Everywhere you go, it seems somebody’s talking about starting a serious exercise program or they’re jumping on that big dieting bandwagon “next week” for sure, mostly because it’s become so fashionable to be on a gungho fit-and-trim kick now.
Even the military has decided it’s time personnel were more committed to better physical fitness by stiffening up PT standards, mandating organized weekly workout sessions and a more stringent policy on weight control in general.
And it’s probably about time, too - despite all the grumblings from the love-handled couch potato ranks to the contrary!
In case you haven’t heard, the latest newsflash from the National Center for Health Statistics is that one out of every three Americans is now on the overweight side of the scale. That means, putting it nicely, approximately 26 million men and 32 million women are at least 20 percent over proper weight standards.
That also means, putting it not so nicely, that between you, me, and Christie Brinkley, one of us is sporting whale blubber - and chances are, it isn’t Christie who’s being statistically singled out here. Is it any wonder that the world suddenly seems full of speed-walking, aerobicizing, gram-counting fat maniacs?
The new fixation in this country with losing weight has practically everybody compulsively playing a round of Fat Roulette with their bathroom scales. Who among us, after all, wants that nasty statistical pistol pointing straight at their own protruding potbellies? Certainly not any of the weight conscious people we know!
Being trim isn’t something you get, it’s something you are. It’s a way of thinking - a way of life, really - that you readily accept as a permanent lifestyle, and you simply are trim because you want to be, period.
It hasn’t got a thing to do with excuses about left-over pregnancy pounds you can’t get rid of or a lack of time to work at it or not having enough willpower to maintain an ideal weight. People who want to be trim and live healthy, simply make a personal commitment to themselves to be trim and live healthy. All they have over the rest of us is a strong personal discipline that they enjoy living by and a consistently trim appearance because of that discipline that they can genuinely take pride in.
And remember: That appearance reflects an attitude in general about being able to stick to goals and accomplish them that these people know shows in just about everything else they do, too.
Regular PT workouts and tests makes sense when you wear a military uniform, if you really think about it!
