Obesity... on the upward slope.

This is for those of you that are visual learners. For years we've been hearing that the waist bands of our American citizens is rapidly increasing, but lets be honest... most of you have not made even the slightest bit of change in your efforts to eat better or even exercise. It's apparent that our ever increasing busy schedules have played a slight, ok, gigantic part in this, but the topic of time management is for another day.

A few quick facts before we get to the scary visuals...

**Americans spent $117 BILLION (yes, billion, that is not a typo) on obesity related economic costs in 2003 alone.

**As of the year 2000 Americans spend more than $110 BILLION (there's that billion word again) on FAST FOOD!

**Americans now spend more on fast food than on higher education, personal computers, computer software or even a new car!

**Each year, Americans spend approximately $50 billion a year on diet and weight loss.

**The food industry has an annual advertising budget of $30 billion. That's alot to go up against.

Now to the good stuff (not really good, but enlightening at least).

Obesity rates in the year 1985. I'm sure you notice the "CDC" on the chart. This is their research. Finally we agree on something, ha ha ha.


Light Blue indicates state obesity levels under 10%. The medium Blue is 10-14%.

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Colors indicate same numbers, you'll just notice they cover alot more area.

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Adding a 3rd blue... this dark blue indicates a 15-19% rate of obesity in the state. Notice the entire country is now "on the chart"! Um, question? Where did all the pretty light blue go?

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Oh no, more color. Beige is a rate of 20-24%!

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So enough with the gradual color adding, let's go for 2 new colors!! Orange indicates obesity levels of 25-29% and the red is 30% or higher!

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So we don't see any new colors, thank goodness, but we do see the orange and red expanding.


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So, what happened? Why did we not make a big fuss out of this when we only saw shades of blue? Don't you think that fact that we ran out of blue shades to use should have thrown up a red flag? I guess not considering 99.9% of the public has never even seen these charts, ugh!

Now, what are you going to do about it? You may not be able to turn the whole chart back to light blue all on your own, but you can change the outcome for the most important person, you!

Be a leader. Take charge of your health.