What gets me about the 1980s fitness craze (other than the tacky clothing and bad music) is that it was precisely during this time period that the obsety rate started climbing! In other words, America didn't really have an obesity problem until the aerobics craze. WTF?
Okay, I'm not suggesting that Jazzersize causes weight gain, but I am suggesting that it was ineffective. It had good intentions, but, quite honestly, it was fighting a losing battle because a lot of other factors came into play at the same time. It is my opinion that these factors (listed below) have made this country a bunch of fatasses and there's not a damn thing a couple of leg warmers and leotard can do about it.
1. There wasn't always a fast food establishment on every corner. Nowadays, you have to try real hard to not be an arm's length away from easy, quick and cheap food just ready to be shoveled into your mouth. It's simply too damn easy access a chicken nugget.
2. Jobs have become very sedentary. A lot of the American workforce is at a desk at least 8 hours a day. It's awfully hard to keep the fat off when you've gotten less exercise than a bedridden hospital patient.
3. Nowadays, both parents work. Therefore, mom doesn't have the time to fix a homemade meal as she used to. It's the rare working mother that can squeeze in a healthy homecooked meal after a hard days work... most opt for the nuggets.
4. Kids don't play outside anymore. Rampant crime keeps parents from letting kids stray far from home - and the kids are only too happy to oblige by staying home playing their X Box.
5. And finally, the Boomers are a huge percentage of our population. As they get older, they get fatter.
" Between 1986 and 2000, the prevalence of severe obesity quadrupled from one in two hundred Americans to one in fifty. Extreme obesity in adults increased by a factor of five, from one in two thousand to one in four hundred.
