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Combating Obesity

There has been a crazy obesity epidemic in the US and till this day the epidemic is only

getting worse. Nearly 4 out of 10 adults were considered obese in 2016, that’s a thirty percent

increase over the last eighteen years from 1998. 1 out of 6 children in the U.S are obese. Since Commented [1]: I don't suggest you start sentence
with Also.
1999, obesity rate has increased by 33 percent. Michelle Obama started her campaign known as Commented [2]: Say 1 (of) or (out of) 6 instead of and

the “Let’s Move!” in order to help reduce childhood obesity and help young children have a

healthier lifestyle through childhood. Over the last decade, we have been consuming more fast

food which is extremely unhealthy for our body to function properly. Sure, it will fuel you up at

the time being but look at it from the long run and see the potential risk of what excessive eating

can make out of you! People are oblivious to what they’re eating. Obesity can be preventable

by people’s choices to make themselves better because working out is easy to do, it can be

done anywhere and it can be done by anyone.

Why is obesity a problem?

Obesity has always been a big deal since eating too much can lead you to your death

except it wasn’t getting the same attention as what smoking cigarettes do your lungs. Not taking Commented [3]: rephrase

care of your diet can lead to very serious problems like increased risk of cardiovascular disease,

coronary artery disease, peripheral artery disease and even stroke. (Fogoros, 2017)

Cardiovascular problems is a killer and one of the biggest cause of death in the United States and Commented [4]: are

Cancer being second. Excessive eating which lead to obesity can speed up the process of

cardiovascular disease.

Does being obese affect how you live life? In fact it does. It leads to a sedentary lifestyle

(Fogoros, 2017) where you have no association to interacting with anything physical, you

wouldn’t even want to get up from your room and just watch TV all day long instead of going

out at all! Being obese can also greatly impact your social life. By living this sedentary lifestyle,

you are isolating yourself from society and not getting the full experience of interacting with a
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lot of people and being productive. This can lead to lack of friends. This also can also impact the

way jobs look at you. Trying to apply for a job won’t work so well for you because interviewers

tend to judge you by body language and the way you present yourself and an obese person would

mean slackers who won’t get their job done. Another problem being obese brings up, it affect the Commented [5]: I would change this to something like
an obese person would mean slackers who won't get
their job done
way you see yourself. Confidence is the best characteristic you can have but having low esteem

is a big blow to yourself and that is a lifestyle you do not want to live with. Hating your own

body and despising the way you are.

However! There are a lot of alternatives to transform your life around that can counter

this major issue. Losing weight is something anyone can do. It doesn’t matter how old you are,

or what size or what dna you have inside yourself, exercise has always been a part of humanity Commented [6]: maybe change to size instead of
shape
since the beginning of time. As a matter of fact, anything you do is basically considered exercise

because that is mostly consisted of movement. Walking down the stairs instead of taking the

elevator, taking a walk around the neighborhood with a friend and talk about your lives or simply

just doing chores around the house like vacuuming or throwing out the trash.

Another benefit of exercising is that it’s free! (Porotsky, 2015) Well that is if you exclude

the cost of gym memberships which is very cheap or getting equipment for house usage.

Exercising is incredibly easy and it can be done anywhere! As the previous paragraph mentions

how basic it is to start moving around, you can have your little own gym at your own house! You

can follow home workout routines! You can perform leg workouts, dips on the counter or simple

push ups!

All of this is accomplishable if you are willing to put your mind to the task. Losing

weight isn’t just about you working out and lose weight, it’s also a mental journey that you must

overcome. It’s harder for this society because we have more distractions than there was decades
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ago. Since technology has made their debut and quickly advanced to take over the world, we

have been living a efficient lifestyle except we’re more lazier and slower. Trying to break away Commented [7]: just put slower

from this lifestyle that we have been living with for the longest is an extremely difficult task that

we must overcome in order to start this long process. But with motivation and ton of support for

yourself and by other people, anything is possible to achieve.

Anyone have the choice to change for the better. Now, I’m not forcing anyone to lose

weight and stop what they’re doing, it’s their lives and however they want to handle it, they do

whatever they please with it. But when it comes down to the ultimate decision, the choice to

change is always there for them since the start and if they choose to take this path or not. Commented [8]: I feel this sentence is not really
needed
It all starts with the person ability to see themselves as how they want to be. Picture

yourself thin, visualize yourself ahead of time and especially think how good you want to feel in

the future. (Zelman, 2013) Doesn’t it feel good to be able to wear anything you want and not be

criticized for it and instead be complimented? Doesn’t it feel good to admire your own body and

be comfortable with revealing yourself out a bit more to everyone? Doesn’t it feel good to

actually look good? This is one thing that everyone lacks to see and instead present themselves

with the circumstances they have in front of them because it’s there when they need it now and

not look at the long run in the process.

Here comes the difficult part about combating obesity. Ditching your old eating habits.

(Zelman, 2013) Exercising is one half of this long process, and nutrition and dieting is the other

half. You can exercise as much as you want but if you don’t change up your diet, all of that

countless amount of calories you burned and muscle mass wouldn’t mean a thing at all. Making

homemade meals isn’t that hard, that is if you have the patience to cook it. That is the main

problem with food, everyone is too lazy to cook on their own. Either it’s how their schedule is
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set up or laziness kicking in and they need something right now to satisfy their hunger. So, what

are the benefits of cooking homemade meals? You know exactly what you’re eating with the

content in the meal, it’s a lot healthy than eating just fat and grease, and the best part! You’re

saving tons of money! You can use that money to make better food in a larger quantity.

In this case, I would most definitely rely on a friend to help you out as mental support

and to reinforce it upon you. (Zelman, 2013) Friends are a good thing to have around whenever

you’re in a time of need or just want to have fun. How would life be like if you didn’t have

anyone to socialize with? Experiences differ for everyone but for me, I need to have friends

around or life would be very dull, boring and very lonely. Not everyone need a friend as a

motivator to enforce their dieting or exercise because they can handle that on their own, but for

others, having a friend to help you out in this process is an essential. Not only does it boost up

your motivation to change your life around, you can also have this same impact for your friend

as well. Might as well get fit together and have fun!

Combating obesity isn’t that hard if people are willing to change themselves for the

better, anything can be possible with dedication, patience and time. As of now in 2018, America

is the world most obese country. Our country is also known for that title. Is that something worth

keeping our whole lives as citizens? This is a major problem we need to address and must deal

with this right away before more of us have died from heart failures. Food is an essential that we

need in order to live and produce. Over time food has evolved into many ways like hamburgers,

pastas, tacos, soup. The temptations to eat them all is crazy but we need to control ourselves by

limiting our eating not only for our own good sake but for our children own sake as well.

Hearing young children deal with bullying because of how big they are isn’t a great way to be

raise into modern society because this can scar them and change their vision on life. We need to
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stop this and fight obesity as we do with cigarettes so we can live long and be happy about

ourselves.

Works Cited

1- Fogoros, Richard N. “why obesity is bad for your heart and overall health. Verywell, 7 oct.

2017, www.verywell.com/how-bad-is-obesity-really-1745975

2- Forsyth, Kate B. “overweight and obesity” symptoms and side effects. “Be Healthy Today”

Jan. 2018, behealthy. Today/overweight-obesity-symptoms-side-effect/.com

3- Porotsky, Sophia. “25 exercises you can do Anywhere” Health.com . Dec, 2015,

www.health.com/health/gallery/o 20788704,00. Html # at-home-workout

4- Yoffee, Lynn. “How to avoid the obesity epidemic.” Everyday Health.com, 20 May 2009,

www.everydayhealth.com /healthy-living/obesity-prevention.aspx

5- Zelman, Kathleen M. “8 ways to think thin.” webMD, WebMD, 2013,

www.webmd.com/diet/obesity/features/8-ways-to-think-thin #1