Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
We are on a journey, readers. A never-ending journey to self-discovery, enlightenment and health.
My whole career has been like a tornado around this topic, both for myself, my clients and my students. This topic has been at the very core of my studies and my passion of exercise, human development and physiology. It's been a vigorous and rigorous whirlwind of research and trial and error. And it never ceases to fascinate me.
However, I want you to step out of the tornado, and see ten NEW, and simple reasons to put the doughnut and crisps down and go for a walk.
Obesity is a killer. It causes heart disease and worldwide, this just about tops the list of reasons people die before their time. Childhood obesity is a rapidly growing concern. Excess energy and low nutrition lead a long list of health concerns. We already know this, but consider this list below.
Being obese affects your intellect. In studies, overweight individuals were not as academically inclined as their thinner cousins. This is due to a couple of factors. Not getting enough exercise and having poor circulation can starve the brain of comparable amounts of oxygen. Secondly, being a 'couch potato' means less stimuli for brain neurons and less formation of brain neural pathways. Thirdly, omega-3 type fats and vitamin B are both essential for brain electrical function, and it's been shown that obese people lack both of these to a degree.
Being obese can affect emotional and social skills. The teasing and isolation that obese children get, tends to affect how they develop as adults. People discriminate, whether it is conscious or subconscious.
In many psychological tests, thinner people perceive those that are grossly overweight to be less able to perform efficiently at work, as well as during leisure activities, making the obese people less attractive as employees or teammates, despite their actual measured performance.
Being obese means an expensive food bill. It's not necessarily the AMOUNT of food that adds up, but the TYPE of food, and the role it plays in the brain/digestive tract communication system. Junk food can be more expensive than stocking up on healthy groceries, even when the amount is the same.
When the body detects a lack in nutrition, it stimulates the appetite hoping that you will eat more to gain missing vitamins and minerals, so an already overweight and unhealthy person will eat more junk food because the first lot of junk simply did not satisfy.
In reference to money again, take a minute to reflect on how many times an overweight and unhealthy person may have to visit a doctor, or go to a pharmacy for the myriad of health problems that obesity causes.
Let's not forget that a weak immune system underpins a lot of illnesses because an obese person is not getting enough nutrients or exercise.
Obesity affects your sleep. The majority of snorers and sleep apnea suffers are overweight or obese. Without quality sleep, your whole way of life suffers.
Obesity can bring your leisure activities to a grinding halt. And on a more lateral thinking note; a great deal of leisure resources are just not designed for obese people. For example life jackets; seats on carnival rides; sports protective equipment; push bike seats and so on.
Clothes shopping can be a nightmare. Do I have to talk about this? No? Good, glad you understand.
The bigger you get the more you have to worry about how your house fits you and not the other way around. The luxury of choice can be taken away from an obese person when choosing where to live.
I, personally, know an obese woman who cannot live anywhere in an apartment building except on the ground floor, in case the elevator breaks because she cannot walk up stairs - at all! She also has to be aware of the space in the shower recess so she can bathe comfortably.
Obese people tend to have a shorter life-span, too, on their bed mattress.
Obesity and plane seats do not go together, to be perfectly blunt. The same can be said for ski chairlifts; seats in small water craft and even some seats in cars and buses. While I don't agree with it, it's a fact of life.
I've saved the most poignant for last. Being obese is sending the wrong message to children, particularly children of obese parents. Obesity is a disease and affects just about every facet of your life. Role modeling is a powerful learning tool for children and to enforce healthy habits of eating and exercise in them is also extending the love you have for them - and yourself.
