Healthy Living in Connecticut Blog

Recently, I watched the movie "Fed Up", a powerful documentary that explains why obesity is occurring at such an alarming rate among American children. It really opened my eyes on how obesity has become such an epidemic and that it is not so simple as cutting back on calories to lose weight.

There were so many points in the movie that caught my attention. For example, I found it alarming how there were no children with Type II diabetes in 1980, and thirty years later, there are over 50,000 kids with the disease. This can be blamed on all the processed food and sodas that the kids so often consume. The movie compared the soda industry to the tobacco industry, saying that soda is the tobacco of the 21st century. The companies that make the sodas and processed foods lobby Washington and spend billions of dollars on advertising, with many of the ads appealing to children.

I'm in two challenges but I wanted to focus this article on my challenge with the Northwest CT YMCA Fit Commitment Challenge. The challenge is different this time around, with each team consisting of only two people.

I'm lucky to have Janet Perusse on my team! She is a hard worker and she's also the one who chose our team name… "And Won!" I think the name says it all! We were in a team together a few years back and won the challenge. I expect we'll do the same again.

It's been over a year and a half since I was at my lowest weight. I've had a personal trainer on and off for the past eight months or so. I've learned a lot about health and wellness and have decided that I would like to get my Personal Training certification. I've been contemplating this for the past few months and have finally decided to go for it. The course is set to begin in a few weeks.

The course will be involved, so I'll be busy the next few months. Aside from my day job and competing in two different challenges coming up (more on that later), I'll be lucky to fit in all the studying!

When I graduated college, I've had jobs that required sitting all day at the computer. I would sit hours and hours getting my work done without any movement at all. At lunch, I would hardly exercise at all. It's no wonder that I eventually got very obese.

There is nothing wrong with working an office job if you remember to get up and move every once in a while. If you just sit still for too long, not only are you getting little or no exercise, but you put yourself at risk for getting cancer, heart disease, diabetes and obesity.

I've worn a pedometer everyday for over two years now. I've been getting 10,000 steps a day everyday since then (with the exception of one day when I was sick last year). So you can imagine the panic I felt when I noticed my pedometer was missing!

A while ago, I was writing about possibly giving up the pedometer, but I never did. There were so many challenges that required one, that it's gotten to be such a habit to wear it. Plus, I think it motivates me to make sure I'm moving enough.