THE HEALTH AND FITNESS WAR

Rare Arnold Motivational Speech from Allen on Vimeo.

There is an obesity epidemic sweeping the country. Research by the Centers for Disease Control reports that nearly two-thirds of the US population of over 300 Million citizens is overweight, obese, or morbidly obese. This is the result of decades of change from an agrarian society to a service industry where people no longer get outside and stress their bodies with labor to earn wages. With the advent of technology such as the micro-computer and the Internet, business in the US has moved the individual from working on the farm to sitting many hours in front of a computer screen.

To make matters worse, fast food has replaced wholesome nutrition as the mainstay of the US diet. The fast food industry has systematically replaced natural food grown from the ground with food substitutes designed to keep you hungry because of the low nutritional value of the processed food. This ultimately drives the individual to eat more to supply the body with the nutrients it needs and subsequently adding enormous calories to the daily diet and forcing the human body to gain weight. This vicious cycle keeps people going back for more food and enriching the fast food industry while the individual ultimately suffers from poor health and development of chronic health issues.

Unfortunately, the convenience of fast food has dominated people’s busy lives and our society has little time to properly prepare meals at home where family traditionally spent time reconnecting with one another after a long day of labor to provide for the family. Instead, we stop by the local fast food joint and pick up a bucket of highly processed junk and bring it home to throw it on a plate and serve to our children as we flop on the couch in front of cable television. We have become too dependent on an industry that is hurting us physically, psychologically, and financially.

People have allowed themselves to become so busy that there is not time to join a gym and workout the amount of time it takes to protect themselves from chronic health issues such as heart disease, high blood pressure, and Type 2 Diabetes. Over the past few decades, these health issues have taxed our medical industry to unsustainable levels and now the federal government is considering taking measures to reduce the level of healthcare one can receive in this country to control the ever increasing cost to artificially keep people healthy. This simply will not work if we keep doing what we have in the past with exercise and proper diet lacking in our society. We have to change.

So what do we do? To paraphrase Einstein, we know that to do the same thing over and over and expect a different outcome is a form of insanity. We also know that there are several things that an individual must do to be healthy and among those are exercise and proper nutrition. We, as individuals, have to break this cycle if we want to improve our health and quality of life.

Over the years, I have found myself gaining weight and suffering from high blood pressure, chronic fatigue, and other issues that have adversely affected my health and fitness level. I have turned to the health industry and tried every conceivable way to lose weight, including diet pills, special diets, exercise machines, and any number of books on how to lose weight and get into shape. None of them have worked or were sustainable for a long period of time.

I eventually learned that there are three pillars required and must be in place if one can hope to achieve a level of health and fitness necessary to improve our quality of life and have more energy and a feeling of well being that everyone deserves. These include a solid fitness program, proper nutrition and supplementation to support your health, and a group of people who will support you and help you become fit and remain healthy. You can achieve limited success by exercising alone, or going on a diet, or going to a support group to talk about your health but unless you combine all three of these elements, your chances for success are greatly reduced. Stay tuned…