From 1988-1994 the number of Americans who were over weight or obese was 56%. That number rose from 1999-2000 to 64% according to NAASO.org. Oregon is one of the highest with 23% of its population being obese. There are many reasons why people become obese or over weight. Many times it is genetic but that is something you can not change. What you can change is the way you eat, what you eat and how much you eat. If our society as a whole does not change the way we eat, we will be at high risk of diabetes, hypertension and heart attacks. In 2004 obesity related deaths ranked number two, smoking came in first. By 2005 obesity related deaths was expected to pass smoking as the number one cause of death, according to Medscape.com.
Americans lead busy lives and the cost of living is not cheep. In a typical family home, both parents work a forty hour week and arrive home late. Most of those families would rather relax than think about making a well balanced meal for everyone. Usually they will grab what it closest or easiest such as a microwave dinner, take out or the phone to order a pizza.
Often eating out is cheaper than making a home cooked meal. You can go to McDonalds and feed a family of four for fewer than twenty dollars. It is fast, easy and cheap. To feed a family of four a balanced meal, for example chicken with rice and a vegetable, costs more in both time and money. Foster Farms offers three chicken breasts in a package for around $9.00 at a local Fred Meyer here in Oregon. You would have to buy two in order to feed a family of four. One package of Uncle Ben’s instant wild rice only has two to three servings per container for $2.50 which means again you would have to buy two packages. For a bushel of broccoli can range in price from $1.00 per pound. Once you go to the grocery store, come home and make all this food, you evening is gone and so is over twenty dollars.
Lack of health choice at restaurants makes eating right difficult. According to Foodfacts.info, in 2005 fast food chain, Wendy’s, pulled their fruit salad option after only ten months on the menu, sighting low sales. Many fast food chains have started to offer healthier choices such as Subway which offers raisins and yogurt, and Wendy’s offers mandarin orange fruit cups in place of fries. Some sit down restaurants have followed suit such as Red Robin which will allow you to order either a petite hamburger patty or a Boca Burger substitute for any of their burgers. Unfortunately other places do not offer alternatives or the alternatives are not well advertised by the prospective restaurant. Red Robin might offer a Boca patty substitution but it is in fine print which is barley visible at the very bottom of their menu.
When eating out, often you do not have control over the serving sizes. For instance at McDonalds, e medium fry package now has nutritional facts listed on the side. It shows how many calories are in that amount of fries along with the sodium content. What they are not taking into account is the amount of salt added to the fries after cooking, and the person filling the container usually over fills. Therefore the nutritional facts and serving size information provided is inaccurate.
Gastric bypass surgery is the second only to breast augmentation, as the most common surgery among young adults. The time is now for us to start setting a good example for all people and start making smarter choices of food, make the effort to cook healthy meals, and rethink what a serving size is. Sure it might require more effort and more time and sacrifice but when you look at the health risks and concerns associated with obesity, it just makes sense to spend a few extra dollars, a little more time and make a few better choices in order to make a better future for you and your family.
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I just drove past a gym that was advertising group-exercise classes like this:
‘Small classes, lots of fun, no mirrors.’
No mirrors?
Why on earth is that a selling point?
Sure, mirrors aren’t necessary… but why would their absence be seen as part of sensible marketing strategy? Something to be advertised?
Maybe for the same reason that people don’t want to know their weight or their body-fat percentage when I assess them.
“Don’t tell me, don’t tell me” people say to me as they reluctantly stand on the scales with their eyes shut. “But you weigh what you weigh right?” “Yeah but I don’t wanna know.” “Why not?” “I’ll get depressed.”
So I tell them their weight and they get angry at me. Too funny. Nasty Craig.
“Don’t get grumpy at me… I didn’t do that to your body.”
When it comes to reality, we’re experts at avoiding it. I’ve written a post on ‘head-in-the-sand-itis’ before but it seems that we may be heading into an epidemic. A pandemic even.
Maybe we’re there already.
It amuses me that a business can send out this message: “Exercise with us and you won’t have to look at your fat selves in the mirror” “Yep, sign me up!”
I think some of us should be surrounded by mirrors twenty four-seven until we stop deluding ourselves and start to get proactive.
I’m not a fan of mirrors in gyms for vanity reasons but they are valuable for: 1) Teaching correct exercise technique and 2) Keeping us grounded.
“Oh yes… (in a feeble, pathetic voice), but I find it so painful to look at myself in a mirror, it hurts so much.”
Really?
Well, wait for your first heart-attack; you might rethink your definition of pain. And wait until your pancreas is so shot that you have to medicate every day for the rest of your life to manage your self-induced diabetes… then we’ll chat.
A little short-term emotional discomfort now doesn’t remotely compare to the world of hurt you’re gonna endure if you don’t change your mindset, your habits and your lifestyle.
No melodrama, just honesty. It is what it is.
As I always say to my audiences “I can tell you what you wanna hear, or I can tell you the truth… you can get offended, defensive and precious… or you can get busy changing your reality.”
I actually tell people to go home, take all their clothes off and take a really good look at themselves in the mirror from all angles. Slowly. Preferably take photos as well. Why? Because it’s reality, that’s why.
It’s you. It’s not some computer-generated future fat version of you, it’s you right now. Deal with that, toughen up, get over the self-pity (it’s annoying and achieves nothing) and then you will start to see results quickly. Real change.
Our physical reality doesn’t usually align with psychological reality. In other words, it’s almost impossible for you to be objective about you.
Over the years I have taken thousands of ‘before’ photos of people (front, side and rear) before they start their weight-loss/fitness endeavour. Invariably they are stunned when they see the pictures.
Why are they so shocked? Because when it comes to their body, they live in some alternative reality; The Slim Zone. The one where they look forty pounds lighter.
Amazingly, people always ask me to refrain from showing the photos to anyone else because on some level they believe that somehow the photos are worse than the ‘in the flesh’ reality.
“See me standing here in my workout gear but don’t look at that photo we took five minutes ago (in the same clothes) ‘cause I’m so much slimmer in person.” “I don’t really look like that photo.”
Weird.
I know that I may sound harsh to some of you and I know my approach and philosophy won’t sit well with everyone, that’s okay. But twenty five years of going around in circles with people about the same issues and having the same conversations (often with the same people) will make you a little practical and matter-of-fact. Okay, blunt.
I care more about your heart, arteries, lungs and overall physical health than I do about telling you what you want to hear; what’s comfortable for you. I’m not really about popularity, I’m about change. Results.
I know I could write more reader-friendly, politically-correct content but I would be compromising what I believe and watering down an important message. So blunt Craig it is.
I’m not interested in fluffing someone’s emotional pillow or propping up their poor self-esteem for five minutes. I’m interested in their long term physical health. I’m interested in the truth of the situation.
I’m interested in genuine, forever (never going back) amazing, physical change. It’s very possible but we continue to rationalise, justify and find new and exciting ways to sabotage our own goals and perpetuate our misery. We consistently waste our potential. And we continue to let our mind get in the way of our body.
We choose to inhabit the mythical Slim Zone.
Yep, I care about people’s feelings and emotional state and yes, I factor them into every interaction with every person… in fact, I work on the premise that getting in shape is largely an emotional process. And Yes, I was a fat kid, so I get ‘it’.
However… I won’t be getting rid of the mirrors in my gym any time soon.
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