After a recent trip to the states...

I am an 18 year old English girl from London and I have just spent nearly 3 weeks travelling around California with my family and it really was amazing-we went to San Francisco, Lake Tahoe, Napa Valley, Yosemite and Carmel and they were all amazing. Although I have to say that I really was suprised at the level of obesity there...it did vary from region to region but there are some people you see shoveling fast food down them and you just think why are you not doing anything about it?! I have to admit it would be a GREAT place to live if you had no worries about your weight etc. peanut butter everything, ben and jerry cafes,burgers,pancakes...mmm...amazing!! So I just wanted to say that to all the Americans on here doing something about it-well done!! (and the shops were amazing.)

Yes, that's the unfortunate thing.  Did you happen to watch any TV in your down time here - They air food commercials at EVERY commercial break and always around meal times.  Most people who sit there staring at the tv all evening get cravings for things they've seen on a commercial and go out and grab it through the drive through. 

One thing I miss about California is In N Out Burger!  They're burgers are amazing (i'm sure not healthy though). 

It took blunt comments from perfect strangers for me to face the fact that I was obese and why I was obese was because I was ignorant on how to eat healthy.

In April I decided to make a change and have since lost 26lbs just counting calories and exercising!

I'm glad you enjoyed your visit - Please - next time - visit some other states too!  :) I live in Wisconsin, and - after having lived on both the East coast and West Coast - I can say that Lake Michigan is just as nice as either ocean - the only thing missing is the salt in the air! :) Also - Milwaukee is only 2 hours from Chicago and 6 hours from the Mall of America in Minneapolis, Minnesota. :)

*HUGS*

I moved from North Carolina to san francisco a year ago, and it seems like there are a lot more fat people in nc than sf. SF is actually one of the healthiest cities in the US, and I always see people out running or walking their dog or playing frisbee in the park with their friends, i love it :-) ..I think a lot of the people you saw shoving fastfood down their throats might have been tourists, cause Ive noticed that too!

And yes, the shops ARE amazing!!

yeah I did watch a bit of a tv and noticed that...but also alot of advertisements for faddy diet pills and stuff. lots of funny jerry springer type shows...classic. the funniest thing was the news was on and at the bottom of the screen it came across "chelsea beat la galaxy 1-0 beckham came on in the 85th minute (he did not score) ha ha

Interesting to hear someone's impressions of where I call home (SF).

As another poster mentioned, SF is one of the healthiest cities in the US. And living here, I even notice the tourists tend to be much heavier than the locals!

LA was another ultra thin placed I lived...Philly on the other hand....the year I lived in Phl it was rated fattest city in America (and ok I was contributing to that, haha)

I wasnt talking specifically about San Francisco btw...!

I have to say that my fav place is San Fran.  I love the warf.  and i LOVELOVELOVELOVE Ghiradelli Square!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Then - there was that really nice italian/seafood restaurant right on the docks.  MMMMM calamari to DIE for! :)

yeah, I think In 'N' Out is what did it. haha! I just hope tucson doesn't fall into the 'unhealthy' category now that we've got one too..

Ah, yes, welcome to the U.S. where the crap food industry (fast food, sweets, processed food, unhealthy stuff promoting itself as healthy, etc) spends gazillions of dollars figuring out how to make us spend more and more on their products (advertising, looking for additives etc that make us crave their products...like adding a bit of salt to sweet foods and a bit of sugar to salty foods);  the media beats us over the heads with warnings about how awful it is we're all fat; the diet & fitness industry dances that fine line between getting us to give them our money and trying to make sure we constantly relapse and need to come back and give them more...and we feel guilty because we have so much food when others are starving and even worse because we're so overweight.

In the meantime we're exhausted, stressed and worrying about all this along with everything else we've got to worry about - like whether we have health insurance because we're all so unhealthy and what it won't cover if we do.

Gee, I wonder why we're the way we are?

I love California!  I'm glad you enjoyed your visit. :)