Summer's Shenanigans

America's Obesity Epidemic

* In 1960-62, the average man weighed 166.3 pounds. By 1999-2002, the average had reached 191 pounds.

* Similarly, the average woman's weight rose from 140.2 pounds to 164.3 pounds.

* The National Center for Health Statistics reported a dramatic increase in weight when measured by body mass index, a scale that takes into account both height and weight. Average BMI has increased from about 25 to 28 during the past 40 years.

* Two-thirds of Americans (over 64%) are overweight. Almost one-third is obese.

* According to the U.S. Surgeon General’s report (issued in December 2001) more than 60 percent of U.S. adults are considered overweight.

* The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has found that obesity is responsible for more than 325,000 deaths a year.

* About 27% of Americans are classified as obese, which reflects a rise by 50% in the last 10 years. Even more startling, a recent study published in USA Today predicts that number will increase to 40% by the year 2005.

Source: Jenny Craig

One of the major reasons that Americans are fat (and becoming fatter each year) is because everything is so damn convenient. Escalators, crappy fast food, soda machines more plentiful then water fountains, etc. etc. etc. So, with this is mind, I have figured out the perfect way to lose weight. I'm calling it the Hunter/Forager Diet and the rules are simple. You have to hunt and forage for, and prepare your food as you get hungry.

1. Empty out your refrigerator and your cupboard.

2. Whenever you get hungry, you must walk, run or ride a bike to the store and "hunt" for your food.

3. You can purchase only raw items that you have to prepare in order to make one meal.

4. Repeat next time you're hungry.

I swear this will work :). At least for me, if food isn't convenient, I'm too busy to eat. I wanted a snack the other night and decided I was going to have macadamian nuts since there are three huge macadamian nut trees in my yard. I went out and hunted for a handful in the dark, came back and about 7 were consumable. I removed the husk from each one and proceeded to whack the fuck out of them, with a hammer, trying to crack the shell. Two of them I hit too hard and smashed them to oblivion, so after all that work, I had 5 nuts (that I still had to dig out of the cracked shell with a knife). They were good, so I definately wanted more, but it was too much work, so I stopped eating. If I had a jar of shelled, salted macadamian nuts from the store, I could have easily eaten 1 cup (or more), which is 962 calories and 101.5 grams of fat. Yikes!