Our business is on the front lines of the obesity epidemic. Whether we want to accept reality or not is another story, but the fact is 42% of Americans are obese now on a crash course to 60% by 2030.
No doubt this acceleration is a mixture of many things:
- apps increasing convenience eating habits
- social media increasing mental health disparities
- work culture bumping up cortisol levels
- pandemic life bumped up TV-binging lifestyle
- instant gratification access negating the need to work hard
- news outlets driving disassociation with reality
- industries advancing to make human survival easier
The obesity epidemic costs our healthcare system about $200B annually, which will increase to $300B by 2030. You would think more people would take this seriously given how expensive life is getting, but it seems folks are still just saying fuck it. Look at people out there simply eating themselves to death!
Keeping obesity levels down is easy, in theory: move more and eat less. The problem is solving this epidemic isn't simple on this large of a scale. We're indoctrinated to believe many of the wrong things associated with stress relief, diet, and exercise. We're served with advertisements 24/7 to buy things either useless or harmful to our health. We're exposed to fast food and convenience restaurants on most roads in America. We know you've been to a Wawa! We're in love with instant gratification and life doesn't require the hard work it once did. We're even on the verge of unleashing pills at high cost to help with weight loss.
Why work hard when you can have everything at your fingertips, right? Normal human nature will always choose the easier road when given the option. In 1990 when none of this stuff around us was making life this easy, America was less than 10% obese. Say what?! It makes good sense. We weren't binging on TV or ordering fast food through our phones back then. You don't even have to leave your house for groceries anymore ... talk about enabling lazy behavior.
It's crazy town out there. Many just have the wrong mindset associated with what bulges waistlines and shrinks wallets. Here are a few things for perspective if you'd like to save money and avoid an obesity-related death:
- Exercise is an investment, not an expense. Your hospital bill to maybe save your life after 40 years of inactivity is an expense ... and a gamble, at that.
- Eating out is always more expensive than making food at home. Markups at restaurants are over 325% if you didn't know. Americans spend over $3500/year on dining out.
- Prioritizing yourself last on the list of life is a surefire way to not give your best self to those who need you in life. I've met zero people in my lifetime that have ever felt less of a human by practicing self-care.
- Gratitude is something that is free to practice and leads to increased physical and mental health benefits. It may even open up other doors you never knew existed.
- Water and protein intake are routinely under what people need to curb appetite and fight body fat. Bump those things up Evan!
- Focusing on what you CAN do and not what you CANNOT do is a game changer. Try it. Circles back to being grateful for what you have and not what you don't.
- Sacrifice is required to live the longest, healthiest life you can. Short term discomfort to achieve long term empowerment? I'm in.
- 80/20 is a great rule of thumb to life. 80% of the time you choose your health. 20% of the time you choose your vice.
We truly think living healthy is hard with all of the distractions around us. Living unhealthy is just as hard, if not harder. Not sure which hard you want? Let's rephrase the question with this activity: Do us a favor and stand on your non-dominant leg for 10 seconds.
If you are middle-aged or older and can't hold that pose, you're twice as likely to die before our blog post in October 2032.
So the real question: do you want to read that blog or not? Personally, we'd love for you to! Here is some more information on the rising risks and costs of obesity:
