Family Influences

I seem to think that being overweight or living a sedentary life is attributed to one's family. When I think about it...the only person in my family that exercises is my mom. She has been into fitness since I was born. Other than that...I don't have other family members that exercise regularly or eats "right."

My paternal grandparents are originally from the South so they are use to Southern cooling. Anything with pork, fried, with gravy, with sugar, and huge portions. Don't get me wrong, everything they make is delicious! Just not all that healthy. That mixed with no regular exercise, and I can't help but think that contributes to the illnesses in our family: diabetes, crohn's disease, high blood pressure, etc. I really feel that if healthy eating was something that was more important, my family would live even longer. At the same time, how do you go about telling your family that they should change their eating habits?


On my mother's side...not as bad. The portions are smaller, but no real physical activity. I will say though there have been attempts intermittently to go to the gym and workout and eat better throughout the years. For the most part, it has helped because my Grandie is fairly healthy with no major health issues, and the same for the rest of that side of the family. I will forewarn that this said is much smaller than my father's side. So I am only going off of: my mom, grandie, uncle and aunt.

So I'm telling my story to say that WE have to be the change that we want to see. We can start raising families that live healthy lifestyles. Its as easy as looking up recipes in a book or online, taking a walk as a family around the neighborhood or the park. Little things everyday can help us change our families and the world! Wouldn't be amazing if soda companies crumbled, because we refused to feed ourselves and our families....? If we stood up to the schools and said that our children, nieces, nephews, brothers and sisters are not eating processed cheeseburgers and fake pizzas for lunch or vending machines with chips and cookies.

Our future generations are in our hands...our families are in our hands. What kind of legacy are you leaving?