I am a big guy. When people ask me to describe myself, I say that "I am short, fat and bald." Some people believe that I am being self-effacing by saying this, but I am being honest. Even when I am working out regularly, and practicing control in what I choose to eat (the amount of food, not the food itself...I am too busy living life to worry about extending it, you know?) I am still on the borderline between obese and overweight, using standard BMI calculations. I have lost two inches on my waist recently and my BMI went up. Yep, I am fat. (Even when I was at my "skinniest", when friends were beginning to believe that I looked unhealthy, I was above 27. Currently, I migrate between a high 28 and a low 30.) Apparently, you are fat too and you do not know how fat you really are.
Why is this?
Well, as I wrote the other day, there is a problem with people refusing to walk places and the addiction to the car. I saw this first hand as I was going for a run this morning. (My run was abbreviated and I will try again this afternoon.) There is a loop in the complex that I live in that is roughly .71 of a mile (or .55 of a mile if you run the inside loop). That means that between any two points of the loop, it is little more than 1/4 of a mile. I watched a father load is daughter (approximately about 10) into the car to drive her to the bus stop with was well within that 1/4 radius. What was that saving? Six minutes? I know that a little bit of a walk like that would not impact general healthfulness, but...it's a start, no? More strikingly awful (to me at least) is the lesson that it is teaching the child which is that walking is bad, especially when you can drive.
And there are the other benefits of exercise, like the increase in cognitive function of people who engage in regular exercise.
But, Americans want to get fatter and dumber...I mean...actually, you know what I mean.
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