It's what we Google when we are procrastinating on doing homework; it's the number one category on Pinterest; it's on our minds several times a day. Here in America, we seem to have this obsession about our health, our weight, our bodies, our workout regimes, and our daily diets. Whether your schedule includes a daily workout at the gym, eating no carbs during the week, making a food journal or just regretting not doing any of these things, as young adults, we tend to put a lot of pressure on this whole issue of being healthy. But is it only here in the US that this pressure is as prevalent?
According to Huffington Post, the United States leads the pack as being the country that exercises the most, with Americans working out 135 days a year on average compared to the global average of 112. From this study, the most common reason for people to head to the gym was to lose weight, which has an interesting correlation in America. While we are the country that is known to exercise the most, we are also a country where one third of the population is considered to be obese.
Now I don't know about you, but I find that this may be the reason why there is such a big culture surrounding fitness and health, especially for young adults today. Not only do we have distorted body images and view the perfect body as being akin to those of movie stars and celebrities who continue to get thinner and thinner but we also have a country where millions of people are way above the socially acceptable "average weight".
In addition to being a full-time student, keeping a job and having all of the stress that comes with those things, young adults in America have added even more to their plates by trying to simultaneously stay fit and look good. There is absolutely nothing wrong with wanting to be in shape and look good for yourself, but the source of the obsession and dilemma of being perfect, fit, and beautiful young adults may stem from these two opposing perceptions of America as being thin like movie stars or unable to control you appetite.
Scientists and dietitians are finding more and more ways that are guaranteed methods of losing weight and maintaining a healthy diet, condemning certain foods one day and calling these condemned foods "super foods" the next. It is important to stay healthy and fit for your body type, but more importantly, it is important just to stay sane in this day and age. Nothing bad will happen if you skip that one spin class if you had too much work that week. This saying has now become cliche, but it's true: you are only young once. So try not to let the workout culture define how you live your life everyday.
