I was watching TV late last night and I seen a commercial that gave me some hope that maybe this country is letting go of some of the PC that has gripped it for the last 15yrs or so.
I remember watching Super Size Me (if you haven't seen it go get it and watch) and in one segment there was a man talking about how we treat smokers today. He was saying that we've come to the point where if someone smokes we will call them out on it and actually raise a stink about it. We complain of the smell, tell them of the health risks, ask them if they're stupid, in other words we don't hold back. The current passing of many smoking bans has shown that we will not back off on the prosecution of public smoking. Anyways, he went on to speculate how long it would be till we did this with obese people with fast food and unhealthy lifestyles. I found that to be really insightful, in the fact many times a day I hear people complain about their bodies and their weight and then watch them go across (or come from across) the parking lot (there is a McDonalds there), not to mention the McD's bags or cups in the trash around the health club I manage. I got to thinking what if people gave obese people as much of a hard time about eating thier Big Macs as they did smokers for lighting up that cigarette? Think about how that would fly with people. Now the whole point of mentioning all that was to bring you back to the commercial that gave me some hope that this could eventually come about.
So I'm watching TV and this commercial comes on and it is showing all these healthy THIN kids out being active (rollerblading, playing soccer, running around) all in bright vibrant colors (picture lots of reds, yellows and blues) smiling, laughing. Then it goes to a black and white screen with a slightly chunky kid sitting on the couch looking sloppy eating potato chips. Now I didn't have the volume up high enough to hear what the commercial was about, but I was beginning to wonder what they were marketing. Then out of nowhere BOOM! It's a Sunny D commercial.. and I was thinking two things at this point: 1. good for you for not conceding to the growing number of obese children by being afraid to show fit healthy kids in your commercial. 2. kind of ironic that the commercial promoting a healthy lifestyle is from a company that makes a somewhat fake juice that has 130kcal and 30g of sugar PER serving.. but it was good to see someone man up and call attention to a very growing concern with children today.
I think this is an encouraging sign. I hope other companies step up and start showing more of what should be instead of worrying so much about promoting self esteem (a whole other blog subject). Children AND adults need to see something that shows bad habits and poor physicality in a bad light. It's a double edge sword we try and live on these days. We want people to feel comfortable with themselves (career, bodies, lifestyles, orientations) which is good. People SHOULD feel comfortable with all these things no doubt. But on the other side there is the fact that people HAVE become comfortable with this and its now becoming a crutch that society holds on to in order to justify their current state of health. I mean seriously when was the last time you looked around anywhere (grocery store, ball games, anywhere there are people) and seen even 10 healthy and fit people? And now we've come to a point of almost reverse discrimination against healthy people.
Now don't check out on me yet, let me explain. I have worked in offices or been out with people or at meetings and have been given a hard time about eating healthy or not having dessert or for eating multiple times a day. I also get the stereotype that because I eat healthy that I never eat anything "good". "Good" of course means BAD. "Good" is things like ice cream, doughnuts, candy bars, fast food, and on and on. I also get the "I like my food to have flavor and taste good." Yeah? So what, I like my food to be cardboard? It's this stereotype coupled with the "well, I don't want to spend all my free time working out." Neither do I. In fact I try to spend no more time in the club then necessary to complete my workout (generally 20 minutes or so). What they don't get is because I don't want to spend all my time in a gym and I do want to occasionally enjoy a Taco Bell Chicken Quesadilla that that is the reason I eat healthy food more CONSISTENTLY and team that up with a few days a week working out (which total ends up to spending less time then watching your favorite sitcom).
Most healthy people aren't obsessively working out and being self imposed Nutrition Nazis. In fact you'd be surprised at how little effort is required for maintenance once you get to a healthy body type. Things become routine, and not in a bad way. Sometimes routine means less thought needed, less effort planning, less time figuring out what to do. Most of the excuses people use to avoid living a healthy lifestyle go away once they put forth a little effort and try. Of course as your waistline shrinks its gets easier to stay motivated absolutely. But if you ran a company you wouldn't wait to develop a quality product until you had orders for it would you? No. You would develop a quality product so it will sell itself. It's the same thing in developing the body you want. You don't half-ass eating right and working out then if you get results you get serious? That's backwards. You should dive in! Don't be afraid to put the effort in and start big and all out. Why MAYBE get results and hit goals when you could ENSURE you would? All that "easing into it" does for the most part is give people the room for failure and the "out" they are looking for.
Well, there is your food for thought for the day kiddies..
As always DANCE!
Mr. J
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