How did Americans get so fat???

why walk when you can Segway?

Vacation: Sun, Sand, New York Shopping Sprees......Jumbo Sized portions and even more Jumbo Sized people. I have been living in Sweden for 4 years now. I suppose that i might have a distorted perspective of the typical 'look' of a person when it comes physique. We have all heard the reports of how Americans are the most overweight people in the world. This is distorted however as whenever you see programming from the US, its full of good looking slim people.

Its not until traveling here that you see the truth.

If you can believe it, this picture below is actually true, and it gets worse then this. I was at a Subway in uptown Manhattan and two kids came in, they couldn't have been more then 6 and 8 ...they already looked like they were going to burst out of their skin. While waiting for their mom to come in they pulled up a couple of seats in front of the ordering counter and sat down. What is our world coming to?? The 8 year old polished off a full 12'' sub on his own...one that i, a 105kg adult felt sick after finishing. There were of course no veggies on his sub, only meat and cheese.


The 'burger queen' at Burger King.

Just as you get used to seeing healthy looking people in Sweden, you quickly come to the opposite realization here in the States. Huge portion sizes, cheap fast food, high fructose corn syrup in everything.

I went over to a hotel close to time square around 10pm one night to ask the person behind the counter if he knew of any good places to go to clubbing. he mentioned one to me and gave me the address. He then said it could be a bit of a walk but you can easily catch a cab out in front of the hotel.

The place was all of 4 blocks away!

I walked from the top of central park to time square on my first day in NY (around 60 blocks), to get a feeling for the city and see the sights. This is something i guess no one does here.

I think for the most part that people try to assimilate to their environment and try to match their surroundings. I think that this probably applies as well to ones weight. If you continually see fat people around, you are not going to think twice if your 8 year old weights 50kg.

I think that i prefer to see healthy people around me. I live a few minutes walk from a running/walking trail and people in Sweden are always active, ensuring that they stay fit and in good shape. It has shaped my action as well and im a lot more active in Sweden then i was while living in Canada. This is clearly visible when you look at photos of me before moving there.

The Swedish word of the day is 'träna' which means working out.