A Healthier America

Dieting has become a large part of American life due to obesity levels and the demanding "perfect" image our culture continuously pushes on our citizens. Meredith Melnick wrote a recent article called Weight Watchers' New Point: Zero For Most Fruits and Veggies. In this article, she compares the new point system by Weight Watchers, the PointPlus system, to the old point system, Weight Watchers Points. In the old system, the more calories a food had, the more points it was, the worse it was for you. In the new system, the overall nutritional value of the food is taken into account: the amount of protein, carbs, fat, and fiber. The main reason for this is to show dieters that "a 100-calorie bag of cookies isn't as healthful as a 100-calorie apple."

Many dieting commercials advertise diets that allow you to eat good food, but still lose weight. When did the American mind change that "good" food cannot also be healthy food? I found myself in major agreement with the new point system presented by Weight Watchers' because now, Americans will learn how to not only lose weight, but also learn and make a habit out of eating a healthy diet. I think too many Americans who are dieting dread the process of it because they believe they are not allowed to eat tasteful food. This may also be the cause of the growing problem of obesity in our culture.


I believe if Americans, dieting or not dieting, will use this point system to create their regular eating habit, they will learn that healthy food can also be tasty foods. This will help cause the obesity and even unhealthy levels Americans are on now to decrease.


http://healthland.time.com/2010/11/30/weight-watchers-new-points-zero-for-most-fruits-and-veggies/

12 Sentence Story

It began at Ms. Peggy's, a house many memories would come from, a house that would become my second home, a house that will forever be a part of my childhood. The house was of no significance; the events tell it all. The regular children Ms. Peggy babysat were there, along with the newer ones, Colten and Chandler. We hid anywhere and everywhere for hide-and-seek: behind the storage building, in the house, or across the street. Me and Colten waited and waited to be found. Suddenly. I didn't know what to do or what to say or what was happening. We had been found, but we still were not it. My hand Colten was now holding. Had my heart ever beaten so fast? We screamed and ran and jumped and finally made it to the safety of the game with our hands still together. The memory that will stay with me forever, a childish happiness I will never forget--the day I held hands with my biggest childhood crush.

What has your mask become?

Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult is about a high school shooting. In the beginning, it starts with the day of the shooting--the before, the during, and the after events. As the story progresses, it goes back in time to these same students in kindergarten and elementary school. One very profound quote during this section of the book was, "If you spent your life concentrating on what everyone else thought of you, would you forget who you really were? What if the face you showed the world turned out to be a mask...with nothing beneath it?"

Peter, the future murderer, was extremely excited about his first day of kindergarten. He was fully prepared long before the bus arrived at his house. However, as soon as he stepped on the bus, his excited mindset changed to terror. He was constantly bullied for the rest of his school years. During this time, Peter's main focus became defending and avoiding his true self in order to avoid the rough contact he came into with other schoolmates. In reality, just as the quote says, his mask did not hide anything beneath it-- Peter's mask became his true identity.

In our society, I think people have become extremely obsessed with what others think of them. There are numerous types of surgeries done to change the outward appearance of people, however, the mindset, or inward appearance, must first be changed. For example, a person trying to decide whether to change a certain feature on their face first mentally decides the reason they want this feature changed. Is it to better their health or to draw more attention to themselves? If they decide it is to draw more attention, they have then already decided one of the most important things to them-- being attractive to others. What started out as an outward changed has now turned into an inside or outside change to the person.