Contribute Sandbags
According to Dr. Katz, each one of us has a choice to either help solve the obesity problem or become part of the problem. We need to build a levy to hold back the flood of fattening foods that pervade our environment. We need lots of individuals to contribute a sandbag or two to the levy.
For example, smaller-sized soda pop is one sandbag. More activity is school classrooms in another. Healthier choices in vending machines are a third. The NuVal food ranking system is a fourth. (NuVal ranks foods according to healthfulness so that consumers in 1,700 supermarkets across the country can easily compare foods to determine the better loaf of bread, brand of soup, and better choice of any food.)
Employers who encourage their staff to exercise contribute a very effective sandbag and they get a good return on that investment. Not only are their employees healthier and take fewer sick days—think lower healthcare costs—they are happier and more productive. The Cleveland Clinic's employee wellness program has saved millions of health care dollars. The clinic has made changes in the work environment that has transformed the disease-inducing culture to a culture of wellness with loss of 330,000 pounds in five years.
More: 7 Healthy Lifestyle Tips
Six Ideas to Overcome Obesity
If you want to take steps to change your work environment, check out National Health Works. You'll find lots of ideas and toolkits, including how to create a program that encourages people to take the stairs not the elevator, and how to improve vending machine choices.
Hospital workers might be interested in the Healthier Hospitals initiative. The goal of the initiative is to enroll at least 2,000 hospitals over the next three years to buy and serve healthier foods.
For your own personal activity program, take a peek at Activity Bursts Everywhere. Activity Bursts Everywhere offers free activity videos that last from 3 to 8 minutes. The videos are organized by setting (office, home, waiting room), body part involved (lower body, upper body), and whether the exercise is performed standing or seated. Pass along the info to your friends and relatives who have "no time" to exercise; they'll lose all excuses for why they cannot get a few more minutes of activity each workday.
More: Baby Steps to Weight-Loss Success
Empowering kids to be active is an essential health initiative. If you are a parent or a teacher, check out Activity Bursts in Classrooms. These fun exercise videos insert educational activity into the curriculum during downtimes when the kids aren't really learning anything (before lunch, end of the school day). Dr. Katz believes the answer to hyperactive kids can be more activity, not more Ritalin.
Not everyone loses weight easily, so Dr. Katz has started a website for frustrated dieters, National Exchange for Weight-Loss Resistance. This site wants to connect frustrated dieters with researchers so we can find solutions to the "Why can't I lose weight?" problem. Maybe you know someone who can contribute his or her experiences.
More: How to Find and Keep Your Healthy Weight
While changing the work and school environments is helpful, lasting changes really need to be made at the family level. Kids are a driving force; they have the power to change parents' food and exercise habits. Kids are unlikely to make choices based on health, but rather on pleasure. When they understand that health means more fun, they'll start making the right choices—just like victorious sports teams that win with good nutrition. Unjunk Yourself, a YouTube video for teens gets kids (of all ages) to think more about choosing what they chew.
Isn't it time for us to all work together to make it cool to fuel well?
More: 6 Strategies to Eat Better
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