Obesity rates by state, and the new world of weight-loss maintenance….

As I enter my third week of weight-loss maintenance, I guess that articles in the news about obesity catch my eye.

Trust for America’s Health reported that in their most recent survey, obesity rates were up in 31 states during the last year, and went down in none.

How did your state do? Mississippi became the first state to report 30% of their adult population as obese, and West Virginia and Alabama were next on the list. My home, California, was slightly below the national average. 22.2% of Californians are obese, compared to an overall average of 23.2% for the entire country. I’m rather surprised by this, as with the proximity of Hollywood, Californians are traditionally somewhat image-conscious, but perhaps that is no longer the case.

Colorado has the leanest population, with “only” 17.6 % of their adults qualifying as obese. Incidentally, the Trust for America used the typical standard for obesity as a BMI of 30 or above.

The saddest statistic is the finding that the five poorest states were all in the top ten in obesity. One of my pet peeves is the cost of eating well. If you have a dollar in your pocket for your hungry child, how much lean meat and fresh fruit or vegetables can you buy? In contrast, that dollar will buy a greasy hamburger at your local fast food outlet. All of the patrons of our local farmer’s markets here in San Luis Obispo look very affluent. I wish I had a magic wand that could make healthy food more affordable, especially for young families.

I am very happy to no longer be one of the statistics. So far, maintenance is going pretty well, in spite of the fact that I ate restaurant food four times in the last three weeks during my visit to Tennessee. On top of that, my foodie husband prepared a marvelous South African bobotie for my birthday.

Actually, the weird thing is that I’m having more trouble losing weight than gaining it back. Even after the bobotie and gasp two, count them, two servings of amarula carrot cake, my weight had dropped to 132.8, when I’m supposed to weigh 135. Oops. I had dropped my extra snack because I had eaten out so much, but now I put it back in. This is definitely a work in progress.