Greetings!
Today, I have decided to write on a non-political issue that is affecting us young people: poor health habits.
Right now, 50% of teens and 70% of adults are overweight or obese. The more troubling problem is that 80-90% of young people believe they are living healthy lives despite the fact that most of them are overweight or obese (see: http://www.newsroom.heart.org/index.php?s=43&item=1324).
(Note: I know that BMI calculations are not perfect measurements of a person's health. However, combined with waistline measurements, the BMI is pretty good. Specifically, if your BMI is over 25 (overweight) or 30 (obese) and your waistline is more than half your height, you have a problem. For instance, your author has a BMI of 28, but his waistline is 38. Given that your author is 73.5 inches tall, he does have some poundage to lose).
Being overweight or obese does partially depend on genetics, but, there are definitely other, more-controllable factors. The two that stand out are high-calorie diets and sedentary lifestyles.
What's the solution? It's hard to change eating habits in terms of cutting out desserts and high-calorie foods, so I have a different idea: eat slowly and only eat until you are 80% full. Also, be sure to lift some weights and go for a walk (I like to combine weight-training and aerobics by doing ballistic exercises with kettlebells: I save time, and still get good results). I've lost some weight over the past month with this method, and it can work for you, too.
In essence, young people do not have healthy habits, and, they don't know it. If you are a young person and you are reading this, please, pay attention: you probably aren't living a healthy lifestyle and you will pay for it (financially and in terms of a shorter lifespan. See: http://win.niddk.nih.gov/publications/PDFs/stat904z.pdf).
You owe it to yourselves to stop eating so much McDonald's, do some aerobic exercises, and go throw some weights around for a while. Your body will thank you in the future.
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