There are two obesity epidemics happening today. One is with adults, and the other sadly is with children. We are seeing higher obesity rates in younger and younger children due to a combination of issues with our society, including diet and popular foods, lack of exercise due to modern amenities, and a rushed lifestyle that unfortunately includes lots of sitting and rushing, not literally rushing around and physcially wearing yourself out like the olden days.

Back a hundred years ago, people still had to walk many places. There were also a lot more jobs that consisted of manual labor. In fact, almost every job had some physical component to it. Now, there are tons of white collar jobs where one just needs to sit at a desk being stressed out all day instead of running around and being stressed out, which actually helps to keep a lid on actual stress levels due to “working it out” physically.

A recent survey showed that our kids are being affected by the modern amenities as well.  On a typical day, children as young as eight years old spend as much as 7 1/2 to 8 hours per day sitting down or using some sort of media where sitting is required such as television watching, video game playing, or sitting on a laptop or personal computer.

That is an overwhelming amount of time to be sitting. While kids used to enjoy the time they had “being a kid” and running around outside all the time has dramatically decreased. I can’t tell you how many times I wonder why I don’t see kids playing outside as much as I used to when I was a child. Lots more kids are indoors and playing games, watching tv, or doing something else that unfortunately doesn’t require lifting a finger besides to type or press a button.

Parents are becoming more aware of this issue and trying to get their kids to stop being slaves the screen, but often times parents aren’t around enough to really monitor this, or they kind of look at the pastime as a way to entertain the kids and get some free time to themselves.

I love when studies like this come out. The results seem so jarring, so incomprehensible, that we immediately go into denial. It can’t be right, because then we’d all be dead now.  Well, that was my reaction to a seemingly alarmist study released that stated boldly that we can expect about 22 minutes to be shaved off our life span per hour of television we plop ourselves down to watch.

Not sure exactly how they came up with that particular number, but it certainly does seem alarming on its face.  That’s because television is, and has been one of America’s favorite pastimes for decades now. Ever since the black and white tube was introduced back in the early 20th century, Americans seemed to be enthralled with watching people act out shows, movies and reality on the dang thing.

The study that was done correlated heavy television watching to earlier death. It does make sense to a point, but I think they also need to factor in how active you are outside of your television watching time. Also, they need to factor in how much time you site doing OTHER things. Like, what if I also happen to have an office job, but I also don’t happen to watch a lot of television?

Or what if I don’t watch TV a lot, but I’m otherwise a slug and don’t really do much outside of sitting on my duff all day?  There  are too many other variables that I think were probably neglected in this study to be definitive.

So, if you’re like me and my husband and are still pretty fit because you work out, but you do enjoy watching a couple hours of television every week, I wouldn’t get too worried. These things are always less severe than they sound, and vary greatly depending on other factors of your overall lifestyle and habits.

Wimbledon is in full swing, and there have already been numerous victories at this point (Maria Sharipova lost in a close match). Some dreams have been extinguished, while others have been fulfilled for some of the talented tennis stars from across the globe.  I’ll admit, I’m definitely not someone who would sit and watch tennis.

To me, it’s not the most exciting sport to spectate.  However, having played the sport when I was younger, I can certainly attest to the fact that tennis is one of the best sports to play for pure, cardiovascular, toning and ripping exercise.

Think about it. You are constantly moving up and down the court, and your mind is very busy too the whole time, strategizing, thinking, and burning more calories.  You also have to have quite a bit of arm strength to be able to wail the ball over the ropes to your opponent, so your arms get a great workout as well.

Think about it. Every tennis star you see is always in fantastic shape. They have to be. They must be lithe, agile, and very lean and muscular to be able to move about the court like cats, and to be able to strike at the drop of a hat, on a moment’s notice when their no doubt formidable opponent lobs the ball over with incredible strength and speed.

Agility is a must, as well and hand eye coordination in the sport of tennis. If you don’t have these two qualities, you likely will not a great tennis player make. This is me, by the way. I’ve never had the greatest hand eye coordination.

My husband on the other hand has better coordination than I do, and we played tennis once.  He basically blew me away at the game because I couldn’t make contact with the ball. However, I must say in my defense that I can ice skate circles around him on the ice rink, so ha!

Tennis is an interesting sport for some to watch, but to me it’s almost akin to watching golf, because there’s really no drama, and the audience is too quiet. I suppose it’s a bit too calm and high brow for my more middle American taste.

I’m not a huge sports fan overall, which is ironic because I do care very much about my personal fitness, and can certainly appreciate the training, dedication and shear willpower that go into the wins of any athlete.

I know, I know. Some people may be rolling their eyes over this, and believe me, I may have been one of them before I started dating a guy (now my husband) who knew a lot about pro wrestline and how hard the business really is.  When I was raised, my parents pretty much scoffed at pro wrestling, when Hulk Hogan was all the rage, and Macho Man Randy Savage was too (may he rest in peace).

So basically, we weren’t allowed to watch it when I was a kid. Not that I really wanted to, I liked cartoons better!  The television show Tough Enough is about people who are trying out to win a contract to become a star on the WWE (used to be the WWF). They may not make it big, but just getting their shot at being on the show is really a huge break for any man or woman who wants to get their foot in the door on the incredibly popular show about fake wrestling.

Watching Tough Enough, I realize how hard the business is on pro wrestler’s bodies. They are in essence putting on a show. Sure, the outcomes of the fights are predetermined, but the whole idea of the WWE is all about entertainment value. One person said it well when they compared the WWE to women’s soap operas, only these are geared more toward men.

Tough Enough puts the prospective wrestlers through the wringer every day that they are there. They not only have to prove their physical capabilities by doing challenges, but they also have “life lessons” which can be about everything from showmanship, to team work, to overcoming fears by running scary obstacles.

It’s amazing how bad of shape some of these people have come into this competition in.  A few people clearly did not train before they came, and to me that is such a waste, especially knowing how badly some of these people wanted to be in the WWE.

Steve Austin is the host, and he is one of the most interesting parts of the show. He’s actually fascinating to watch, because he’s so intimidating, and he’s hard to take your eyes off of.  he gets bleeped a lot, so he’s definitely laying it out for these kids when they screw up, and he certainly has a way with words. I wouldn’t want to get on his bad side, that’s for sure.

Tough Enough is a good show. It’s a little over produced and cheesy at times, but it’s interesting to watch what these people have to put their bodies through to be on the show.