A little preaching...

This morning I happened to read a study on childhood obesity. The stats are pretty grim. 19.6% of kids aged 6-11 are considered obese by the CDC. I then followed a link to an article that was lamenting some statistics from Maryland...where 29% of children in that age group were "obese". We are not talking about chubby, or slightly over weight. These studies used the word "obese".

One in five, three in ten...how can that be? These numbers are crazy!

I can remember as I grew up that there may have been one or two kids in each class that were on chunky side. These kids usually had a tough time with the other kids and were generally made to feel like crap because of weight. (Kids are nasty that way!) Overweight kids were treated as pariahs.

I think that kids these days generally live lives of inactivity. I can remember in the summer my mom would throw us out the door at 8 in the morning, leave a sandwich on the porch around lunchtime and not let us back in the house until dinner. During that time, we ran, played ball, climbed trees and did all sorts of other things that stoked our furnaces. This resulted in huge appetites. I can remember eating 3-4 hotdogs with buns on many summer evenings...and I, like most of the kids were rail thin. We burned off the food as fast as we put it in...if not faster.

When was the last time you saw kids out in the yard playing ball?

In a tree?

Playing basketball?

I bet most of you would scratch your head and not be able to recall it. This is sad.

Many of today's kids sit in front of video games, eating crappy food and drinking sugar laden soda for hours on end. The only calories they burn are the ones thier calloused little thumbs burn off moving joy sticks around. These eating and exercise habits will have a price tag as these kids get older. You can only run your engine on garbage for so long before it breaks.

Sorry for the preaching, but this really bugs me! I cannot stand to see kids committing suicide one Twinkie at a time. Get em off the sofa and into the yard!

My run this weekend? This is going to be my highest mile weekend of my training so far. Tomorrow, I am aiming for 24 miles followed by a 45 miler on Sunday. I am ready!

E