Fit By ___

6th place baby… yeah!… We are in the Top 10! Let’s grab a drink a celebrate.

Tennessee is leading our country in adult obesity. (Spoiler alert: we are ranked even better with our kids)

Almost 35% of the adults in our state are considered obese. Now, I’m still a part of this team. I’m still considered obese, technically. We could have a lot of conversation around how they get to the number they get to and where they place the most emphasis and we can debate if that’s effective and fair… but I’m not doing that. I could… but not today.

35% doesn’t seem like much until you see the trend coming behind us in our kids… this will push us to the top over the next few years. We have a problem on our hands that not only directly affects families, but also us as a state and country. This trend will push up taxes, healthcare rates, pharmaceuticals, transportation, building codes, furniture prices, nursing homes / rehab, fast food industry as a whole will triple, cellular service, and anything else that has to do with human consumption and mobility will flourish if it can continue to adapt to the needs of the people. Those who want more accessibility in the midst of immobility.

The easier we try to make it for everyone and the more adaptive we trend, the more the cost will spread to us all… and that’s just the money side. (Which runs the world, if you’re honest with yourself)

Moving on…

I’m not trying to beat anyone up and be hard on people. I’m not trying to call out overweight people (Lest you forget I’m one too). I’m simply raising a flag of awareness. One that hopefully opens our eyes to the future we are paving for ourselves.

I’m also not trying to bitch and moan about an issue. I desire to be a part of the solution. I’m here to help. I’m here to walk with you and to help train you for something better. I want other people to experience the life that I am experiencing now. The life I never dreamed existed or knew existed. So many days recently I’ve realized that I didn’t know what good felt like. I didn’t know what “normal” felt like. I have these times where I’m overwhelmed with my body and the way it feels. For instance, this morning I was laying in bed and wishing I could stay there a bit longer and the way my arm moved and how it connected with my body gave me a new feeling. It wasn’t soft, but felt strong and muscular. I thought to myself, is this how healthy people’s bodies feel?

I liked it and it made me feel good about myself.

The answer is easy, but the work is hard.

To loose weight and make life changes sucks. It hurts and can’t be fixed by just working out. The biggest impact is with changing our food, but even that comes with this HUGE attachment to our emotions. So… do we need to work on our feelings first? Do we start with a counselor? maybe.

The way I have approached it is that I deal with things as they present themselves. I wish I started with food, but I started with exercise and food came later… much later. As we do the hard work of becoming healthy and fit, we peel back layers upon layers of baggage that we carry around in addition to the fat on our bodies. As overweight people we not only have the physical weight, we are also carrying around emotional weight that is often times much greater than our physical weight. It’s a tough deal for sure!

I think we can do better Tennessee. I want to help. I have some ideas and I’ll write about them later.

Until then, Keep Going!