Originally Posted by
CBreezy
It's not as simple as "Americans are lazy.". The deck is stacked against us for healthy eating from a very young age. You're very fortunate if you are in an educated family that has time and money to make healthy choices for you from a young age. Then, you get to schools and are consistently given options that are unhealthy. Recent efforts to push healthy food options in school were repealed or hard fought.
Then you get to adulthood and know you're overweight and want to make changes. There are myriad of "nutrition" schemes looking to make a buck off of you. Everywhere you turn, you're inundated with scientifically researched ploys to get you to buy and consume... Looking at you golden arches.
Yes, there needs to be some accountability for your own personal actions but you have to overcome decades of bad habits and surround yourself with people who are just as committed as you are... AND be comfortable with doing it for a very long time to get results.
I agree with most of what you said. It really is hard to say ‘no’ to things like McDonald’s or Wendy’s and go for other food choices that don’t look as ‘appealing’ and tasty as that Wendy’s billboard on the side of the highway with a baconator burger and fries. Our society is centered on constant bombardment with really, really bad food choices, and very few good, healthy options. We are constantly taken advantage of with our hurried pace we operate on too. Companies know that if you’re in a hurry, you will eat anything, even if you know it’s crap food. Like in the airports or driving cross country, fast food businesses know that if they set up shop on that one rural exit 100 miles away from that major city, people are going to want to stop and eat and they really won’t care if it’s fast food. They just want to eat. They know we are very likely not going to stop and say “eh, idk, maybe we’ll get fast food later, let’s keep on driving and look for healthier options.” They know we need food in our bellies now, not later on.
Same thing with grocery stores. There’s so much CRAP on the shelves it’s unbelievable. I used to work in retail grocery while working on my CFI. I tell people in my family of how insane and truly horrible it is that we sell the things that we do in grocery stores. Most of the stuff is garbage. Most of the food isn’t really food, it’s like food.
I’ll admit that even as someone who’s pretty physically active, it can be tempting at times to eat a little more ‘crap’ food than I probably should. We all do it. But sometimes people really do have to find the inner grit and determination in them to say no to all the junk and get outside and go run or lift weights. It’s very, very hard to do at first especially if they were never physically active before. It takes about 2-3 weeks to make physical fitness a habit. Once people get past that point, it starts to become ingrained in them that it’s something good for them and they actually WANT to do it. Prior to that 2-3 week mark though, their bodies are just not conditioned to ‘want it.’ They hate it and at some point prior to 3 weeks, the vast majority of them who embarked on their fitness program eventually give in to the self induced pressure to quit and give it up too easily.