Random thoughts driving back from my mom’s in Knoxville …
What is it with Ohio drivers? As I traveled north in I-75, a number of cars passed me as if I was sitting still, and each time they were from Ohio. What’s up with that? Is the Buckeye state so great that its residents will risk a reckless-driving charge to get home quicker? Or do they all just normally drive like bats out of hell? (Of course, a cynical person might respond that they either are trying to get away from Tennessee as fast as possible, or get through Kentucky as fast as possible. Perhaps the “out of hell” applies here.)
All I need to be re-inspired to lose weight these days is to (a) eat out, (b) go to East Tennessee, or (c) eat out in East Tennessee. Maybe it’s the places my mom likes to eat, or perhaps it’s the part of town she lives in … but even so, don’t people own mirrors? And don’t tell me its the culture; I grew up there, and I don’t remember adults looking like this when I was young. It really seems to me to be something that has gotten much worse in the past 15 years or so.
Here are some statistics to back up my comments:
- Number of the sixteen states of the South where more than 25 percent of adults are clinically obese: 12
- Number of all other states where this is true: 5
- Number of states in 1990 and 2005, respectively, where more than 14 percent of adults were clinically obese: 0, 50
(Harper’s Index, June 2007)