If a person works from home they have to actively choose to do the walk around their block. A person who has to walk to go to work doesn’t have to actively choose to go for a walk. Americans don’t walk much and many people simply don’t walk unless they have to.
I was on vacation recently on an island that has a mix of people who stay in resorts and drink, people who do adventury type stuff and are active, and cruise people who are dropped off from a giant one and spend the day walking around.
This last category waddle around and breathe heavily like they walk once or twice a year. Their walk is so strange, from behind they wave their arms like a paddle in water.
We often talk about obesity as some sort of thing that happens to people. I really wish willpower and individual will could come back as a value in American society. We don't have to go back to the 80s. But we need to start holding individuals accountable, it will make them feel more like they have control.
I commute multiple times a week and I also didn't commute at all for a while. I stayed fit because I do a variety of exercises, I do it like a quota of What Must Be Done, and I've married obligation with fun (which means picking and choosing). Sometimes I eat too much so I'll eat less the next day. Most days I skip breakfast because I know my body doesn't need 2500 calories a day.
It's an individual choice, not A Thing That Happens To people.
I agree that people need to eat well and do exercise, but at the same time society needs to be built in a way that makes this easy to do. I live in one of the few walkable places in the US. In some rankings it is considered the fittest place in the US. It is not a coincidence. Yes there are still overweight people here, and fit people in very un-walkable areas. But in terms of population stats better environments lead to healthier people.
At the same time I agree that for the individual they need a mindset that they can change their circumstances. The US won't be made walkable over night if ever. There is unlikely to be a ban on producing or advertising high sugary processed food. But even in such an environment you still have tons of agency over your choices.
I don’t believe it is correct to lay the blame at the individual level. American society has evolved into a country where people, for the most part, spend their lives indoors and only go outside to get into a car to drive themself to another building. Our food has been engineered to co-opt our natural satiety instincts. Our food has been engineered to be addictive. As a species humans are local optimization machines that seek to optimize convenience. Simply put, with advertising and the way society has evolved we don’t stand a chance except for the people with exceptional will power.
One can not be hyper vigilant at all times and exercise willpower. We simply aren’t capable of that.
That's as fatalistic as it is false. Why do you have to be hyper vigilant? I live in surroundings where physical activity is the norm rather than the exception. True. BUT. While suburbanites are often couch to car and back, you can drive to a gym, a park to go biking, a hiking spot, a climbing wall, thousands of other things. A tennis court, an indoor pool, a kayaking spot. You can take lessons with a group, you can do a little something in your home. You can take yoga classes.
You're telling me how it's not possible and I've just told you why it is. The majority of people struggling with inactivity are suffering from a motivational problem or an educational problem.
How society is constructed, how our food supply has co-opted our satiety instincts, how advertising works and how social media and other dopamine inducing passive activities have co-opted our brains and willpower play no role in your Ayn Randian fantasy world where each person can just exercise willpower to combat these ills. You are wrong and the evidence is quite clear. Humans did not suddenly lose willpower in the last few decades. Most rich nations have seen a rise in obesity with Americans leading the way. Loneliness is on the rise and while you personally are immune to the aforementioned ills most people aren’t.
Dark patterns work because we aren’t always vigilant. For instance, Google knows we don’t always read the instructions perfectly and we are easily duped, statistically speaking, to do things that we didn’t mean to do. There are dark patterns so to speak in the way our society is constructed.
I like your general sentiment and I live my life the same way, but I think it’s hard to change someone’s behavior from childhood, especially if they have been raised in a nutritional environment more fit for veal than human beings. Really hard to get people to change habits.
Hard, absolutely. But again people who don't do hard things.. I can only be dismissive. I've done hard things much of my life and that meant suffering for a time. Those who avoid hard things get what they deserve.
The “I did it, therefore anyone can” line of reasoning is overly simplistic and entirely unhelpful when looking for solutions. I don’t have a predilection for alcohol and will never be an alcoholic. I don’t say to the drunkard, “Just stop drinking.” That is foolishness to think it works.
