Road To Ruin Diary, Day Three
As CBS News hits the road to report on obesity in America, correspondent Mika Brzezinski has made a personal pledge to herself not to load up on junk food while on the road. Easier said than done ...
How hard is it to eat healthy on the road?
Well yesterday in Alexandria, Louisiana was a perfect example! All I wanted was plain yogurt and the guys wanted some sandwiches. Photographer Tom Piccolo went out to fill our orders and practically never came back. Forty five minutes later, he shows up with a bag with a quart of yogurt. After trying two deli type places, he had to ask some folks and ended up at a market. In the driving rain, this was a total pain -- if it was me, I would have given up ... so kudos to Tom for saving my diet and helping me keep my vow!
The boys, by the way had steak, ribs, and smoked turkey with gobs and gobs of barbecue sauce ... topped off with pecan and pumpkin pie! It looked "to die for" -- and in this area, that's exactly what it is! In Louisiana, 85 percent of the population is at risk for health problems because they don't exercise enough and one in four people is obese!
And I see it everywhere -- at the gas station, there was a woman so obese she was struggling to get out of her car. At the barbecue place, another woman was having the most fat-filled lunch – ribs and fried chicken. Something is definitely not clicking with the public when it comes to this crisis. I hate to say it ... but the word "addiction" is creeping into my vocabulary.
It's the only way to explain why an educated woman that obese would eat a lunch like that ... It was the kind of lunch you should only let yourself have once a year. Maybe that was her annual splurge, but something tells me that was a daily thing for her ... I felt bad for her. That shouldn't be her body... She should be able to move more. She should be able to live without so many health risks.
I liken what I see to smoking. People know its bad for them, they know obesity leads to serious, even deadly health problems, yet they continue to poison their bodies with high fat calorie rich meals. I am thinking addiction and I know I am no scientist ... But it took everything I had not to dive into those ribs.
I am so happy we got to meet Michael Pate for our second story on the "Evening News."
He is such an inspiration. Seeing him get out there, being brave about competing and trying to be fit even as an obese man ... I hope many more people follow his lead. As he says, it's not easy but today "I am better than I was yesterday but not quite what I want to be". What more can you ask for?
Go Michael!!!
P.S. I can't wait till producer Karen Raffensperger hits the road with us tomorrow ... need some girl power on this trip ...I am outnumbered!