This country is dying a slow and painful death health wise.

[AuburnAlumni]

We are now at close to a 70% obesity rate in this country.

I was in Wal Mart today and honestly...there are just as many people who are so overweight that they have to ride a motorized scooter around to shop as there are people who are able to walk.

Everywhere I turn I see folks who are overweight..and I'm not talking 5 pounds. I'm talking seriously obese.

Sure, some folks have medical conditions. Some. But the majority of this country have such a toxic diet it's shocking.

As a personal trainer, what pisses me off the most though is seeing these parents who keep shoving sugar and fast food garbage down their kids throats. When I see a 50 pound 4 year old waddling down the aisle with a 20 oz Coke in their mouth...that angers me. The kid has no clue what he should or shouldn't eat. But that parent does.

Just ranting because it seriously angers me how bad this country has become health wise. The vast majority of our nation's diet is utter garbage, based around quick and sugar filled snacks and fast food that has no redeeming value whatsoever.

Involvement in youth sports is down and most kids either sit in front of the TV all day long or sit in front of the computer all day long.

The obesity rate will continue to rise and it is very possible that close to 85-90% of our population will be overweight in the next 20 years or so. That is a dying country.

End of rant.

[Chrisksaint]

Re: This country is dying a slow and painful death health wise.

The biggest problem is the lack of Physical Education at a young age like you mentioned.

My grandma was my PE teacher in elementary school and for the 1st month being that it was Florida we'd spend a month learning about nutrition, food pyramid, smoking,etc. Then get into actual physical education but that was 1 hour a week although we did get 30 minutes of recess.

More and more emphasis these days are being put on academics and less focus on PE and recess, not to mention the battle with technology. Even tho I went to grade school during this boom of gaming that was always something that I did after I played football/basketball for 3 hours after daycare or something.

Another problem is the fact that's it pretty expensive to eat healthy these days, luckily I had a higher metabolism and so much emphasis on staying fit from grandma.

[jb12780]

Re: This country is dying a slow and painful death health wise.

The biggest problem is the lack of Physical Education at a young age like you mentioned.

My grandma was my PE teacher in elementary school and for the 1st month being that it was Florida we'd spend a month learning about nutrition, food pyramid, smoking,etc. Then get into actual physical education but that was 1 hour a week although we did get 30 minutes of recess.

More and more emphasis these days are being put on academics and less focus on PE and recess, not to mention the battle with technology. Even tho I went to grade school during this boom of gaming that was always something that I did after I played football/basketball for 3 hours after daycare or something.

Another problem is the fact that's it pretty expensive to eat healthy these days, luckily I had a higher metabolism and so much emphasis on staying fit from grandma.

I agree with this. In my high school, kids would do one lap around the track in a 45 minute period. It was pathetic.

[Kriech23]

Re: This country is dying a slow and painful death health wise.

I'm doing a paper on physical education for my English class. It's amazing how many schools do not have physical education classes and the one's who do, nobody goes. I'm not sure of the exact stat at this moment, but something like 20% of people actually go to PE in high school. Like 8% of those people actually do the activities and exercise. It's just crazy.

[Cusefan]

Re: This country is dying a slow and painful death health wise.

Government budget cuts= Education budget cuts= Recess+PE cuts. Not to mention that the reliance on tests to determine how well a teacher or school is doing has also cut down on PE and recess. Just take a look at at a Kindergarten class today, it is very different from when most of us were in school.

The fact that School lunches are horrible is also a factor, when Ketchup and tomato paste are considered vegetables then you know that these kids are really being set up to fail.

[Husker_OS]

Re: This country is dying a slow and painful death health wise.

Even worse, is it's no longer unpopular to be that overweight. Females are becoming PROUD of being fat. I dig confidence in a girl but come on, fat isn't now nor will it ever be attractive.

[SuperBowlNachos]

Re: This country is dying a slow and painful death health wise.

Weighed myself today, 6'2" 183 right after a workout and having not worked out in probably 2 months and having an a week where I drank and be lazy and spending the last 4 days in vegas. Glad I have decent jeans as far as weight. Getting back to that grind of working out at least 4 days a week. Always been good about not stuffing my face.

I don't mind a woman with a little bit of insulation, but I don't know how a female can live with a gut that hangs over their belt.

[TheShizNo1]

This pizza dipped in cheese is awesome.

[WazzuRC]

Re: This country is dying a slow and painful death health wise.

Even worse, is it's no longer unpopular to be that overweight. Females are becoming PROUD of being fat. I dig confidence in a girl but come on, fat isn't now nor will it ever be attractive.

Yes, that's far worse than dealing with overweight youth in this country. Unattractive fat girls.

[WazzuRC]

Re: This country is dying a slow and painful death health wise.

This pizza dipped in cheese is awesome.

I prefer my cheese dipped in pizza.

[SuperBowlNachos]

Re: This country is dying a slow and painful death health wise.

Then you have people like my brother and sister-in-law that I live with that complain about grocery bill being high, but they buy big 2 liters of coke and dr pepper and other things that drive the price up they don't really need.

[AUChase]

Re: This country is dying a slow and painful death health wise.

My family has become a lot healthier, over the past couple months.

I was discussing this with an older lady at work, a few days ago. She even agrees that people don't care about the way they carry themselves, anymore. I'm to the point where it bothers me, if I hear someone bitch about needing to lose weight and then go buy a mountain dew at break. There's a few girls at work that do it every day.

Everyone, everywhere, who has any sort of weight problems will tell you they want or need to get in better shape, but hardly anyone wants to do anything about it...

The Highschool PE deal is sort of interesting. We were required to take at least one semester of it, in school. I did mine in 9th grade, but as I got older I didn't have the time to take it as an elective. I had my other required classes and technical school classes.

I was still very active, but rarely even ate what they served us for lunch... I did most of my eating before school and after school, on my own time. The school lunches always sucked.. except for Thanksgiving dinner day We did have the option for pizza or the salad bar, regardless of what was being served.

[Husker_OS]

Re: This country is dying a slow and painful death health wise.

Yes, that's far worse than dealing with overweight youth in this country. Unattractive fat girls.

I think you misunderstood my point.


But unattractive fat girls is a tragedy.

[TheMatrix31]

Re: This country is dying a slow and painful death health wise.

Just a note to leave political **** outta this.

[bad_philanthropy]

Re: This country is dying a slow and painful death health wise.

I think a large part of the decline in physical education is an over-sensitivity about negative emotional effects on children in regarding the actual physical portion. I loved P.E. when I was a kid but so many people I know and work with talk about how it's one of the great nightmares of their childhood.

I think both the activity and educational components of P.E. are invaluable in a world with so many terrible food options, sedentary leisure options, and career paths sitting in office chairs 8+ hours a day.