I recently read an online article wherein the statistic was thrown about that in 40 years America would be suffering from 100 percent obesity. Yes, 100 percent obesity. It would almost become a matter of being born obese, as obesity would be part of the genetic programming since it would become a genetic condition.

Now, I don't remember the validity behind this stark statement within the article, but it did catch my eye. And yet, at the same time, it made me wonder. You see, I don't think we're heading towards a 100 percent obesity epidemic. I think we're going to get close, very close to almost everyone in this country being overweight, obese, or morbidly obese.

But, I won't count myself in on that statistic no matter how far into the future I project myself. You see, I too have to watch what I eat. I was not blessed with a special meat suit that is able to consume whatever it wants and then magically burn it off while I'm sleeping. No.

I too have to ensure that what I put in this body I'm renting for a few decades is as healthy as I can stand, and contains just sufficient amounts of calories and nutrients that aren't going to make me enlarge into a size that I don't want to be, or isn't healthy for me to live in.

I also have to stay active, especially when I don't want to, which is most of the time. And I have to exercise. Again, which is something I don't want to do most of the time.

Many times I think of my Dad, who's still alive and almost 78-years-old. He still walks, at a very brisk pace during his every other day exercise routine, approximately 3 miles. In cold Canada to boot.

It's a struggle.

And hard work.

But it's doable.

For most anyone.

So, I just have to ask myself why the rest of the country, evidently, isn't thinking this way. Why have people become lazy as time has progressed in this so called modern society we're in now? Yes...l-a-z-y.

I recall when I was in high school, a long-ago 30 years past, that there were 500 students in the school and only 2, yes - two, were considered by today's standards to be obese or grossly overweight. And one of the persons was my good friend at the time. He was 5 foot 9 inches tall and weighed 250 pounds.

Now, I know what you're thinking. That's not large, that's not big.

Of course it's not. By today's standards it's the norm.

This is what we've become accustomed to seeing in many young teenagers across school campuses.

Never mind the city streets filled with adults and young people. Being that size is nothing today. It's all too common.

So, what I'm attempting to relay here is the visual fact that there is something going on with more and more people in households across North America, as those of us residing in one of the most modernized countries in the world are getting fatter, and fatter over time. And, this is not something to ignore.

Before I get email blasts and so forth, let me state that I know there can be medical reasons for someone getting large and larger as they grow older, such as genetic predisposition.

This is a valid reason for being large, and struggling with weight gain. But, from what I see and read, way too many people fall back on this genetic predisposition reasoning and, to me, therefore is used just as an excuse.

I know no one is asking me to accept this reasoning, certainly not the obese people in America, but it's an excuse that I find hard to accept most times. Why?

The only way I'll accept that someone who is now obese or morbidly overweight was predestined to be that size by genetics is if I see it in perhaps the last 3 or 4 generations in their family of ancestry. Then it can be easily seen during the last century that that family did have a gene makeup that made them more prone to heaviness or obesity. Outside of that, I'm hardcore, and not buying it, and instead view it as an excuse.

Why am I having such a narrow- and close-minded position on this? Well, to be real candid and espousing a position I haven't before, I'm stating that the reason the people who aren't predestined by their genetic makeup to be obese are actually obese is all a matter of personal choice.

Yes. They are personally responsible for getting large, and larger. They are personally choosing to become the size they are. Little by little. Decade by decade.

Remember me sharing that it's a struggle even for someone like me who is tall and slender to maintain the shape that I'm in? I believe that the vast majority of obese people aren't doing the same but rather are using whatever excuse they can to maintain their position that it's genes or some other factor behind their large size. And the large size of their behinds, too.

I know this is hardcore. I know this is something that is slanted and one-sided by most standards, but it's how I see things now.

What really put me over the edge on this subject was another article I found on the web posing the rhetorical explanation that credit cards were making people fat, because fast food chains in North America now offer payment via credit cards and debit cards.

The reasoning behind this article was that having this option, once one is in the grease hut, allows people the convenience of purchasing their greasy-encased and fat-laden food with plastic money, instead of paper money, like in the old days. And, it also supported this explanation with the point that if a potential customer's pockets were empty they are still going to the drive thru window for the triple-layered heart attack bacon cheeseburgers and then paying for the purchase with their credit cards or debit cards.

To a point, I agree with this article as at times I've found myself out of cash when I'm in one of those places buying a quick snack for my boys. But, no matter how cogent the reasoning within this article to explain another contributor to the North American obesity epidemic, it still missed the point of personal responsibility, accountability and culpability.

I ask: What about the person who pays for their food with a debit or credit card: aren't they making a choice, in the first place, to eat there? I know that's how *I* ended up in there with my boys -- I chose to go there.

Yes, it's now more convenient with the debit card processing on-site.

Yes, it's easier to get fast food junk food when the green isn't available in the pocket anymore, but isn't it still a choice to actually go thru the drive thru or pay inside the store for the triple cheeseburger with bacon and large fries and a Coke with plastic? Isn't that a personal choice?

I think one has to agree with this, and, ergo, rightfully so the question is begged: Where is the personalized and responsible acceptance of one's need to BUY this food in the first place?

But, then we're given an out from personal responsibility via the overt blaming of the fast food chains and the debit card and credit card companies and their placing these machines at the restaurant registers and thereby giving this as another payment option at the fast food restaurant.

"It's all their fault, and that's why we're getting fatter as a nation." Rrrrright.

Does this make as little sense to you as it does to me?

It's like saying that smokers smoke more and drinkers drink more because they have debit and credit card machines in the local stores. And kids eat more candy because candy is available in virtually every store in the nation.

Why not just outright blame the food stores and superstores for having TOO MUCH food on their shelves for us to choose from and buy and THAT'S why North American's are becoming obese?

Where's the taking responsibility for one's choice, in the FIRST place, for CHOOSING to eat the fast food, and drive up TO the drive thru lane, or walk INTO the fast-food restaurant?

Where's the admission of personal responsibility for making those choices which lead one to over time become obese or morbidly obese as time goes on as those choices are made over and over and over and over, on a personal basis?

And, then some person or organization writes an article on the web and states that the credit card companies are 'responsible'.

Yes, they contribute.

Yes, they make things more convenient.

But, they don't make the person get in their car and see the take-out fast-food chain restaurant on the corner of the block and drive up and park or go through the drive-thru lane and then take the card out of their wallet or purse and hand it over to the pimply-faced teenager behind the register who is thinking about the homework that needs to be completed tonight before he/she can go out on that hot date with that other pimply-faced hottie from high school.

Come on people; let's take responsibility on a DAILY basis for the choices we make. Let's make ourselves responsible for the condition our body is in. Let's read some of these articles and tell ourselves, "Geez, there's another article that wants me to believe that someone else is responsible for my obesity, beyond my immediate ancestors and something I truly had no choice in through birth in this gene-pool I'm a part of."

Let's understand that getting to an obese state is not fun. Being obese is not fun. Although it's now becoming the norm almost everywhere you look, it's still something that society is responsible for, but one we, as individuals can personally begin to change back to being the atypical condition it used to be when I was in high school a scant three decades ago.

But, this all starts right with the body that we're each living in. It's one's life, it's one's responsibility. NO one else's but yours.

Oh...and, don't get me started on those people who tried to sue that fast food chain because they didn't put a warning label on their 1420-calorie triple burgers with three slices of cheese and half a dozen strips of bacon telling people that if one continues to eat these artery chokers and heart squeezers, that they might get 'fat'.

Again...don't make me go there, and I'll save us both the trouble of reading more words on this rant I've been on with this article about the obesity epidemic in America. Enough already.

Written by Andre Best
President, Ultimate Results, Inc.
http://www.andrebest.com
'Learn About Life From Another Perspective'

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(Happy 78th Birthday Dad, love you! And, keep walking. :-)