shanna ‘10



Resources:
http://www.efitnessforlife.com/top-reasons-those-get-fit-resolutions-dont-stick
The U.S. National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases offers tips on getting fit.
SOURCES: Wayne Miller, Ph.D., professor, exercise science, George Washington University Medical Center, Washington, D.C.; Gregory Florez, spokesman, American Council on Exercise, and CEO, FitAdvisor.com, Salt Lake City; January/February 2010 Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior

If you needed another reason to lose weight, scientists have just uncovered something that might be of interest. Researchers at UCLA recently reported that body fat may be inversely related to brain size.

According to a Healthday interview with lead scientist Paul Thompson, being overweight or obese ages the brain by 8 to 16 years, respectively. Moreover, the areas of the brain most affected by excess body fat are the frontal and temporal lobes. The frontal lobe is responsible for everything from problem solving ability to memory, impulse control and social behaviors whereas the temporal lobe coordinates both visual and auditory information. Increased degeneration of these areas has been suggested to lead to Alzheimer's disease.

To make the above determinations brain images from 94 elderly adults were studied. The individuals were then followed for five years. The brains of obese participants were 8% smaller than those of normal-weight participants, whereas overweight participants had 4% less brain tissue.

Although a cause-and-effect relationship could not be determined from this study, the researchers suggest that it could be a result of poor nutrient delivery to the brain in obese individuals. If this is the case, exercise, which increases nutrient delivery throughout the body, might play an important role in preventing the loss of brain tissue in overweight and obese.

HealthyDay News (2009) As Waistlines Widen, Brains Shrink. Wednesday, August, 26.

You can pay for your health with proper nutrition, exercise and chemical free foods or with insurance deductibles, time off work and medical bills. . . the choice is yours. What are you waiting for??