Disturbing Stats

This morning, I hit the gym at 6 am. Since bootcamp ended a few months ago, I try to stay in the routine and go to the gym before work. It is so much nicer to have your workout complete when you get home from work. [Of course, it only really happens about 2-3 times a week, as opposed to 5 times a week during bootcamp.] It is just so hard to get up that early...

To the actual point of my post though... While I was filling up my water bottle, there was a sign on the wall which said:

"Three in four adults will be overweight by the year 2020"

Say what?! Now, I realize that the "statistic" that was hanging from the wall at LA Fitness might not be the most accurate place to get my information from, but it still shocked me. I cannot believe it! Of all the workout shows, food shows, health blogs and shocking statistics that you read about in newspapers in magazines, you would think we would be moving away from those terrifying statistics.

We'll kick your ass.

Now, I'm certinaly not saying that I am the picture of perfect health and fitness, but I definitely try to eat healthy and work out enough to burn off my weekend slip ups (aka booze). I enjoy exercising and try to make my own lunches and dinners during the week, and save the restaurant calories for the weekend. This wasn't always the case though. As this probably happened to many of you, I was a victim of the dreaded Freshman Fifteen (ok, maybe even more, who knows.) As a freshman, I came down with Mono during the first semester of college. My doctor put me on heavy meds, and told me that I couldn't exert myself for three months. Of course, I was back to normal after only a month or so, but I also had grown lazy in this time and it was very hard to get back into exercising on a regular basis. Combine that with the greasy all-you-can-eat food in our dining halls, late night drunk eating, lots of beer, and voila! Fat kid central. After a long conversation with my brave brother who ever so gently told me that I needed to take control of myself (while I cried like a baby because I knew it was true) it really hit me! You mean, other people have noticed it too? How crazy! It really took until my post-college life to get to the happy weight I'm at now, because let's face it: college has WAY too many temptations. After my freshman year, I really got serious about my eating, cut down on the booze, and hit the gym more often.

Eat your spinach and work those muscles!

The other day, my freshman roommate (we're still friends today) randomly sent me old pictures to reminisce on the good ol' days. I immediately X'd out of them, and felt instantly ashamed that I had let myself go like that. That was my serious wake up call, to never let myself get back to that weight again. [I think I'll spare myself the embarrassment of posting any "before" shots, because you guys get the idea.] Reading that statistic at the gym this morning made me realize how easy it really is to let yourself go. Being healthy really is a life changing decision, and something I constantly work on. I realize now that you have to allow yourself to splurge sometimes, and force yourself to be disciplined other times. You have to get your ass off the couch, stop watching Jillian Michaels help others lose weight, and actually exercise yourself! I am so much happier now than I was back in freshman year of college, so it is worth the work to me!

I really hope that something changes in the next 10 years, so that shocking statistic doesn't become a reality...