Healthy

                It is a taboo subject that American people are getting fatter every year. People get an image in their mind when you ask them what the average American looks like and they will picture a fat stupid person. This is however a very hateful stereotype that shouldn't be accepted as much as any racial slur. Look at yourself, you are probably an average citizen. Are you an obese moron walking around with your eyes crossed? more than likely not; which means that is not the average person. Mexico has recently passed America up for the greatest obesity.
       Beginning in the 1920s, America hit a period of consumerism. People began making products that were more in the realm of luxury. Leisure items became a big seller and made the economy boom of course until the great depression. Ever since then however, America has become in a market place of making everything easier. Buy this product because it makes cleaning easier. Buy this; it makes meal time faster. Buy this because it provides much more entertainment and thus; the ultimate goal; to give you more relaxation time. There is now a lot more to do inside the house than outside. So people started staying indoors. Fast food gradually rose to cultural super stardom over the course of the last 60 years. junk food also became more prominent. We live in a culture now where fresh fruit in a stocking at Christmas would put a scowl on most faces. Video games, movies, television, Internet, and ready made tasty food keeps more and more people inside for longer and longer times. This is a big contributor to the fact. Plus people are busier now. Jobs are more demanding, everyday economic and social transactions are more elaborate and more involved. People don't have time anymore to make sure they are getting 8 cups of water, every part of the food chain, all of the vitamins, iron every now and then, etc. So things happened to make America a little less healthy, however that isn't a bad thing or the fault of some company somewhere.

      People tend to be under the impression that being overweight is not their fault. "I got bad genes" "I have an unusually low metabolism" "I hardly eat anything, I guess it just gets twice as much as fat out of food than other people" These things are absurd. Nobody got genes that made them 130 pounds overweight and all they do is fruit and vegetables their whole lives and exercise. It doesn't happen. Plus due to the wonderful concept of political correctness, you can't say the word fat. You also should accommodate their life styles supposedly and help them find a way to make them think that it isn't their fault. Well last time I checked-that is step for step enabling. You don't want to enable someone just so they can feel better about a bad habit. You can be nice but you actually need to do the opposite. get them motivated to realize that it is their fault, therefor they have control and they can do something about it. You want to give them encouragement to work on that road towards fitness. I hate hearing people say "well I'm not going to conform and try to look like a model, this is who I am." Well that sounds great and all, but it doesn't have to be. If everybody decided that there isn't any need to fix our faults about ourselves because it is just part of us, and that changing our flaws is 'conforming' than we'd be in a terrible place right now. Who knows where I'd be if I had complete disregard for making myself a better person for the sake of myself and everyone around me. The point isn't to get skinny to look like a model. I'm not fond of American beauty standards either, but one becomes healthy for their own sake because being healthy is healthy. I used to be slightly chubby and that's because I was watching five ours of television a day and eating junk food when I got home from school. I thought eh, I'll go play outside later. That later never really came.

              There is nothing but goodness in being healthy. Working out releases chemicals called endorphins in your brain which make you feel better. There is a certain confidence and self respect one gains when they reach a goal of fitness, not necessarily because they look better to everyone, but because they can be proud of themselves for treating themselves right. I still have about eight pounds left to go before my six pack but getting there is actually half the fun.

-Kel's Insight