Introduction

The unvarnished truth is:  there are at least 4 generations of adults, who are facing an early grave – and taking their children with them – because they are overweight or obese!

 And, for most of them, death will be preceded by an extended period of suffering brought on by Diabetes, Coronary Disease, Heart Attack, Stroke, Failing Joints and/or Cancer.

 Discussion

“The U.S. could be facing its first sustained drop in life expectancy in the modern era,  . . . but this decline is not inevitable if Americans — particularly younger ones — trim their waistlines or if other improvements outweigh the impact of obesity.” (The New England Journal of Medicine, March 17, 2005.)

 The authors report that, unless steps are taken to curb excessive weight gain, younger Americans will likely face a greater risk of mortality throughout life than previous generations.

 “Over the next few decades, life expectancy for the average American could decline  . . . unless aggressive efforts are made to slow rising rates of obesity.” according to a team of scientists supported in part by the National Institute on Aging (NIA), a component of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) of the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS).

 “This work paints a disturbing portrait of the potential effect that life styles of baby boomers and the next generation could have on life expectancy,” reports Richard M. Suzman, Ph.D., Associate Director of the NIA for Behavioral and Social Research.

 Indeed, Suzman notes, obesity may already have had an effect. The sharp increase of obesity among people now in their 60s, he suggests, may be one explanation why the gains in U.S. life expectancy at older ages have been less than those of other developed countries in recent years.

 According to the NEJM report, studies suggest that two-thirds of American adults are overweight or obese.  One study cited by the authors indicates that the prevalence of obesity in U.S. adults has increased about 50 percent per decade since 1980.

 Additional research has shown that people who are severely obese live up to 20 years less than people who are not overweight. Some researchers have estimated that obesity causes about 300,000 deaths in the U.S. annually.

 In addition, obesity is fueling an epidemic of type 2 Diabetes (which also reduces people’s lifespan.)

 “These trends suggest that the relative influence of obesity on the life expectancy of future generations could be markedly worse than it is for current generations,” Olshansky and the authors conclude in their report.

 “In other words, the life-shortening effect of obesity could continue to rise … in the coming decades, as the people who are now at younger ages carry their elevated risk of death associated with being overweight or obese, into middle and older ages.”¹

People, who are overweight, or obese, should not need another lecture.

What they need is a reliable, affordable way to lose weight.

 Here it is … “To change the way things are, you change the things you do.”

 Treat Your Body With Respect:

 Eat three meals each day

• Eat breakfast - and make sure it is nutritious not something you pick up on the way to work!
• Eat copious quantities of vegetables (5 –7 baseball-sized servings, differently colored)
• Reduce meat consumption to about the size of a deck of cards – once a day – red meat once a week.
• Reduce snacks – between meals and at work-breaks.  Eliminate them completely, once you have overcome your addiction.  The University of Michigan, Integrative Medicine Department explains why.

Rule to Live By:  If you don’t buy it, you can’t eat it.

 Exercise moderately for about 10 minutes each, morning and night.  Walking is hard to beat!

 Get Organized

• Multitasking means you are doing several things, at the same time, poorly.
• Leave your problems at home.
• Leave your work at work.
• Go to sleep at a reasonable hour.

 Grow Up

• Find the discipline to change your ways.

Rule to Live by:  You’re the culprit – not a victim

• Stop teaching your kids the same mistakes.

Rule to Live By:  If you don’t buy it, they can’t eat it.

Fix What You Have Broken

People who are overweight, or obese, manifest some or all of the following situations:

• Malnutrition
• Mineral Deficiency
• Irregular Bathroom Habits
• Suppressed Metabolism manifesting as lack of energy and/or irregular sleep with diminished cellular regeneration and detoxification.

This is precisely where dietary supplements fit the equations for losing weight.  And don’t scrimp!  That fancy coffee you used to drink every morning costs $6.00 – simply reinvest that money for something that will benefit you instead of the coffee house.

The objectives are:

• Fill your body with as much basic nutrition as possible to make up for the years of neglect so your body can begin healing itself.
• Eliminate the accumulated debris inside your intestinal tract and the toxins inside your body.  These are the barriers for healing and the source of frustration when it seems your weight loss program isn’t working.
• Support the two metabolisms, catabolic (daytime) and anabolic (nighttime) that power your body.

Conclusion

The issues of being overweight or obese have been studied and talked about ad nauseam.  All the warnings, contained in thousands of reports, Government programs and even prohibitions, whether national, local or in your child’s school are doomed to fail.   Why – because no one personalizes the issue.

You look at a kid who is overweight eating a snack, and see a fat kid whose parents should be doing something.  You look at your own child, in the same circumstance, and see “big bones” and deserving of a treat.  Or, you see a “muffin top”, in unsightly cloths and shake your head.  You see yourself as full figured or barrel-chested.

You make excuses for your decisions:  something quick, something easy, something nice, a nice treat, something, something, something.

Then, if you do decide to take responsibility for the mess you’ve made, you choose a short-term “fix” that once you stop:  starving yourself, exercising to extreme, weighing in, taking shots, popping pills, etc. puts you right back where you started – except your wallet is lighter.

It is your life – it is your choice.  If you want to change the way things are you must change the things you do – forever.

Implement the “Do as I do” rule.  Concern yourself with you, then move on to your spouse, then to your kids.

Stop making excuses – start taking action.  

 NUPRO has developed a weight loss center for on-line guidance and comprehensive weight management programs that many people find helpful for the quest to feel good and look great.

 ¹(Olshansky SJ, Passaro DJ, Hershow RC, Layden J, Carnes BA, Brody J, Hayflick L, Butler RN, Allison DB, and Ludwig DS, “A Potential Decline in Life Expectancy in the United States in the 21st Century,” New England Journal of Medicine, 352:11, pp. 1138-1145)

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Mother patiently showed me how to identify my expenses, label an envelope for each expense, divide my money between each expense and put it in the appropriate envelope.  She explained that when the expense came due, the money would be “tucked” away.  All I needed to do is take the money out of the envelope to pay the bill.

And, my mother explained, once my expenses were provided for, I needed to prioritize any remaining money between needs, wants and building a nest egg; then make choices. 

Choices like: wanting to go to the movies to have fun or needing to maintain my car.  Mother pointed out that the car would need tires, the oil changed and repairs; all of which, if not tended, would affect my ability to earn money.  The choice, and the consequence, would be mine.

It was like hearing Aesop’s fable about the grasshopper and the ants.  The grasshopper whiled away the summer – the ants worked to store away food for winter.  When, inevitably, winter came, the grasshopper starved and died – the ants did not.  The grasshoppler failed to budget.  The moral of Aesop’s fable is:  It is best to prepare for the days of necessity. 

The body is a marvel of engineering: joints, ligaments and muscles, working in synchrony to produce force and motion; cells, coordinating with one another, to produce energy, sensation and thought; systems for protection from external and internal agents that could disrupt the harmony that we describe as health; systems to repair damaged and injured cells and tissue.  The coup de gras is the miracle of regeneration that provides the ability for the body to completely rebuild itself, perfectly, every 7 years.

 With one exception, this miracle of life happens automatically.  The body converts food, using water as medium and catalyst, into building blocks that are reassembled to become part of a healthy body, the systems that support it and then, dispose of the waste.

What is the Exception?

The one, and only, thing your body cannot do for itself is select the quality and quantity of food that enters the system.  That is your job.  Making sure that you are “putting enough in the envelopes” to pay the bills when they come due – with something left over for emergencies. 

You can make 3 choices:

When you choose whole food: vegetables, fruit, whole grain, fish, poultry, lean red meat and water, your are meeting your health budget, with a little left over for emergencies.  These whole foods contain the building blocks on which your body relies: protein, essential fatty acids, complex carbohydrates, minerals and vitamins on which the body depends to flourish.  You will enjoy the bounty of health.

When you choose cans, boxes and bags of processed, packaged and preserved food, convenience and fast food, soda, artificial sweeteners, coffee and energy drinks, you are bankrupting your health budget.  The labels on these foods clearly proclaim that they contain flour, sugar and chemicals, the hyphenated words that you can’t pronounce, to enhance taste, color and shelf life.  None of which benefit your body.  If you aren’t sick, you soon will be.

When you choose a combination of the two, you are creating a deficit or, as my mother would say, “You are going broke slowly – ask for a raise or get a second job.”  Your body will do the best it can with what it has to work.  Lacking energy and endurance, obesity, frequent illnesses, declining quality of life and vulnerability to degenerative disease are all predictable outcomes.  You won’t be sick, but you aren’t healthy either.

Are you the grasshopper or are you the ant?

The grasshopper fiddled the summer away, while the ants spent time preparing for winter.  Enjoying a life- time of radiant health is truly a simple issue:  Are you investing in health or are you paying for sickness? 

Do you want to know?  Take the test.

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