P.E. and People Watching

On Saturday, we sat in the nosebleed section to cheer on the Wildcats. As a very uneventful game unfolded far below us, I engaged in one of my favorite hobbies – people watching. I silently surveyed the population, examining characters of all shapes and sizes. Sometimes I compared myself, other times I whispered comically to my husband. Sometimes I just sat in sheer awe.

In this instance, two individuals stick in my mind.

One was an obese, older woman, who festively donned a set of purple mardi gras beads over a white tank top and faux jean shorts (despite the fact that everyone else had jackets and jeans on). It would be an understatement to say that her body oozed out of the armholes in the shirt and bottom of her shorts. I watched her labor up the steps in the upper level of Bill Snyder Family Stadium, stopping about every two steps to rest in all her doughy glory.

The other individual made me supremely sad, even a bit angry. It was a young boy, maybe around age 7 or 8. He was about as round as he was tall. He, too, stopped every few steps to rest as he trekked up the stadium stairs. As he passed us in row 20, he was completely out of breath, panting as loud as Lucy, my Labrador.

What a shame! The older woman has had years to reach her current state (and should know better), while this child has become obese in just a few short years of life (and probably doesn't have a clue). Sure, it was a long way up there, but shouldn’t we all be in adequate shape to walk a short distance or climb a few stairs?

I don’t have any idea what physical education standards are today in schools, but now I’m really curious. I ran a mile and a half yesterday at the Rec, and it later occurred to me that it was the farthest I’ve EVER run. A mile was the most we ever did in P.E., and I remember having a feeling of uneasiness and wanting to hide in the locker room those days. Most days it was just a quarter-mile on the track or a few laps around the tiny old high school gym. The last time I was in P.E. was 1997. So in 13 years, has anything changed? I sure hope so.

The CDC estimates that 17 percent of kids between ages 2 and 19 are obese (2008). That’s not just “overweight,” that’s a BMI at or above the 95^th percentile for kids of the same age and gender. Yikes!  

And adults … well, we’re embarrassingly worse. According to the CDC’s 2009 data, between 26 and 27 percent of Riley County is obese. As a state, more than 28 percent of Kansans are obese, and we’re the 19^th fattest state in the nation. (Of the top 20, more than half are southern states.) In fact, one in three Americans is considered obese and another one in three is overweight. That means for every three people you meet, only one is not packing around extra pounds (CDC, 2008).

People, this is a problem. The elephant in the room is us – the 68% of Americans who are fat, or worse, blimps. And that’s being nice. I’ll write more on this later, but for now, let’s get moving!