80,000 Americans were surveyed over 5 years to get an understanding of how the people of our fine country live. Apparently we are indeed a country of couch potatoes. Basically people were asked to report on their daily activities, then those activities were sorted by categories. All of their daytime activities fell into one of these five classifications: sedentary, light, moderate or vigorous activities.
Everyone surveyed spent time doing sedentary stuff like eating and drinking as well as sitting and watching TV. Then there were light activities like washing, getting dressed and all pretty, and driving around looking all clean and pretty. You guessed it, most everyone does these sort of things too.
Then it kicks up to the moderate activity level and there’s a big old drop off. Hold on to your panties, because this is where it gets scary. The majority of those surveyed didn’t do anything more than light activities in their daily lives. Let me say this again, MOST AMERICANS DON’T DO ANYTHING THAT WOULD BE CALLED MODERATE, LET ALONE VIGOROUS IN A GIVEN DAY!!!! It’s sad, folks. It’s sickening, if you ask me.
Are you getting this? Just about everyone in this country, where we have resources coming out our ears – so many fitness programs, gyms, books, exercise dvds, and healthy clubs – doesn’t do shit. Sorry, I guess I’m wrong because “doing shit” is probably considered “light activity.”
Moderate activities meant doing things like preparing food or doing gardening or light yard-work. Okay, seriously, since when did making a meal get considered “moderate” on the activity scale? Are you kidding me?
It gets even worse. Only a whopping 5-fricken-percent of people reported doing anything vigorous! Are you getting this?? Only 1 person out of every 20 is working out, exercising or doing anything vigorous by choice in their free-time!! I’m disgusted.
No wonder the USA is consistently in the top 2 when it comes to the fattest countries in the world. We sit, then we sit, we stretch, shift, and then we sit some more. Occasionally, when we want to move our fat asses, we prepare some food. And then we sit and stuff our faces.
What the hell is going on in this country??? We have tons of cheap, calorie-stuffed, nutrient-deprived foods bombarding us on all sides. We don’t question them at all as we stuff them down our throats by the bushel-full. That’s one part of the problem. The other part is that we just don’t do much. We aren’t physically active. We drive everywhere we go. We plant ourselves on our ever-widening, fat asses and stare deeply into our computer monitors or hi-definition TV screens and there we stay.
This has just got to change! It’s time for it to change now. Please get up and do your part. If we all change ourselves, that’s step one. Then get your kids and families moving. That’s step two. After that, go all crazy and reach out and help someone else get active. You could easily be saving a life.
This is my quest – to change those disgusting statistics. To be among the fattest countries is nothing to be proud of. It’s horrible. Having only 5% of our population exercising and exerting themselves is just plain embarrassing and wrong.
And, YES, abso-fricken-lutley, I am talking about working out! I make no apologies. It’s time to exercise, to sweat, to feel your blood pumping, your muscles working ,and your lungs working. There’s nothing wrong with some sedentary stuff and some light activities, but those two should not be how we spend our waking hours.
I challenge you to workout every single day for the next five days. No excuses, no putting it off until later. It’s time to save your life, your family’s life, and your country.
Follow ME!