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lately i have been reading a lot of articles on fitness in america throughout the years. it seems that everyone has something to say on this topic, including me. while reading these articles i couldn’t help but see their common thread. over the past 40 years america as become more and more obese, more and more sedentary, less and less concerned with what they eat. my favorite quote from these articles is that “america is the land of the over fed and under nourished.” but why is this? how has society degenerated into the obese state that it is currently in? lets dig into this some shall we.

lets start by looking at the hard numbers. in the 90’s 56% of america was overweight or obese. in the 70’s 46% of america was considered overweight or obese. during that same period the rates within the teenage population doubled. today over 25% of all americans under the age of 19 are overweight or obese. these are the hard no holds barred statistics. so after seeing these numbers you are probably either saying why? how? or so what? let answer those questions …

first lets answer the “so what” question. you are probably wondering how this really effects you. well if you look at the statistics on a.i.d.s. you will see that they are much lower then the ones i outlined above on obesity. today hundreds of millions of government dollars are spend researching and dealing with the a.i.d.s. epidemic. in 1998 the u.s. surgeon general declared childhood obesity an epidemic. it is estimated that by the year 2020 the u.s. government (i.e. taxpayers) will spend hundreds of billions of dollars annually addressing this epidemic. no, not millions, billions … so how does this effect you? it effects your pocket book … or maybe you have or will have a child. that child has a high likelyhood of being obese in todays day and age.

so now your probably wondering how we got in this mess in the first place. that is actually a pretty simple question to answer if you think about it. if you ask your grandparents how many mcdonald’s there were in their town 40 years ago, or how many taco bells, burger kings, or kfc’s there were i am willing to wager you would hear zero as the answer. if you were to ask them how many companies there were that made insulin and how much they made per year off insulin you would more then likely hear a pretty low number. what about soda, candy bars, hot pockets, frozen pizza, oreo’s, frosted flakes, gummy bears, capri sun, or klondike ice cream bars? basically get rid of 70% of your local supermarket and those products didn’t exist 20 or 40 years ago. now look at those products and what are their primary ingredient? sugar, high fructose corn surup, fat, or other strange chemical names. but why are they in the supermarket in the first place. well how many hours did you work last week? how many hours did you spend relaxing watching tv? what about sleeping? now ask yourself how often last week you stopped to think about what you were eating? the fact of the matter is, in today’s day and age everyone is running here or running there. we have little time to worry about something as small as food … right? wrong …

wait a minute how can i sit here and blame this whole thing on you? what did you have for breakfast … wait let me guess. a toaster strudel and a glass of fruit punch or a venti half caf whipped mocha coffee. what about lunch, you were probably busy so you just ran into the burger king and had a double whopper, fries, and a coke. for dinner … you had a sensible frozen pizza and ended it with a pint of ben and jerries. sounds familiar? is that your daily diet? if it is then your at fault … and yes, it is my fault to. i don’t claim to be exempt of fault. i do however only claim fault for the first 25 years of my life and every saturday for the last 6 months. during the other 6 days of the week i don’t rely on cash happy corporate america for their latest concoction to keep me going. i instead cook my own meals or take nutritionally balanced supplements. yes, a company makes some of the products i eat but what company is better … the one that makes oreo’s or the one that makes a meal replacement shake with a balance of protein, carbohydrates, vitamins, and minerals? you decide …

so why are these food so bad for you … lets look at a typical trip to mcdonald’s. you grab your kid a cheeseburger, fries and a coke. they are pretty hungry so you decide to drop another 40 cents and super size it. so what do you get for your money? you get 1340 calories of refined sugar and starch. that’s over half of what their daily calorie intake should be … that wouldn’t be so bad if the nutritional value of the food was high. but those calories are low in protein, nutritionally barren, and full of fats and other goodies that have been shown to add body fat. but don’t you worry, virtually every fast food joint out there has similar food and nutritional offerings.

but my kids exercise so they are fine. well the fact of the matter is that the only state that requires daily physical education in k-12 is illinois. all other states either no longer require it or have phased it out. an example is california, it recently passed proposition 13 which strips all school based physical education classes and limits after school sports. why? as a society we are always asking government to cut the budget. what better place then in our children’s health?

so why is this article entitled “obesity vs corporate america”? well looking back at that insulin question i asked above. how much do you think eli lilly made from insulin last year? in case you didn’t know insulin is used to balance out the blood sugar of diabetics. and where is the largest population of diabetics, yep you guessed it, overweight and obese individuals. so how much did they make off of insulin sales last year? $1.5 billion dollars … and there are around 50 companies that produce insulin products. this is only a small view of how corporate america profits from an obese society. what about fast food and all of the other products i listed above? how many trillions of dollars do we have to spend before we wake up and start asking for more out of our government and american corporations? we need better education of our youth on the importance of health and fitness. we need goverment funded programs to address these problems in children and adults. we need the help of corporate america to fund these programs and others to fight this obesity epidemic, hell, they helped us get obese, now they can help us get healthy.

so what can you do to help, your a small cog in the machine that is america. well you can start by taking your own health seriously. start taking care of your body and mind. start watching what you eat and start getting involved in a fitness program. no, you don’t need to go buy a gym membership but you can go for a walk every evening or go rollerblading with your kids. and speaking of kids, you can start explaining to them the importance of health and fitness. you can feed them the nutrient dense food they need to grow and be healthy. start by caring about those around you and as time goes on you will notice an improvement not only in your immediate family but in those that you interact with. if everyone were to take these small steps we would no longer be known as “the land of the over fed and under nourished”, we would instead be known as “the land of the healthy and fit”.

but that’s just my opinion, for what its worth …

well i got my new scale today. the good news is that i am making progress on the program and i am still losing weight. i know this because my inches lost is still going up. the bad news is that i have not lost as much as i had originally thought. the scales i had originally been using said that i had lost 90 pounds. the new scale that i purchased, and i trust this one a lot more, says that i have lost 76 pounds. still great progress but it means that i am going to have to reset some of my goals. i updated my timeline with the latest information and reset some of my goals based on this new information. i still have a hugely positive outlook on this life change and something like this is just an obstacle in the road to my success at weight loss and being physically fit. i have so much drive and dedication toward my fitness that it would take a lot more then a scale to throw me off.

well it seems that i am not nearly as motivational as people say i am. what i mean by that is that i tend to be to hard on people. i think it is often me being misinterpreted or misunderstood but i am sure a lot of it is my fault. sometimes i expect people to “just get it” or to have the energy that i have. i realize though that i am unique. no, i am not saying that others cannot do what i am doing, but often they accept themselves or have other things in their life that are preventing or blocking them from changing. that is a decision that they make in their lives. all i can do is try and change my interaction with them. all i can do is lead by example and when/if they ask about my progress or fitness then talk with them about it. too often i evangelize fitness more so then i should and people think i am putting down their attempts or progress. i don’t see it that way, but others do. so from this day on i will just evangelize when asked and not any other time. no, i am not going to stop being outgoing and myself, i am merely not going to impose fitness on people that aren’t receptive to it.

my roomie bought a new car this weekend. he got the new 2001 mittsubishi eclipse spyder. it is a silver convertible with black leather interior. it’s a really nice car … makes me want to get my sports car that much sooner. anyhow, he bought a manual transmission and did not know how to drive it. so i spent some time teaching him how to drive a stick-shift. he started out pretty slow learning it … lots of shaking and jerking but by the end of the weekend he was pretty good. something bad did happen though .. while showing him how to drive, and getting jerked all over the friggin world my back started hurting. well low and behold it hurt all friggin weekend and still hurts. the bastard threw my back out … heheh … it hasn’t hurt in 6 months and now it does .. arg. anyhow, i am hoping that it heals up pretty fast because it really is a pain. other then the back incident the new car is pretty nice.

i spent a lot of time this past weekend reading my issa personal trainer material. i finished reading the booklet on “fiscal fitness” that outlines how to get a company started, market it, and keep it running. it tells you how to interact with doctors, insurance companies, how to obtain, and keep clients and lots of other great stuff. it got me thinking about my gym a lot. i realize that getting the gym off the ground is going to be a ton of work. it is also going to cost a ton of money … so i was thinking i might start a smaller personal trainer business first. get some business experience, get some cash coming in, and get some experience as a personal trainer. maybe then with what i learn from that and with some history running a company a bank might be more willing to loan me some cash to start the big gym. in the mean time i will open a few personal trainer outlets. i think that even if they are marginally successful that i can open one a year. and with the charting that issa gave for income from personal training as well as some calculations that i did, i think that it could be a very comfortable business for those that are involved in it. i would love to get my family involved in it. it is something i think about all the time. hell, i think christina’s experience at the hospital along with a certification as a personal trainer would make her an ideal business partner. but this has to be something that everyone involved wants, not just me. so i will plan on it only being me … if from there the others in the family want to be a part of it then great, they are welcome to. i just don’t want it to seem like i am setting everyone else’s goals or preventing them from being the person they want to be because of my incessant dreaming.

the end …

hello journal, how are you? i am pretty good thanks. i updated my fitness timeline with the latest information on my progress. i also made it very dynamic and cool using some new dynamic html stuff i have been messing around with. anyhow, according to the measurements i am down 90 pounds and 41 inches. it feels great and i am loving the changes i see in my body but i am still hesitant on the weight loss. i will know for sure by this coming friday what my exact weight loss is. i finally broke down and bought a scale and i should have it by friday if all goes well. the reason i am hesitant is because i never really had anywhere to weight myself except at public scales, kind of embarrassing i know. almost all of those scales give different numbers as to what i weigh but i used one as the primary scale. so anyhow, i will know for sure what i weight this coming week and it should be accurate from this point on.

i finished the enrollment for the issa personal trainer certification program. i should have most of the course material by weeks end. till then i have been studying the online versions of all the course material. the fact that they have all of the material online is so convenient. anyhow, i have a lot of reading ahead of me. i also went to the schaumburg public library yesterday and started doing some formal research into starting my gym. i found a good book on gym and fitness center standards for layout, design, and ergonomics. i also found a few good books on business plans and what you have to consider when starting a company … everything from taxes, business plan, hiring, marketing, etc. … i think i have enough reading material for the next few years. i don’t see myself having much free time in the near future with all of this reading i have to do.

after much talking and a lot of soul searching i ended the relationship with amy. i think i started looking before i was ready. i was looking for to much in a person starting out … from fitness to friends i think i was asking and looking for a lot. i am not going to lower my standards nor am i going to even start looking again for a long while. i have way to much going on in my life right now to honestly give a relationship attention. she thinks that i set the relationship up for failure by not letting myself get out of the “i will always be single” mode and thinking to much about the future. i don’t think that is the case, i just think we were to incompatible about to many things. we disagreed on a tons of things and a lot of our conversations ended in one of us giving up and/or being angry. i also had a lot of trouble with her outlook on life and her approach to her always being sick. she was working on the latter but overall these things are just not healthy for the beginning of a relationship. anyhow, we agreed that we should break up, though it was more me then her and we agreed to try and remain friends. i know it is really hard stepping back from more then friends to just friends but i will give it a shot.

this past weekend i went home for fathers day. it was fun … i saw my mother, got to see the house she is moving into, i hung out with my dad, got to go swimming, and went to the bar. that last one was great fun … imagine 7 women and me, hangin out in a bar together. all the guys in the place looking at me and wondering what i got that they don’t to be with these women. it was great … good much, we got to beat on things with sticks and i didn’t have a hangover in the morning. what else could one ask for. i will be going home for the weekend of the fourth of july. that should be great fun. we have a cabin rented in northern michigan and there are like 8 or so of us going up there to hang out, shoot fireworks and have a blast. i am looking forward to that weekend.

that’s about it … till next time.

i had a good week last week. not to rough, not to easy. i made a lot of progress on my life last week as well. i started doing some research online about fitness and gyms. after visiting a lot of different sites, reading a lot of message boards, and figuring some stuff out i finally figured out how to start this gym thing. the first thing i have to do is get certified as a personal trainer. no one is going to listen to me unless i can say i certifiably know what i am talking about. and the cool thing is that there are quite a few organizations that certify personal trainers. after checking them all out i narrowed it down to the 2 big ones that everyone seems to talk about ace (american council on exercise) and issa (international sports science association). after getting some input from some other trainers and checking out their material, support, and other stuff i am going to go with issa for my certification. they get rave reviews from trainers, free support, a free seminar, great at home studying and testing, and the material looks really detailed and well put together. they also have pretty extensive certification in other programs like nutrition, aerobics, etc when i want to further my background of knowledge. so this is one of my new goals for the next 6 months. by jan of 2001 i want to be a certified personal trainer. after i get my certification i want to build a small client base that i can work with in the evenings, mornings, and weekends. then while i am learning from them, getting experience, etc i will work on getting my mba. this should give me the business background i need to get the company up and running. piece of cake …

on the fitness front i decided to change things up again. not only am i completely revamping my workout regiment but i am taking things to a new level as well. i have been reading a lot about different set and repetition programs that can give really good results. i have also read a lot about different cardio intensity programs that have given good results as well. so i figure i will give them a shot. basically this is my research phase of fitness, i am trying to learn as much as i can, what works for me, what doesn’t etc. i am expanding on the body for life weight training principles by breaking up the upper body into 2 different workouts. one day is going to be chest, shoulder, and tricepts and the other day is going to be bicept, back, and abdominals. i am then going to have a lower body day consisting of quads, hamstrings, and calves, and abdominals again. this is going to be done every week … i am also changing my cardio to 3 days a week, 2 days consisting of interval training very similar to the hiit used in bfl and another day of a low intensity aerobic workout. the principles are similar to hiit but the duration is a bit higher. i know this seems like a complete changeup of everything in body for life but it really isn’t that huge of a change. i am still working out all of the body parts the same, i am just going to be varying the workouts more and doing a larger variety of workouts for each body part during each session. i think this will help prevent my workouts from getting stale. i almost consider this a evolution of body for life for when you want to take it to the next level. this program is outlined in its entirety on the eas web site under their personal fitness guide.

i finally broke down and bought a gym membership. i still plan on doing a lot, if not most of my workouts at home, but i needed some variety. i wanted to be able to start using an ellipical trainer, cable machines, some leg machines, etc … and until i get enough cash to buy these for my home i need access to them now. with my new exercise program and my new drive to try new exercises i think this membership will be a huge boon. it was only $350 dollars for the entire year, plus i got 3 months free, so i am paid up for the next 15 months. i can do a majority of the upper body exercises at home but some will be done at the gym. for the lower body i will primarily do those at the gym as well since they have a squat rack and machines that i want to use. for cardio i will be doing 2 of the days at home and one at the gym. i think the membership will be good for not only my fitness but for my understanding of how a gym operates and runs. the first thing i noticed was that they don’t allow personal trainers to bring clients into the gym. this is not cool and is something that i want my gym to have.

i spent a little time condo shop looking. i drove around on sunday to see areas that had condos. i actually went to 2 open houses as well. one was to small in terms of ceilings and the other was huge, almost to big and a bit out of my price range. i am going to be attending 2 home buying seminars in the next few weeks to learn more about purchasing a place.

i think in hindsight that is the whole week …

well it has been a while since i wrote so i figured i would update you as to the latest happenings in my life. let see where to begin … 2 weekends ago i went home for memorial weekend. it was really a lot of fun. i hung out with mike, lori, ellis, and christina most of the weekend. on sunday my brother and christina threw a barbecue/birthday party for lori. i think it really surprised her and was a lot of fun. i don’t think our whole family has gotten together like that in years. between family and friends there were around 20 or so people there. i got a bit tipsey and since i was the bar tender i took a few people down with me … hehehhe … but the great thing was that i didn’t have a hang over the next morning. i never do and i love it. i ended up driving home the next day though christina wanted me to stay. i really had to go to work the next day so i am sure all was understood.

last week went by pretty fast actually which was good. while i was home i made plans with kris and michelle to come to chicago. they arrived last friday … it was pretty cool since it was their first time in chicago. we had to do all of the tourist stuff … we went shopping for about 5 hours on the miracle mile and then i took them to the sears tower for a view of chicago from above. it was a perfectly clear day so you could see forever … that was cool. after that we went home, relaxed, and tried getting into a local club near my house. we ended up going to a different one that allowed underage people, michelle is only 20. after we danced the night away we went back to my place and watched “end of days”, then we just crashed back in our appropriate beds. the next day was pretty much a veg fest … now that we have the basics out of the way we need to do some other cool stuff next time they come. i want to get a bunch of people to come next time so we can do second city, blue man group, and barhopping all together … i am going to try and plan something for august, maybe around my birthday if everyone is game.

so that was basically my last few weekends minus the boring stuff of course … so what else. let’s see … amy and i are doing ok. last weekend she came over and met kris and michelle and we taught her how to play yuker … that was pretty cool. after that she stayed the night for the first time. since then we have not talked much, though we did last night. i have been really busy and have not had a lot of time. we had a little talk last night about a few things. i still am not quite sure this is going the way i want it to. things are just way to hard to early on in the relationship. she is still sick all the time, not very outgoing, and is never quite up to doing to much. we shall see though, i am going to see her this weekend … i hope things improve. from my perspective all she has to do to improve is go see a dr, have herself checked out, and once everything is taken care of there hopefully she will return to her “original self” that she has told me about. maybe i will see that person some day …

my workouts are going well. i did a change up on my upper body works last week, i want to do that to my lower body next week. it felt great. it felt like i was reaching a plateau with my old exercises so now i plan on changing them all up every 2 weeks. that is easy to do with the upper body but seriously it is not that easy with lower body. i am having trouble find exercises that i can do to work the muscles differently so they don’t get to used to any one movement. i am going to have to do some more research on new ones. i am going to break down and buy a scale finally … i am so tired of trying to find a place to weight myself that i am just going to give up, fork out the few hundred dollars and get a really nice one.

i made an executive this week, i am buying a condo. i know that i want to get a sports car early next year, but i also know that if i do then the likelyhood of me getting a condo soon after that is pretty low. so i want to get the condo out of the way this year and a new car out of the way next year. i also know that i am getting tired of paying rent. so this coming weekend i am going to start looking at places. i am also going to be attending some free home buying seminars soon. one from my bank and another from the local remax in schaumburg. i think i am going to try and stay in schaumburg or a suburb near there. i like living in the burbs and it makes the most sense to me from a travel and comfort perspective. plus there is the fact that i can get something really nice, with 3 bedrooms and a lot of square feet for a really good price where as downtown i would have to suffer with a one bedroom or something close to that. anyhow, i know it is not going to last me forever, more like 5 years so when the time comes to move back to michigan to open my gym i should be in better shape having some equity in my condo and all.

well i think i covered all of the bases … till next time.