Wednesday, September 02, 2009

Infection

An article last year in the New England Journal of Medicine reported that obesity (and thinness) are socially contagious. Among other things, we redefine what "fat" means in relation to the people we hang around with. (Just try it: find the high school pictures from your era on Facebook and look back at the "fat" kids. They are shockingly normal seen with today's eyes, and not nearly as "fat" as you remember them. The fat man from church would not even raise an eyebrow today.)

I am hoping that fitness is contagious as well, because if one is infected with fitness, there is never any need to worry about weight or appearance. The experiment seems to be working at the Greyhound compound.

On Tuesday, Superounce was all keen to tell me about the girl's athletics class that is her first hour in junior high each morning. ("junior high"??!!) In particular, she wanted to make sure that Ironman-freak-show-dad knew about her running workout that day, what they had done, and that she was doing the same running drills that I do. Everything else about school is "fine," (**roll eyes and sigh extravagantly here**) but she had to give me the details about running.

I am loving that. I have heard it said that our values are "caught" not "taught." If so, maybe I have infected her.

2 comments:

21stCenturyMom said...

I do believe this is true. My kids all feel beholden to try to stay in shape and that's because of their awesome, tri-stud Mama.

Paula said...

I agree as well. Since I have been more deliberate in my fitness and health, my friends have slowly started joining in - one by one. I just wish I had started at your daughters age instead of later in life...but better later than never. Keep on infecting!