ONTD

Hey guys!

I am loving the new HIITilates series and looks like you are too!! I am excited for your enthusiasm as I build out this new format! I always knew you guys liked your cardio so I had to figure out a way to make it fun and exciting and excruciating without counting (boring) or timers (boring). The new moves challenge me just as much as they challenge you – so great job for keeping up!!!

I am between the Bay Area and Palm Springs the next couple days! This Sunday I will be teaching a group of young kids how to have fun while staying active at President Clinton’s Health Matters event. I don’t think I will get to see him though! Boo. But oh well, maybe one of these days I can meet Michelle Obama and work with her on educating our youth on nutrition and exercise. I honestly think that if we get em young and get em thinking about food the right way from the beginning, we can prevent obesity, hospital visits, and all types of illnesses. I GENUINELY believe that food is your medicine. Preventative medicine is the best kind you can be prescribed :)

OMG and speaking of kids and obesity and food and….





Oh

My

Gah

Can I just say I was stuck watching “Here Comes Honey Boo Boo” at the gym yesterday??!!!! (Ok fine, I wasn’t stuck, it was completely my choice, but I had to see what all the rave was about!)

I mean.

I can’t.

I can’t even.

WHAT IS THIS!!!????

I don’t even know where to start. I was lucky enough to tune into the Thanksgiving episode where I got to watch them make food and eat it. Now when I say lucky, I actually mean it. I think it was a good starter episode for me because seeing the family’s nutrition made me understand where they were coming from…even though it nearly made me gag and die as I was on the stairmaster.



Here’s my takeaway…

So I watch the mom who is morbidly obese make a turkey. She says she doesn’t like to cook but she’ll cook a turkey for Thanksgiving. How does she do it? Take a whole TUB of butter and seriously grabs it with her bare hands and rubs it in between the turkey skin and meat. Leaving lumps of butter like 5 inches thick EVERYWHERE!!! Best part is Honey Boo Boo is there to learn that butter is the main ingredient in every meal…

Next mama makes veggies. Oh good. Cept she takes out like legit 50 cans of beans, yams, corn etc. and says that “If it don’t come in a can, we don’t eat it.”

Sigh.

Next she makes cranberry sauce. As she pours like 30 jelly-fied things of cranberry sauce into a pan and lathers it with a pound of sugar and 2 pounds of butter, she says “This is how the kids get fruit. And cranberry is good for urinary tract infection or somethin’ so it’s healthy.”
OMG, I could go on and on but you get the point.

What upsets me about the show has nothing to do about how unfit the family is or what their income level is and what they have access to but their sheer DENIAL of the truth and obvious DEFIANCE of doing anything about it!!!! The show glorifies this disgusting, careless, and EXTREMELY unhealthy lifestyle for millions of people to see every day. For those of us lucky enough to understand, we see the show as entertainment. But for others who don’t know better, they may see this as okay to do since TV is showing it.

Seeing the morbidly obese mom continually feeding herself and her children toxic food kills my soul so badly. Look, I don’t care if she doesn’t have a degree in nutrition or whatever – she doesn’t have to to know what the right thing is to do. If she wakes up every morning feeling lethargic and unmotivated to do anything to change her life – why doesn’t she at least try to spark a change in her kids?? Feeding them butter and sugar every day and letting them fart and burp all over the place during dinner while throwing food around…I can tell they do not appreciate the beauty of nourishing your body.

They see food as fun. Food as a thing. A thing you simply buy and put in your mouth because you’re supposed to eat a few times a day. The faster the better. The sweeter the better. The butter. The better.



The fact that a majority of the family is overweight is not the problem. Fat is just a result of what you haven’t done to take care of your body. Fat will be gone when you begin to eat your veggies, drink your water, and get active! I don’t look at body weight as a measure of someone’s sucess, education, or worth – but just as an indicator of healthiness. In this case, I am worried. I am very very worried for Honey Boo Boo.

A most of you know, living with your family makes it hard to eat what you want if you’re trying to eat clean and no one else gets it. Well how about this. Honey Boo Boo will never ever ever know about eating clean for years until her mom or dad begin cooking differently. She can’t buy food. She’s not tall enough to reach the stove. She is literally forced to eat the way her family cooks. That is why she is getting that tummy as little kid. It’s not her fault. And I am glad she doesn’t have any body image issues (yet) but something needs to change soon because her parents are slowly killing her health and well-being with the food they eat daily.

It’s sad because I don’t wanna blame her mom for their way of life because she too was probably brought up on “butter, sketti, and ketchup,” but it has to stop somewhere. And where that starts from is from education and the will to make a change.

Yea. It’s hard. It VERY hard if you have over 200 pounds to lose and you don’t even know where to start. Mama is at this point probably addicted to butter and sugar and it will take support from friends and family and a burning desire inside herself to begin a new life. She needs to do it though. Not just for her. But for her kids and their kids.

It’d be cool if the mom could get on Biggest Loser. I bet they asked her before but she said no. And that’s the problem. She has to be the one to decide for herself to make the change. No one else can do that for her.
I just hope someone steps in soon to cook for them. I don’t even care about the exercise right now. The diet is killing me. And physically killing them. The show disgusts me to the bone but I am glad I got to watch it yesterday because I know there are many many more families out there who are living a similar lifestyle. I truly believe the change begins with education. I need to think about this.

So if you know anyone who is not treating their body right, try to help them. Don’t go over and say “Do you know what you’re eating is gonna give you a heart attack?” That doesn’t work. What you do is you bake a healthy apple pie or yummy oatmeal muffin for them and say “Hey, I made this for you.” Smile. If they like it, they will ask for the recipe. It starts there and it starts small.

What do you think about Honey Boo Boo? Do you watch that show? And how do you think we can get more people educated about nutrition who aren’t actively seeking it and living it like we are?
<3 Cassey



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