CDC obesity mapping (Page 2)

I thought this was 'Murica.

Our shot put bronze medalist:

http://redefiningbodyimage.tumblr.com/post/28666992651/miggidymacdewi-a-tribute-to-the-best-olympian

 One of my co-workers just came back from a week and a half in Rome. She noticed that even though the worst food there was better than the best food here, people were on the whole much thinner. Walking everywhere was one part, as was portion size. 

Here, we serve giant portions all the time. And cooking being a lost art, people have lost touch with how much a serving size is supposed to be. And of course, you cannot easily walk in most places. I am glad we live in an area that still has sidewalks, not to mention green spaces meant to walk or run right outside the door. If my job didn't have me going to 2 sites every day, I would walk the mile or so to work every day. 

I think I am going to change sports....

This may or may not be another factor but remember back when they started a lot of this charting many people lived where they worked and walked and biked to work.  Now, many of us commute to work.  I am 25+ miles away from my job, so instead of walking to work or riding my bike, I ride my motorcycle to work about 9 months out of the year if I can.  But that also takes away another hour of my day minimum that I couldn't be doing something completely different.

What I have tried to get into my children even though they are no longer in the house, is that the plate does not need to be clean.  When you are full, quit eating.  Smaller portions and leftovers are a good thing.

Don't most of em train in Colorado Springs? Maybe that esplains the Colorado being the least obese of the states!

If poverty is the problem just cut food stamps. 

Are you saying if we got rid of food stamps we would get rid of poverty?

I think the link is due in part to education and availability of resources. With a dollop of mental health issues. In the last, some people with chronic mental health are unable to sustain employment, which leads to poverty. And their poor organization and planning makes it hard for them to cook for themselves healthy meals. So they end up with a lot of fast food, both in the traditional sense as well as in terms of foods easily prepared (e.g. frozen meals), that, thanks to corn subsidies, provide cheap calories. Also, many times, the more powerful antipsychotic and mood stabilizing drugs cause some degree of weight gain.

As for education, it also becomes a cycle, where the poorly educated cannot compete in a limited job market, and stay mired in poverty. And, again, will go for cheaper calories in forms that will last - e.g. that banana will go bad in a couple of days, but those Ring Dings will last for weeks.

Buy you are talking about a minority of the population, and the majority of the population have a weight problem.  

I think there can definitely be link to the dual income family structure, and the economic situation in our schools.  The facts are that many people work long hours.  Then take care of the home responsibilities when they get home.  There is little time and desire to be active. (Granted all of us on this site MAKE time to exercise, so this is just an excuse)  Also, the fact that kids do not get PE everyday, they don't have a parent to watch them or take them to play outside everyday.  I remember that we played outside after school everyday.  Either at our house, our friends house or a park.  Now kids stay inside.  

One thing that I find interesting, is that in my daughters activities (whether physical or not), the kids whose parent are involved and have them involved in activities are rarely overweight, yet many kids at school are.  (My daughter is 6 and in ballet, music, piano, soccer, t-ball, painting, pottery, etc, so I am seeing many kids and many parents from many schools and districts)

These things have impacted this current generation of people and they are not very active.  That leads to obesity.  Honestly, I think inactivity leads more to overeating then vise versa (but I have not stats to prove that).  This is a problem that developed over time (50+ years), and one that will take time to fix.

Kind of off-topic, but my wife's employer (a health care facility) is taking a shot at promoting change with their staff and family. Next year, the employee portion the of health insurance premiums will be increasing by nearly 50%. The employer, however, is going to cover that increase if the employee and spouse take part in a health and fitness program. If you meet the goals set by your health coach, you each receive $350 at the end of 2013 and the company will continue covering more of your insurance premiums. If the person begins with an acceptable weight and fitness level, they just have to maintain for the year. If you don't meet the goals, the employer may not cover as much of your premium the next year.

Perhaps, if there is a monetary penalty for unhealthy lifestyle choices people will wake up. Sadly, many of my wife's coworkers are complaining about the increase and saying that the program is unfair. I keep grumbling about their fat a*^% pushing our premiums up. My wife and I are getting our initial physicals next weekend - easy savings and a free $350 each at the end of the year.

i think it all comes down to what we are eating. most cheap mass produced foods are corn based.  even our meat is corn fed.  and tons of sugar everywhere; if you live an inactive lifestyle sugar is basically a toxin.

the southern epidemic is caused by fried foods and sweet tea almost entirely IMO.  down here every meal you get anywhere comes with sweet tea and something deep fried, sometimes every part of the meal is deep fried.  and corn and potatoes are a staple with every meal.  my mom flipped out one time because our dinner didn't have baked potatoes; it was steamed crab legs, cajun boiled shrimp, and some vinaigrette salad, she claimed her dinner was ruined without her regular damn potato. 

and yes everything is very spread out so everyone drives everywhere.  why is this? because the whole place was burned down in the mid 1800's and when it started getting back to normal the automobile was invented.

that's cool, mine is offering cash if you quite smoking, or if you are obese and lose a ridiculous amount of weight.  nothing for people who are already fairly healthy.  

This is probably a relevant metric. I don't think it is necessarily related to dual income families, since both mrs. gearboy and I have always worked, and yet we remain involved. I think if a family does not commit to family time, which includes meal times, then a lot of short cuts get taken, and that leads to a lot of unhealthy choices.

For a long while my employer has had incentives for healthly living and now is stepping it up.  With a cafeteria and abundance of vending machines our CEO stated "that many of the employees eat 2 of their 3 meals at work and we will give them healthy alternatives".  I love the idea but not sure you can enforce personal responsibility.  But if you make it easier to eat healthy (say a employer sponsored salad bar that is very inexpensive) and harder to eat unhealthy (my beloved bacon was replaced with turkey bacon) it may have an impact.  I guess giving up my once a week eggs and bacon is probably not a large price to pay but I am saddened.

Would love to see Louisiana out of that 30%+ but I don't see that happening anytime soon.

No that's not what I was saying and you know it.  Poverty has nothing to do with it, everyone wants to give an excuse for people who don't care what they put in their mouth and would rather sit than get out and be active.  Unlike most on this board, I live in one of the poorest areas in a state with one of the highest obesity rates and see daily people who would rather eat crap than take control of their weight issues.

At my work this year, we get a discount if we sign something saying we won't smoke.  We also have a voluntary program available that has you use a pedometer.  You get X number of points a day for walking a certain number of steps or being active for a certain number of minutes.  There are few point goals where you receive gift cards.  It also has a gamification part to it, in that you can compete against others or make a team and compete against them.

I used the pedometer for long enough to get a $25 gift card.  My problem was that swimming and biking don't count towards my active minutes, and I only run once or twice a week.  The days I don't run, I don't get close to the first step goal of 7,500.  At the beginning my group at work was pretty into it, and we setup a few challenges.  It fizzled after a bit but I think it worked well overall.

I like the carrot approach to trying to get people to eat/live healthier.