Obesity in America

            Every morning I look in the mirror and I hate what I see. I’m not in the best of shape but not the worst either. I’m conscious about eating healthy but somehow I always end up sucking down an entire plate of pasta or giant chocolate croissant or large extra chocolate mocha Frappuccino with whip cream muttering to myself, “I’ll start my diet tomorrow.” I mean who says no to pizza? Gosh, carbs are the best.

Once in a while, I’ll muster the courage to put on my hideous workout clothes and head to the gym or attempt to run around the block. I always feel good after and promise myself to do it again tomorrow! But it never happens. Honestly, the longest exercising streak I’ve ever had was 28 days in a row and I’m pretty sure that was four years ago.

Luckily I have a fairly good metabolism and I am usually aware of what I put into my body so I can get away with eating an unhealthy meal or two. The average woman is a size 16 in America Today. I’m a size 6. But 38% of the population of adults in the United States is obese, mostly due to unhealthy eating habits. And these eating habits are being passed on to children and young adults. In 2014, 17.2% of the youth aged 2 to 19 years old was obese.

With the increase of technology and awareness of the “dangers” of the world, kids are just not going outside to play as compared to the previous generations. On top of that, with the hectic lifestyles of growing families, high-fructose corn syrup filled food, like McDonalds, is a quick and cheap option for meals. “Bad food just tastes better,” Justin Lux, a high school Junior from Sun Valley says. But being obese doesn’t just go against the mainstream photo-shopped skinny look, it can seriously affect your health. 90% of the population with Type 2 diabetes is obese.

As a surprise after losing 40 pounds training through MMA, Jujitsu, and normal run-of-the-mill gym workouts, the doctors told him that he was on the edge of having Type 2 Diabetes.  “I was shocked. I changed my entire routine and got healthy and still the consequences of being overweight stayed with me,” he said.  Fortunately, after eating extremely healthy and doing doctor-approved cleanses, he was able to ward off the disease. But the reality of it all lingered with Justin, “It definitely pushed me to keep going to the gym. There’s no way I was about to stick a needle in to whatever part of my body everyday.”

            Diabetes isn’t the only negative health risk associated with being overweight. The risk of heart disease, stroke, breathing issues like sleep apnea and asthma, and even some cancers are increased. With this in mind, its hard to jump on the “big is beautiful” bandwagon. Rather, I think it’s a better idea to follow the basic mom yoga quinoa healthy trend and teach our kids to eat healthier. Hollywood anorexia also isn’t the goal, but healthy should be.