Tune in this Monday, May 24 to the Rachael Ray Show when the Obama’s personal trainer, Cornell McClellan, shares the President’s and First Lady’s workout tips for staying in shape.
If you wish you had sculpted arms that look like First Lady Michelle Obama’s, then it’s time for a White House workout.
While people on the left and right are debating the more popular issues regarding President Obama’s health care bill, if you look deeper into the legislation, there is Section 4205. This bit of the bill requires all restaurants with more than 20 locations to provide nutrition labeling for everything on their menu.
While this may be something new on the federal front, cities and states have already started taking this preventative health measure on their own, including New York City and Philadelphia. Mandatory nutritional labeling is also being scheduled to take effect soon in California, Massachusetts, and Oregon.
There are studies that support both sides of the argument. Supporters of the legislation site studies, including one from Stanford University that found that customers at Starbucks chose foods with lower calories when they were labeled. Another study found that when parents were presented with nutrition labels, they chose 100 fewer calories per meal on average for their children.
Michelle Obama has had a tremendous impact on American families with her push for living healthy and goal of eliminating childhood obesity in her role as first lady. She announced recently that her new initiative aimed at targeting childhood obesity is under way, and adds that her feelings on the program crystallized when she was faced with a less than favorable report from her daughters’, Sasha and Malia, pediatrician.
“We went to our pediatrician all the time,” Obama said, via ABC News. “I thought my kids were perfect — they are and always will be — but [the doctor] warned that he was concerned that something was getting off balance.”
Mrs. Obama says that she was too close to really see the changes in her girls and when the doctor suggested that Mrs. Obama look at her daughters’ BMI numbers, she made small diet changes. Those small changes that she made in their daily habits helped to pull the numbers back into balance.
Instead of being applauded for her efforts, Mrs. Obama has been the subject of controversy for her use of the word “diet.” Reports have said that by using her daughters as an example, she may have harmed their self-esteem. Some critics have said that she should have focused more on lifestyle change, instead of weight loss.
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A recent article from the Associated Press caught our attention. Rather than critiquing President Obama’s health care reform bill, his national security plan or his initiatives to curb the effects of climate change, the article instead analyzed how the president has been taking care of himself during his first year in office. And what a first year it has been.
Keeping in line with other previous presidents, President Obama takes his health very seriously. Not only does he start his day with a morning workout but he and first lady Michelle have created a White House community garden in order to extol the benefits of eating fruits and vegetables and to combat childhood obesity.
But given an economy that rivals The Great Depression, skyrocketing unemployment rates, a controversial war in Afghanistan, a failing automotive industry, a housing and mortgage crisis, and a foiled terrorist attack on Christmas Day, some are wondering if the stress of the past 365 days has taken its weighty or rather weight loss toll on the president.
A report released jointly by the Trust for America’s Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation shows that the percentage of obese or overweight children is at or above 30 percent in 30 states, and adult obesity rates increased in 23 states and did not decrease in a single state in the past year. The study, titled F as in Fat: How Obesity Policies Are Failing in America 2009, reports that in 1980, only fifteen percent of Americans were classified as obese, but that percentage has more than doubled, with more than two-thirds of Americans officially classified as overweight or obese. Let’s look at these numbers for a minute. What does it mean to be “overweight or obese”?
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