Letter Never Sent Tell me when to go.

There have been several articles lately about the studies showing that Americans continue to get fatter. Pushing exercise and nutrition is not going to be enough because people will usually take the path of least resistance, and right now that means getting fat because cheap food and ease is what American life is all about. What we need to do is devise creative solutions to the problem at the societal level because most of us do not have the discipline to eat healthy and stay fit on our own. We have to be tricked, encouraged, manipulated, and distracted into losing weight and staying healthy. Here are some ideas:

1. Adult playgrounds: Imagine a park filled with adult size swings, seesaws, slides, tether-ball, spring-horses, merry-go rounds, and jungle gyms. This has been a long held dream of mine. This would give people a fun physical outlet. You could even put kid-size equipment alongside to encourage family activity.
2. Rent-a-dog: I always want a dog to walk, but I don’t want to own a dog. It’s good exercise. Put animal shelters in parks and set up adoption-optional centers where people can take the homeless dogs for walks. If they’re so inclined they can even adopt the dog when they’re done, but this is strictly optional. No guilt if you don’t. Dog-renters can pay a very small fee and this will go to support the shelter. It’s a closed loop.
3. More swimming pools: I have a love / hate relationship with public pools, but we do need more of them. It’s great, fun exercise. There need to be more slides and diving boards. We also need more parks.
4. More expensive gas None of us wants to pay more for gas, but I guarantee this will result in more walking even if it’s just the less well-off who will be hoofing it. Whenever I drive down Riverside Blvd I’m amazed at the amount of foot and bike traffic, but if you consider that it’s a poor part of town it makes sense. If we could just pair this with healthier cheap food a lot of the problem will be remedied.
5. Limit liquor licenses It has become way too easy to purchase alcohol. I imagine this is due to the decline of the religio-social sphere. I think making alcohol more difficult to purchase will result in thinner waistlines. Limit the hours of availability and the number of outlets. Why have we made alcohol so easy to obtain? It is different from food and can be treated as such.
6. Voluntary fat camps You cannot get fat without eating and lack of exercise. If I fed you nothing but carrots, beans, and celery you would lose extraneous weight. What if we had places where you could stay for a while where every aspect of your physical life was rigorously controlled? In return, you would work or pay a small fee to stay. A different version of this would be a ‘trainer’ who would follow you around and tell you what you should eat. The trainer could also help you to do something physical. Maybe it could be robotic.
7. Full-service healthy meal services What if you could hire a company to prepare all of your meals catered to your unique physical needs? This is how it would work. At work and home you would have a modified refrigerator and / or pantry. The service provider would load fresh snacks and meals into your into your units once a week, and each meal / snack would be dispensed on a certain schedule. For example, when it was time for lunch the dispenser at work could send you a message and the meal would be available for heating and eating.A simpler version of this would be to have meals pre-prepared and labeled for your consumption schedule. Snacks would be controlled as well.
8. Water fountains In public areas with lots of traffic, place locations where people can easily get a drink of water. We do not do this anymore, but we should. A lot of times I just want something to drink because I’m thirsty. Make it easier and healthier for everyone to quench their thirst. These stations could be supported with advertising.

Are any of these good ideas?

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 25th, 2005 at 11:12 am and is filed under Society. You can follow any comments to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.