Which City is the Fattest in America?

Men’s Health magazine recently ran an article which listed the top 10 fattest cities, as well as the top 10 leanest cities in America.  Their findings were based off several statistics:

• The number of people diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes
• The percentage of a city’s population that is overweight
• The amount of money spent on junk food per city (via the Bureau of Labor Statistics )
• The number of people who dine on fast food at least nine times per month (via Mediamark)
• The percentage of people who haven’t left the couch in a month (via CDC Behavioral Risk Surveillance System which is an ongoing telephone survey)

If you’re a fan of the Biggest Loser (I didn’t start watching until this season, and now I’m hooked) you’ll remember that they did an episode recently based off the results of this survey.  They went to Texas to help motivate the people there to live healthier lives because FIVE of the ten fattest cities in America are in Texas.  The episode was very heartfelt and motivational and I loved that they showed were some of those people are now and that they have made changes in their lives to live a healthier lifestyle and to ultimately save their lives.

The Top 10 Fattest Cities in America

1.  Corpus Christi, TX
2.  Charelston, WV
3.  El Paso, TX
4.  Dallas, TX
5.  Memphis, TN
6.  Kansas City, MO
7.  San Antonino, TX
8.  Baltimore, MD
9.  Houston, TX
10.  Birmingham, AL

The Top 10 Leanest Cities in America

1. San Francisco, CA
2. Burlington, VT
3. Washington, DC
4. Seattle, WA
5. Austin, TX
6. Albuquerque, NM
7. Portland, OR
8. Cincinnati, OH
9. Denver, CO
10. Aurora, CO

    Where does your city fall on this list?  I live near Chicago and I would say that there’s a pretty even mix of healthy lean people and overweight people.  I loved San Fransisco, and I can understand why they hold the title of the number one leanest city, when I was out there people were walking, running and biking everywhere and I had never seen so much locally grown, organic food in my life.  Its definitely and ideal setting for a healthy lifestyle.

Day 14

Happy Cinco De Mayo!  I hope everyone had a good day 🙂

As I mentioned earlier, I weighed in this morning and got a goose egg 😦  But that only motivated me to go out and work hard today.  I walked just over 5 miles between my morning and afternoon walk.  Both were in hilly areas so I got quite a work out, and I wore my Shape-Ups for a little extra boost (let me tell you those curved bottoms make hills a pain in the ***).

As promised, I’m uploading some BEFORE pictures.  They aren’t the best since I took them myself, but I figured it was a starting point.  I also took my measurements.

I’m really nervous about putting these pictures up here…its me, in my underwear and I’m the heaviest I’ve been in my LIFE!  Its like a nightmare, but I’m hoping that it will help keep me motivated so I can post some skinnier pictures up here.

Me at 203lbs 5/5/10

Side view 203lbs 5/5/10

Rear view 203lb 5/5/10

And for those of you that were curious, here’s a close up of my scar from my spinal surgeries.  The doctors say I’m healing nicely, but it will be nice when its not purple! (The picture makes it look better than it is…)

My surgical scar from my spinal surgeries. Its exactly 4 inches long.

Well now that the hardest parts over, giving out my measurements doesn’t seem so bad….

Neck:  16in

Bust:  45.5in

Natural Waist:  37in

Middle(or “pooch” area):  42in

Hips:  45.5in

Right Thigh:  23in

Left Thigh:  23in

Right Calf:  16in

Left Calf:  16in

Right Upper Arm:  15in

Left Upper Arm:  15in

Right Lower Arm:  9in

Left Lower Arm:  9in

Well this was a mortifying post.  I’m sore from all my hard work today so I’m going to head to bed and sleep it off so I can do it all again tomorrow!

Night guys!

I’ve been naughty

This past weekend was crazy.  The BBQ went well and I stuck to my diet, with the exception of the copious amount of alcohol we all consumed.  But other than the alcohol I did well, I had a large salad (no dressing), some grilled chicken kabobs and a hamburger patty.

Sunday however was more of a challenge, I woke up quite hungover, and apparently I got quite sick at night (TMI right) so in the morning I was in desperate need of some “hangover food.” After consuming about 6 bottles of water, we headed out to meet up with the same group of friends from the BBQ at a local breakfast place called Wildberry.  Nothing on the menu seemed appealing at all, so I chose to nibble a little of this and a little of that from everyone else’s plates.  Probably not the best idea, since I was unable to keep track of my caloric intake, and due to the high amount of carbs I was likely ingesting.  I tried everything from Southern style biscuits and gravy to Nutella crepes 😦

Lunch wasn’t much better, all of my friends went and got their tattoos so we spent a whopping SEVEN hours, and since I didn’t drive I was stuck there for the whole time, and ended up nibbling on a slice of pizza for lunch 😦

Dinner….well at least I only nibbled off the boyfriend’s place.  Everyone decided they wanted to go to an Irish pub for dinner, and there were ZERO healthy options on the menu, so I just took a couple of bites of my boyfriend’s fish and chips (which weren’t as good as the hype made them seem so I didn’t really feel compelled to eat them).

If anything I was at least pretty active, going for regular walks, etc…despite the slips with the diet, so when I stepped onto the scale today I had only gained 0.4lbs.  So I’m going to try to keep up the activity and not slip on the diet anymore.

How was your weekend, what challenges did you have?