Your body

If you don't do what's best for your body, you're the one who comes up on the short end.
~Julius Erving

I work at a hospital. I see many different patients come in and out of there...many, over half, are overweight. I talk with them and the most revealing part:I get to see their lab results. You cannot convince me that being overweight is at all healthy.

Obesity is defined simply as too much body fat. Your body is made up of water, fat, protein, carbohydrate and various vitamins and minerals. If you have too much fat — especially in your waist area — you're at higher risk for health problems, including high blood pressure, high blood cholesterol, diabetes, heart disease and stroke.

-58 Million Overweight; 40 Million Obese; 3 Million morbidly Obese
-Eight out of 10 over 25's Overweight
-78% of American's not meeting basic activity level recommendations
-25% completely Sedentary
-76% increase in Type II diabetes in adults 30-40 yrs old since 1990

See up there, the bold? Eighty percent of people over 25 are overweight! We have to do something about this. It starts with you, living a healthy lifestyle for your children to see. Start with the kind of food you buy, the portion sizes they are getting. Make exercise a priority and include them. My kids know that when Mommy gets her sweats on and heads for the closet for her running shoes that I am getting ready to go out and get some exercise. Take the opportunity to explain it to them. Let them ride their bike while you make an attempt at jogging (I always say that everyone has a runner in them somewhere). Play a game of tag or one on one soccer. Show them that exercise and eating healthy is something that is very important. It's never too late.

Want to find your BMI*? Here's a neat calculator.

*The body mass index (BMI), is the measurement that compares a person's weight and height to determine the overall fitness of the individual. BMI calculation does not actually measure percentage of total body fat, but it is a tool used to estimate what is considered a healthy weight based on a persons height.