America. What an honor it is to live in a nation like ours. The freedoms we have. The rights we have. The ability we have to freely express our love for God in public. The success and growth of the nation we call home it has made our lives better in many ways. But it has also made them more challenging in others. Our physical and mental health has seemed to decline steadily over the past 30 or so years. It is estimated that by the year 2030 that 86.3% of adults will either be overweight or obese.1 When I saw that number I was shocked. That is almost 90% of adults! It can make us feel hopeless. Like there is really nothing we can do. But there is hope!
For years We have helped adults to transform their health by applying biblical principles to health. And we have seen great results! Who would have thought that applying the wisdom of the Bible and stewarding the body God has given us would actually work! Just practicing simple habits when it comes to our health can fix most of the problems most Americans face.
As we started seeing these results with adults we continually felt like we weren’t fixing the root cause of the health issues in America. While helping people in their 40’s, 50’s, and 60’s I couldn’t help but ask the question, “Why aren’t we teaching our kids these things in school?”. Most of the time we aren’t teaching our kids simple principles for healthy living in school. They are learning LOTS of information but not how to practically apply these things to their life. So they grow up. Have kids. Get a full-time job. But they don’t understand how to fit a healthy lifestyle into their day to day. It seems to be this cycle we have seen for years where they grow up without a foundation in health and have to fix everything when they get older. But there is a better way!
I believe the way to change the health of our nation is to equip the next generation. We must teach our kids how to live a healthy lifestyle in a sustainable way while they are young so they don’t depart from those ways when they grow up. We must teach them about how to move well, eat properly, sleep and rest, and surround themselves with teh right people to sustain that in any season. By changing the health of our generation we will slowly regain the health of our nation one generation at a time.
Whether you are a parent, teacher, or not you can equip the next generation by being a good example and giving them the resources they need. We have tons of free resources to help get you started on our website. There is hope for the health of our nation!
- Wang Y, Beydoun MA, Liang L, Caballero B, Kumanyika SK. Will all Americans become overweight or obese? estimating the progression and cost of the US obesity epidemic. Obesity (Silver Spring). 2008;16(10):2323-2330. doi:10.1038/oby.2008.351
Ashton Tate is the founder of Glory to Glory Fitness in Franklin TN, and the creator of The F.O.R.M. Curriculum, a turn-key and biblically based health curriculum for schools and families.
