Obesity is the new Cigarette

Listened to a man on the radio this morning talk about why Halloween needs to be outlawed (and arresting parents that take their kicks trick-o-treating) to fight one aspect of the obesity problem. The radio talk show hosts were very cordial and professional when asking him to explain in greater detail and make sure he was aware of various initiatives are are already taking place, such as schools paying greater attention to what they serve and educating parents about healthy afternoon snacks. They pointed out that this was one day of the year, and they asked if he thought it would make that big of a difference.

He argued that children learn the mentality that it is ok to run around seeking the most candy is one of the biggest components to our obesity problem in the States. While I might agree to discouraging parents to allow this Halloween mentality to consume their children, I disagree with the principle that the government would take it upon itself to make the process illegal.

Some people come way out of left field with these "this should be illegal" campaigns (on a similar note, the Rent is Too Damn High Party is...in short, educational) - and they're more powerful than you would think. Yeah, we all view or hear their "craziness" and may laugh it off, but the message does have power.

If I were adamantly against obesity, I may conspire to say "Make being obese illegal," but truly the outcome could be something that I had wanted all along, such as the promotion of physical activity, healthy eating, etc.

However, vocalizing such an extremist view will make you generally less reputable in the future (there are exceptions of course).

Therefore (three dots is my preferred modus operandi): (let me work through this thought)

1. Obesity is a problem. 2 out of 3 Americans are overweight. We may be in second place after Australia. It's unusual that we're not first place. Geez.
2. Obesity leads to lots of other complications (heart, liver, diabetes, diseases, mental, social).
3. We should fight obesity. Do we fight the entity that makes obesity or do we try to educate the consumer?
4. Oh look, why does this remind of me a similar campaign....what was it? Oh yeah...SMOKING.
5. So let's take a look at smoking. Looks like we fought against the entity that produced it as well as educated the consumer about the health effects.
6. THEREFORE, this is the general idea of how to fight obesity.

I secretly wish that I had an obese friend that wanted to lose weight and shadowed me (eating what I eat, eating when I eat, exercising when I exercise, sleeping when I sleep, etc.) just to see if that would help with controlling his/her weight. Since some people like to exercise with a friend or a group so that they "go further," can't the same apply to a healthy lifestyle? A health coach?

I would like to conclude by saying that I had a cup of dry Cinnamon Life, and it was delicious.