Increased Prosperity : Toxic Environment

 Sometimes I feel that people have become a little too comfortable with their lifestyle. I can see this in two different ways. One is the kind of person who has been catered their whole life. When it comes to doing physical labor, he or she has nothing but complaints. They rarely get injured and they let their body become vulnerable. If a little boy is climbing a tree and he tears his hand or scrapes his knee, his reaction to pain is the same as a 2 year old. The only difference though is that the 2 year old naturally adapts and quits crying. The other kind of person that is too comfortable is the the kind that is behind the scenes. Silent, but deadly. Behind the curtain where over 60% of our country doesn't even know they are this kind of a person. It is all kept to themselves.


      It is not entirely their fault. Lives are in shambles. Our diet has become comfortable. We are living through an obesity epidemic and a diabetes epidemic. Simply put, we over eat. Certainly we choose what we eat, but people have been getting bigger over the past 30 - 40 years. During these 30-40 years, food has changed so much. Marion Nestle of NYU and the writer of the blog foodpolitics.com states that it is because of improved prosperity:

"The food and environment industries turned people with expendable income into consumers of aggressively marketed foods that are high in energy but low in nutritional value and that cars and television sets have promised sedentary behavior...- Gaining weight is good for business."


The human body does not want to be deceased. It is resilient. People consuming a high carb diet are walking around with poisoned bodies. This causes what Kelly Brownell has coined, "A Toxic Environment." In his book, Food Fight the Inside Story of the Food Industry, America's Obesity Crisis, And What We Can Do About It, He uses the term “Toxic Environment” to describe unparalleled exposure to high-calorie, heavily marketed, inexpensive, and readily accessible foods.

"The toxic environment is the result of ubiquity of unhealthy, processed foods, an increasingly sedentary lifestyle in which individuals spend more time watching TV and using computers than they spend exercising, the explosion of fast food restaurants, the enormous growth of portion sizes, the power of food advertising and marketing, and the junk food industry’s take-over of schools by selling unhealthy items in vending machines, cafeterias, and through school fundraisers."


To wrap things up, there is too much dense and tasty foods available; and as we get richer, there is more and more of it available. As it becomes more available, there is not enough reason to get physically active, and as we get richer, we have less and less reason. So this lifestyle of increased prosperity leads to a toxic environment that is causing our obesity and diabetic epidemic.


What I am getting to is that if a kid that normally doesn't climb a tree falls and cries bloody murder, his or her peers that play outside every day will say, "Suck it up!" This is something I have seen in my lifetime growing up, but nowadays it seems like every kid doesn't play outside and we cater a little too much. You can't baby them forever (or can you?) So why is it so hard to say "Suck it up!" to those who are overweight? We have all become too comfortable. We are getting used to seeing overweight people everywhere. We become afraid of "climbing that tree" We are nervous to make change, we hide the fact that we are getting sick and we enjoy life by other means. Perhaps this has taken away of taking action and reaching goals? We have lost faith in ourselves.

Making a change is very empowering. When CrossFit affects peoples lives it is because they are not used to working hard and accomplishing so much work. Ideally this should not be the outcome. But I see that people become so much different, so much more goal oriented because they start to believe again that they can make things happen. Just like people did 30-40 + years ago when they had Grit.

You see, "Grit" is a positive, non-cognitive trait, based on an individual’s passion for a particular long-term goal coupled with a powerful motivation to achieve their respective objective. People with grit have perseverance, hardiness, resilience, ambition and a need for achievement. People with grit also were more physical during their time. It is sad to say "during their time," but it makes a lot of sense. In order to have prosperity many had to do whatever it took to eat. The environment required hunting and gathering, physical work. Once they were satiety, they were happy. But people had a hell of a lot more ambition to make it happen.


I initially thought about this all because of a song  I heard today. I must of listened to the song ten times and then I read the lyrics, which made me think about life; and a couple of hours later, I wrote this post.


I am getting a blood glucose meter soon. I am going to do a little experiment on myself. I will share the results once I gather all of my data. You might of seen me not working out lately. That is because I am allowing myself for some rest. I have a re-occurring pain I need to get rid of. I will get back to the WODs soon.

January 14, 2012

Nuff said.

Click Here To Read The Lyrics