A recent study of obese people in Australia looked at how they perceived themselves in the media and what they thought about the approaches to “cure” obesity.

They perceived the diet industry as “greedy,” “a scam.” or a “rip-off” but most said they would still turn to the same industry for help with weight loss because they didn’t know where else to go for support.

It’s pretty sad that the “best” information out there is only provided by people hoping to make some money off the guy who’s just trying to get healthy.

Here’s what I propose as possible solutions to encourage people to lose weight.  Some of it is stick and some of it is carrot.  But the stick is aimed at food manufacturers, not individuals.

Tax junk food to make it as expensive as “good” food.  This is directed more at the food manufacturers so they’ll start making nutritious, good-tasting products instead of the processed crap they’ve been putting out since the 1970s.

Make over the General Practitioner’s Office. Doctor’s should be pushed toward wellness maintenance models instead of “sick treatment” models.  I want to literally place nutritionists and highly certified personal trainers in doctors’ offices.  A medical referral will provide you food and workout advice that’s safe, effective, and reasonable.

Encourage businesses to 100% reimburse their employees for fitness and weight loss programs.  I’ve read studies over the years that support this as a huge ROI (return on investment).  Workers immediately become more productive, take less sick time, and have less significant medical issues which drops the health costs for the company overall.

Stock workplace cafeterias and vending machines with only healthy food. Doesn’t this just make sense?  Why let an employee inhale a Twinkie and then deal with his 3:00 pm sugar crash?  While you’re at it, offer cooking classes during off hours at the cafeteria to show employees how to cook healthfully.  And for any healthy dishes served at the company cafeteria hand out recipe cards so folks can cook the meal at home.

In urban areas, focus on developing safe outdoor spaces for people to play and workout.  I’m lucky that Boston has a wonderful park system, beautiful paths along the Charles River, and tons of pocket parks throughout the city. Encourage the development of more pocket parks.  Look at developing roof tops as areas people can access.  Another great example is the old elevated railway renovation in Chicago.  They took an eyesore and turned it into a beautiful park and walkway.

Make all restaurants post nutrition content directly on the menus. This works.  Would you order a 2,000+ calorie meal from the Cheesecake Factory if you knew exactly what you were putting in your mouth?  The food industry is very sophisticated, they hire chemists and marketers to feed you mounds and mounds of cheap food that appeals to your caveman palate.  By insisting on menu disclosure these same people will need to retool their dishes with fresh herbs, healthy fats, and diet-friendly starches.  It’ll still taste great.  We’ll just be giving them a strong push to go in the right direction.

What do you think?  What would you add or take away from this list?  I’d love your thoughts.

Lisa

A Deeper Look at the Numbers

• Adult obesity rates rose in 28 states
• 8 States have rates above 30% in 1991 no states were above 20%
• 38 States now have an obesity rate higher than 25%
• 8 States have a childhood obesity rate higher than 20%
• Blacks and Hispanics have higher rates of obesity than whites, this is strongly tied to income levels

A Reason For Optimism

Both Michelle Obama and Jamie Oliver have aimed a big spotlight on obesity this year.  Oliver tackled it through his show Food Revolution and Obama unveiled the Let’s Move plan, a 70 point plan to eliminate childhood obesity in a generation.

I know I have a slanted perspective here.  I’m in the fitness industry and am always talking to people who are trying to be more aware of what they eat and how they exercise.  I’m also in one of the lowest 10 states for obesity rates.  I don’t see it the way people see it in Mississippi.  But through this blog and my other fitness writing it does seem like there’s a shift underway.  The voters agree …

• 73% say preventing childhood obesity is an important priority for the US government
• 56% say a comprehensive program to combat childhood obesity is worth the financial investment.
• 56% also believe it will ultimately save taxpayers money through reduced medical costs.
• 20 states have school nutrition guidelines tougher than the US government standards.  Five years ago, only four states did.
• 28 States have standards for selling “competitive food” (think vending machines) in schools.  Five years ago only six states did.

Do you think the government should spend more money to help combat childhood obesity?  What about adult obesity?  How can you help your specific community to get to a healthier place?  What about your household?

This is too important a topic not to discuss …

Lisa

I’ll be dissecting the study more tomorrow.  Here’s the ranking for today.  How did your state do?

Alabama:  Adults 31.6%, Children 17.9%, Rank 2

Alaska: Adults 26.9%, Children 14.1%, Rank 24

Arizona:  Adults 25.8%, Children 17.8%, Rank 29

Arkansas:  Adults 30.1%, Children 20.4%, Rank 8

California:  Adults 24.4%, Children 15.0%, Rank 41

Colorado:  Adults 19.1%, Children 14.2%, Rank 51

Connecticut:  Adults 21.4%, Children 12.5%, Rank 50

Delaware:  Adults 27.9%, Children 13.3%, Rank 20

District of Columbia:  Adults  21.5%, Children 20.1%, Rank 49

Florida:  Adults 25.1%, Children 18.3%, Rank 36

Georgia:  Adults 28.1%, Children 21.3%, Rank 17

Hawaii:  Adults 22.6%, Children 11.2%, Rank 47

Idaho:  Adults 25.1%, Children 11.8%, Rank 36

Illinois:  Adults 26.6%, Children 20.7%, Rank 26

Indiana:  Adults 28.1%, Children 14.6%, Rank 17

Iowa:  Adults 27.6%, Children 11.2%, Rank 22

Kansas:  Adults 28.2%, Children 16.2%, Rank 16

Kentucky:  Adults 30.5%, Children 21.0%, Rank 7

Louisiana:  Adults 31.2%, Children 20.7%, Rank 5

Maine:  Adults 25.8%, Children 12.9%, Rank 29

Maryland:  Adults 26.6%, Children 13.6%, Rank 26

Massachusetts:  Adults 21.7%, Children 13.3%, Rank 48

Michigan:  Adults 29.4%, Children 12.4%, Rank 10

Minnesota:  Adults 25.5%, Children 11.1%, Rank 32

Mississippi:  Adults 33.8%, Children 21.9%, Rank 1

Missouri:  Adults 29.3%, Children 13.6%, Rank 12

Montana:  Adults 23.5%, Children 11.8%, Rank 43

Nebraska:  Adults 27.3%, Children 15.8%, Rank 23

Nevada:  Adults 25.6%, Children 15.2%, Rank 31

New Hampshire:  Adults 25.4%, Children 12.8%, Rank 35

New Jersey:  Adults 23.9%, Children 15.4%, Rank 42

New Mexico:  Adults 25.5%, Children 16.0%, Rank 33

New York:  Adults 25.1%, Children 17.1%, Rank 36

North Carolina:  Adults 29.4%, Children 18.6%, Rank 10

North Dakota:  Adults 27.7%, Children 11.4%, Rank 21

Ohio:  Adults 29.0%, Children 18.5%, Rank 13

Oklahoma:  Adults 30.6%, Children 16.4%, Rank 6

Oregon:  Adults 25.0%, Children 9.6%, Rank 39

Pennsylvania:  Adults 28.1%, Children 15.0%, Rank 17

Rhode Island:  Adults 22.9%, Children 14.4%, Rank 45

South Carolina:  Adults 29.9%, Children 15.3%, Rank 9

South Dakota:  Adults 28.5%, Children 13.2%, Rank 15

Tennessee:  Adults 31.6%, Children 20.6%, Rank 2

Texas:  Adults 29.0%, Children 20.4%, Rank 13

Utah:  Adults 23.2%, Children 11.4%, Rank 44

Vermont:  Adults 22.8%, Children 12.9%, Rank 46

Virginia:  Adults 25.5%, Children 15.2%, Rank 32

Washington:  Adults 26.3%, Children 11.1%, Rank 28

West Virginia:  Adults 31.3%, Children 18.9%, Rank 4

Wisconsin:  Adults 26.9%, Children 13.1%, Rank 24

Wyoming:  Adults 25.0%, Children 10.2%, Rank 39

These numbers are scary.  As I was revising them from last year I kept deleting the old number and putting in a higher one.  I’m just shaking my head.  Celebrities like Jamie Oliver and Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move plan are really too young to have made much of a dent.  I’m hoping next year’s numbers will reflect improvement.  How do you feel about this?

Lisa

Researchers from the University of Florida looked at 262 women and put them on a 30 day diet and exercise program.  They then broke the women out into three categories.

• Fast:  more than 1.5 pounds per week
• Average: between .5 and 1.5 pounds per week
• Slow: less than .5 pounds per week

Researchers then continued the diet and exercise program for a total of six months and followed up with the women intermittently for the following 18 months.

Results

• Women in the “fast” weight loss category lost more weight overall
• Women in the “fast” weight loss category were more successful at keeping the weight off

It’s important to note that the dieters weren’t expected to lose more than 2 pounds per week.  There are no “lose a dress size in a week” strategies going on here.  Basic concepts of eat less and exercise more were safely employed.

I’m sure DNA plays a role here.  Some people just naturally have an easier time losing weight than others.  (This is rather frustrating to the “others!”)  There are intricate interactions between nutrition, metabolism, exercise, even sleeping that doctors are just now beginning to understand.  There is also an entire area of research dedicated to DNA testing and metabolism (I’ll be posting about that later this week.)

What this study is also suggesting is start big!  Don’t tiptoe into a diet but start aggressively from the beginning and you could see more success overall. The participants strove to lose no more than 2 pounds per week and also included exercise along with dieting to achieve results.  They did not take celebrity endorsed diet pills or lock themselves into over heated saunas for hours.

This is new angle of research for me, I haven’t seen this type of study conducted elsewhere.  What are your thoughts to this new piece of information?  Does it make you want to start a diet with a bit more of a Spartan attitude?  Or are you perfectly fine with slow and steady win the race?

Lisa

What do you think about it? Can you legislate “fat people”?  Is that even fair? Are we just creating a new level of classicism?

Some Approaches

There are a few viewpoints.  First is that people are overweight because they made themselves that way.  You can’t regulate what someone puts in their mouth.  It’s not government’s fault that people are overweight and there’s no point trying to regulate it.  (This opinion is heavily favored by food lobbying groups.)

Regulating the available food is another approach.  Banning trans-fats and high fructose corn syrup.  Taking vending machines out of schools loaded with junk food.  Forcing fast food restaurants to visibly post nutrient information in their stores.  Revamping the USDA guidelines with less lobbying influence and more common sense.

A final option is the sin tax.  Similar to cigarettes and alcohol, if you want it you’ll have to pay extra for it and we’ll take that money and use it towards keeping you healthy when you inevitably wind up in our health care system.

A Huge Burden

There are some very serious problems related to obesity.  Healthcare costs go up exponentially, worker absenteeism increases, disability claims increase, productivity goes down.  The Medicare/Medicaid system will literally buckle under the weight of obesity as heart disease, diabetes and other weight related illnesses continue to tax our system.  It costs Americans billions and billions now.  Those costs will only increase.

There is a personal toll as well, the embarrassment, the inability to do things people used to do before, the personal health issues people have to deal with, just plain feeling lousy.

My Thoughts

Create a Tipping Point. Yes, I’m invoking Malcolm Gladwell.  By educating people and creating buzz we can gain people’s awareness and start to create a change for the better.  Let’s face it, we didn’t know trans-fat was that much worse for us when we started putting it in food in the ’70s, we just knew that it increased the shelf life of processed delicacies such as Ding Dongs.

Chide the Food Industry. Michelle Obama is doing a lovely job of this, we need to help her.  Let them know they were naughty and they need to get on board now.   With a little bit of chiding and a big threat of heavy legislation they can be strongly encouraged to stop using the bad stuff and start using the good stuff.

Legislate what our kids get.  I do think we should rip vending machines out of every single school in the country.  I didn’t have them when I was growing up and I didn’t feel deprived.  If I was thirsty I just took a sip from the water fountain.

Create a sensible food lunch program.  Jamie Oliver did it in England, why can’t we do it here?  These are our kids people!  Your child will eat 2,400 to 2,800 meals from the age of 3 to 18 in the school lunch program.  Do you want them to eat crap? What will this do to their long term health?  We need to fix this and fix it quickly.

Leverage the Media.  Continue shows like “Food Revolution,” cover the statistics of the obesity epidemic to help give people a wake up call, show someone struggling with their weight (and not just for laughs) on a prime time sitcom.  Make it real and people will notice and change.

Leverage the Medical Community. Doctors would much rather work with obesity prevention measures now than with scraping out someone’s arteries later.  They don’t have the proper training and information though.  Develop a new type of general care practice that has nutritionists and fitness specialists onsite to work with the public.

Lead by Example.  Be the person who cooks healthy food.  Be the family who plays in the park after dinner and goes on hikes on the weekends.  Set the example, invite friends along, and see who else joins in.

What do you think?  I seriously debated the sin tax as one of the items to throw in.  What do you like or dislike?  What would you do to lower obesity rates?

Oddly, the calories aren’t as bad as you might think.  The sandwich can be ordered grilled for 460 calories or fried for 540 calories.  The sodium count is off the charts, the USDA recommends no more than 2,300 milligrams per day.  The grilled meal comes in at 1,380 and the fried at 1,430 milligrams respectively.

Of course we haven’t added fries or a soda yet.  It would be pretty easy to shoot by our calorie needs for the day with a meal like that.  KFC points out that they have healthy sides like green beans or corn on the cob but I’m thinking the number of people who choose those options are pretty small.

For comparison’s sake a McDonald’s Big Mac is 540 calories and a Burger King Whopper is 670.  Nary a whole grain in sight …

What do you think?  Is KFC helping Americans eat healthier?  How many people do you see at fast food restaurants choosing a demure salad with minimal dressing?

Jamie Oliver Gives a Pep Talk to His "Gang" on Food Revolution

Jamie Oliver focuses on the kids in this episode, driving the point home that all of us eating well will only help our kids live better lives.

The show opens with him visiting the grammar school where he’s taken over the lunch program to see how it’s going.  They’ve had to hire extra kitchen help to assist the five lunch ladies.  Millie is appreciative and supports the program but Alice Gue, who runs the kitchen, continues to grouse about the extra work.  ”Alice has a combative nature,” explains Millie.  ”But she’s got lots of good qualities.”

The kids seem happy munching away on broccoli and shephard’s pie and Principal Patrick O’Neal is pleased with the changes.  All is well (except for Alice) and Rhonda McCoy, Director of Food Services for the town’s entire school system, gives permission for Jamie to tackle the lunch program at one of the high schools and he heads over there to get the lay of the land.

Moving Into the High School

Other than the quality of the food being served, the setup is pretty impressive.  The high school serves 1,000 people a day, with four lines of food choices available through lunch period.  Jamie points out that in the grammar schools there’s only one lunch and you serve it and that’s it, but in the high school “you gotta work with the students,” and he sets off to find ambassadors of change, a “gang” of kids who have all been touched by obesity.

Through interviews we learn that Marisa Clayton lost her Dad to obesity issues when she was 13; that Brittany Stevens is very overweight and has health issues; and that Ryan Jenkins has been in child services for a few years and has some serious anger management issues.  The group is filled out by Emily Hill, an aspiring chef, Brian Zepp, a young student with a lot of energy, and Rob Redman, the football player.

The kids all get together in Jamie’s Kitchen, the downtown cooking center that Oliver has established, and get a quick lesson on how to make a one-pan dish of chicken and vegetables.  After they prepare the meal (no catastrophes, everyone did well), they sit together for a “chin wag” and discuss how obesity has affected them.  It’s clear from the conversation that Brittany is struggling with her size and is desperate for help.  A group hug brings the kids together and Jamie declares them “a little family now.”

“This is not a few seconds on the news,” he says. “This is your kids … and they all have been touched and wounded and hurt and abused by food.”

We’re Going To Need Money

The show returns to the grammar school kitchen to show Food Services Director Rhonda’s interaction with the lunch ladies.  She asks Alice if they can handle the food prep once the extra help stops assisting in the kitchen and Alice is emphatic they won’t get the food out on time.  ”No one can deny that cooking from scratch is better,” says Rhonda, “but we are going to need to train our cooks to cook from scratch.  I don’t know who is going to give us money for that.”

She discusses the dilemma with Jamie and they conclude they need to raise about $80,000 for the training needed to roll out a “from scratch” training program to the 27 schools in the system.

A Farm and a Favor

Jamie strolls through a farm with his high school cooks in tow as they look at bison and take in nature. They have a cookout as the sun sets and eat bison burritos for dinner.  He tells them he’s preparing a fundraiser, a fancy dinner for 80 people at a local restaurant, and he needs their help to cook the meal.   The kids are on board but Jamie is worried.  In the past, he usually has a few months to train kids before he has them attempt something like this, but these kids only have a few lessons under their belt.

French Fry Wars

Back at the high school, Jamie prepares his first meal for one of the four choices at the cafeteria.  It’s a chicken teriyaki stir fry with noodles and veggies and fresh fruit for dessert.  Rhonda shows up and points out there’s not enough fruits and vegetables to qualify for the USDA-required standards of a cup and a quarter per meal.  To remedy the problem, they throw french fries on the line because “that’s a vegetable.”

Jamie is disgusted. He asks how his dish with seven different vegetables included is deficient while the fried chicken sandwich and french fry offering is okay. Rhonda explains the kids have an optional salad that counts as part of the total, but literally none of the kids are taking any veggies; just “carb, carb, protein” as Jamie says as they pass.

Jamie has his food ambassador students pass around his dish and lots of kids try and enjoy the samples. He’s starting to make some headway with the high schoolers, but he’s still burning mad about the french fries.  He says to camera, “I’m going to get medieval!” and closes the french fry line.  He then goes from table to table and snatches plates with fries, declaring “as of now, french fries are gone.”  We won’t find out until next week what he’s replacing them with.

Going to the Big Wigs

We head over to Frankie D’s Italian Chophouse for the fancy dinner served to 80 influential people in the area.  The menu includes garden salad with local apples, slow cooked pork crostini, roasted pumpkin risotto, and wild berry almond tart with homemade ice cream.

The kids are game but brand new to commercial cooking and find it challenging to keep up with the pace that Jamie sets.  Emily and Marisa put their heads down and work hard.  Ryan is struggling with the risotto and the bread, Brian is in the weeds with prep work, and Rob takes off after only 15 minutes because he has a football team walk-through for tomorrow’s game.  Jamie is peeved that he has to adjust the schedule to make sure everything gets done on time, but Rob does return and pitches in and all is forgiven.

Brittany starts to struggle a little bit before the guests arrive and Jamie feels for her.  ”An hour for her is like five hours for us given her physical weight and drain,” he says into the camera. “She’s digging deep.”

The guests arrive and the meal comes together.  We see happy diners delighted with the meal and to have a celebrity chef cook for them.  Jamie comes out towards the end of the meal to say, “I lied. I didn’t actually cook a thing. Let me show you the real chefs.” And the kids walk out to great applause.

The Kids Share Their Stories

Each have the chance to tell their story.  Marisa moves the restaurant with her tale of losing her Dad to obesity.  Ryan tells the crowd that a program like this has helped his anger management issues and he wishes the state had something like this for troubled youth.  Brittany steals the show though when she speaks.

“I’ve had my weight issues all my life,” she says. “I just found out recently that I have spots on my liver and I could possibly only have seven years to live.”  Her Mom is at one of the tables and starts to cry, and the camera pans as several diners are welling up (so was I!).  ”This is my last chance to get my weight under control. Having Jamie and the gang gives me the motivation that I need.”

A True Pledge of Support

Group hugs all around, and the evening ends on a high note as a local state Senator, Robert Plymale, pledges to help Jamie and the cause.  ”What your doing is historical,” says the Senator.  ”What you’re doing is going to change not just the way we do it in West Virginia, but in the United States.”

Amen to that.

Jamie wraps up the show declaring the fundraiser a success (but he doesn’t say how much they raised) and hopeful that he’s changed a few minds and hearts in Huntington, WV.  The Food Revolution marches on.

What are your thoughts?  What do you think about someone who is in her teens and might not make it out of her 20s due to obesity?

If you’d like to do something, you can start by adding your name to Jamie’s petition.  It takes less than 30 seconds and will show our legislature that we are serious about changing our kids lives.

Be well,

Lisa

Jamie Oliver wants to save the world. He's starting with Huntington, WV

I’ve just watched the first episode of Jamie Oliver’s show “Food Revolution.”  I share his passion for encouraging people to live healthier lives.  This will not be an unbiased post.  I want Jamie to win, I am actually praying for him to win.

The premise of the show is to drop a fish-out-of-water Brit into the middle of the unhealthiest city in the US.  Huntington, WV leads the country in heart disease, diabetes and obesity rates.  More than 50% of it’s population is obese, not just overweight, obese.

The Recap

The first episode focuses on the local school lunch program and the labyrinth of USDA regulations and USDA supplied food that the locals have to comply with.   The kids are served pizza for breakfast (yes, pizza) and chicken nuggets for lunch.  The first day that Jamie contributes he prepares a healthy chicken dish and goes head to head with the lunch ladies’ pizza.  The pizza wins handily.

The locals are less than thrilled with their status and show their defensiveness by lashing out at Jamie, he gets railed at in the local paper and on the local radio station.  Leaving him with tears of frustration at his lack of progress.

There are glimmers of hope as he convinces the Edwards family, (Mom, Dad and four kids) to bury their fry-o-lator in the backyard and begin to eat healthy.  He provides them groceries, a cooking lesson, a menu plan and recipes and promises to check back in with them.  Mom Stacy looks determined if perhaps a little overwhelmed.

He finds a kindred spirit in Pastor Steve, a local pastor who is sick of watching his congregation eat themselves into an early grave.  ”When winter time comes every other week I’ve got a funeral,” he says.  At the church he flips through the latest directory of members and stops on every page to point to a name, a person who has died or has a serious medical issue.  He can’t take it anymore, he, like Jamie is fed up.

Are We At a Tipping Point?

I’d like to think that we’re at the tipping point of the obesity problem with people like Michelle Obama and Jamie pushing us to be better Americans.  It’s practically patriotic to eat a salad these days.  I wonder about my perspective though, I live in an affluent community where obesity is far below the national average and I’m in the fitness industry.  I not only cook organic, but I cook sustainably & humanely raised as much as possible.

That wasn’t how I was raised.  I was raised squarely in the middle class with a UAW Dad who worked on the line for General Motors and a Mom who drove school bus before switching to being a secretary.  I’m the first person in my family on either side to graduate college.  We had a vegetable garden, but everyone we knew did.  It wasn’t any big deal.  If it counted as being organic that’s just because we were too lazy to spray anything on the plants.

I don’t blame the residents of Huntington, WV for feeling invaded.  Even with the best of intentions it’s nearly impossible not to be defensive.  I sure would be, they’ve been labelled the worst of the worst, people have written essays about how the parents of Huntington are killing their children with hamburgers and french fries.  Would you welcome Jamie with open arms?

What Can We Do As Individuals?

So what it comes down to is not what Jamie is doing for Huntington but what are we doing in our own communities?  How can we help someone live a better life, even just a little bit?

This is the reason I started this blog.  To give people a little information and get them to think in a slightly new way.  Knowledge is power, ignorance, in this case, will kill you.

What are your thoughts? I would love to start a discussion and if you think it’s worthy, I’d love a Digg or a Stumble.  :-)

Thanks, and if anyone has a fitness question for me, please @me on twitter (@lisajohnson) or send me a message through the contact form, or just ask it below … I’m happy to answer just about anything.

Lisa

Links

• Jamie Oliver’s Ted Talk:  Teach Every Child About Food
• How to Be a Healthy Role Model for our Kids
• The Five Stages of Getting in Shape
• The First Episode of Food Revolution on Hulu

A Size 12 Dress Pattern in the 1940s ~ A Size 8 Today

We’ve been vaguely aware of it for years: dress sizes are getting ever more generous.  Your brain is pretty sure you’re a size 10, but then you’re shopping and lo and behold a “size 6″ suddenly fits you.  Flattered, your brain now finds this “smaller” item of clothing much more appealing.

The clothing industry is well aware of this and, as a result, dress sizes have been creeping up ever larger for years.  I recently came across the wikipedia article for dress size and found it fascinating.  These charts were standardized in the 1940s and 1950s before the US had a serious weight problem.  Back then the percentage of overweight Americans was about 10 to 12%; now it’s over two-thirds!

Today’s average American woman is a size 14, about 5’3″, 165 pounds, and has a 40″ bust, 31″ waist and 41.5″ hips.   That equates to a size 18 back in the ’40s.  Yikes!

To give you another point of view, Marilyn Monroe’s measurements, according to her dressmaker, were 37-23-36, which would be roughly a size 8 for today’s sizing charts.  She’d be too “fat” for Hollywood now.

How do you feel about dress sizes today?  Are we doing ourselves any favors by allowing the numbers to creep lower and lower?  And how soon until a -2 appears on the racks?

Lisa

Thanks so much for thinking big picture.  Thanks for tackling one of the toughest issues our society has faced.  I’ve heard the stories of what your Mom went through with her battle with cancer and I genuinely believe that you want health care for all so that others won’t have to struggle like your Mom did.

Here’s the thing: fitness addresses every problem that you face in passing this bill.  Are you ready?

Here’s one citizen’s plan …

1. Create a “re-education campaign” for doctors.  Teach them about diet, nutrition, exercise, anti-smoking strategies, body fat percentages, cardiovascular development, and resistance training techniques for joint improvement.  Require that MDs keep their licenses by completing various education modules in these disciplines.  How many times has a doctor said to a patient “You need to lose weight” without giving them any direction on how to do it?  Give the doctors the tools.
2. Create wellness modules that are taught in medical school.  Make it a requirement for graduation.  Provide funding to medical colleges to develop these programs.
3. Create a new profession.  Endorse and support a new discipline which is a cross between a high-level personal trainer and a physical therapist.  Call them Wellness Therapists.  These coaches would work in tandem with general medical practitioners to help “prescribe” wellness programs that focus on cardiovascular health, joint health, and weight control.  A doctor can write a prescription to see a Wellness Therapist to get people on the right track.  Provide funding for colleges and universities to develop these programs.  Require large hospitals and HMOs to have Wellness Therapists on staff.
4. Increase funding and grants to colleges and universities to educate more registered dieticians.  Place them on staff alongside the educated MDs and the Wellness Therapists.
5. Create a grant program at the state level to develop wellness campaigns that begin at kindergarten and carry students through high school.  Create teaching plans that cover health, fitness, nutrition, and weight control.  Give them knowledge at an early age so they can avoid the mistakes that lead to obesity.  Obesity rates are rising faster among children then adults.  This issue must be addressed immediately.
6. This one’s a biggie.  Stand up to the food industry and the farm subsidies to develop a truly nutritional school lunch program.  If we work with farmers to develop a more diverse crop, we will be able to feed our children options beyond reconstituted potato parts and sweetened corn.
7. Develop a national campaign to get people to move more.  It should be lots and lots of marketing on TV, social media, and print, but it should also include our fabulous national park system.  Embrace programs like rails to trails and allow families free or low-cost access to parks so they can learn the joys of the great outdoors.
8. Continue to set the great example that you’re already setting.  I hear people talk all the time about your washboard abs and Michelle’s great arms.  Keep it up.  Shame all those Senators and Representatives into working out with you.  Let them set examples for their states and their districts.

So many of our health problems are tied to the obesity epidemic in the U.S.  You don’t just have the opportunity to ensure that every American has health care.  You have the opportunity to uniquely improve every American’s quality of life.  How amazing is that?

I would love for this to be an open discussion.  Please share your comments …

Lisa