First of all, I should apologize for how lax I’ve been in writing. With the rain and cool (or cold!) weather at the beginning of the summer, I was sticking pretty close to home. When the weather warmed up, I lived behind my mower trying to keep up with the grass. Which is looking shaggy again as I write this; more mowing is definitely in my immediate future.

Okay, on to my topic. In today’s Rapid City Journal, an article reports that South Dakota’s obesity rate has climbed to 26.9 percent. Over one-fourth of adults in this state are obese. Obese, not just overweight. This is frightening. Why is this number rising?

I have a few thoughts about the reasons. First of all, childhood obesity has been rising for several years now, eventually, those obese kids grow up to be obese adults. Plus, due to a reduction in activity and a plethora of fast and processed foods, more adults who weren’t obese in their youth are becoming so as they age. Parents who are sedentary, overweight with poor nutrition often raise children with the same problems.

But wait, what about all those athletic kids with obese parents? Those children aren’t overweight, they’re athletes. True enought, sports during childhood and adolescence can help keep young people fit; however, unhealthy family lifestyles can catch up with them after they stop playing sports. Think back to people who were very fit when they played high school basketball or football and then packed on the pounds in college. Most students who play sports in middle school and high school don’t play at the college level, and their fitness decreases dramatically when they stop training. While sports are important for a variety of reasons, they don’t necessarily lower adult obesity.

If we are to lower adult and childhood obesity, we can’t rely on soccer practice do it for us. American obesity is becoming an epidemic that we have to fight with lifestyle changes. We need to get off our collective couches. Spend more time outdoors: go for a walk, take a bike ride, go hiking, take the kids fishing, just get outside. And skip the Big Mac.

Today while washing windows, which is a very meditative activity – just ask the Karate Kid – I pondered on the fact that while people that visit us here at our home outside Custer profess to love the view we have and express envy that we live so close to nature, they never really want to venture outdoors. Yes, our view is lovely, but what drew us to this place wasn’t just that we could look at nature, we could actually experience it. However, most of our guests seem content to peer at it through the windows.

                                                                                         

I don’t expect that everyone who drops in for coffee on a Saturday morning is going to want to go for a hike, but for those who stay overnight or spend a weekend, I would think would want to at least take a walk. We live just over a mile from the Custer State Park boundary; we’re less than a mile as the crow flies from Bismarck Lake; about half a mile up the road is access to national forest land connected with the Norbeck Wildlife Preserve and Black Elk Wilderness. For some reason, it doesn’t draw our guests as I had assumed.

 

Even barring those excursions due to time constraints, there is a pond across the road from our house. If you stand at the edge of our front yard and throw a rock you can hit the water; I point this out to illustrate that it’s very close. There is an excellent view of it from our living room, but less than one in 10 people actually will walk over to it for a better look. It’s the home of ducks, geese, herons (well, their lunch spot rather than home), turtles, and frogs but few people seem to want a closer view, and no one has asked to go out in our canoe.

 

What has happened to our collective curiosity? Are we so lacking in vigor and imagination that we can’t muster the energy to go outdoors even when the opportunity presents itself? There is so much nature to enjoy, but I worry about its future if the public remains so apathetic.

 

Are you cut off from nature? In today’s age, this is a common problem with people in developed countries such as the U.S. We drive everywhere; many people live in large urban areas with little green space; we don’t grow our own food, and electronics give us our entertainment. When was the last time you spent more time outside than it takes to walk from the door of whatever building you’re in (home, school, store) to your car?

 

Frankly, our disconnection from nature can be even deeper than our lack of time spent outdoors. Look around the room you’re in right now (the one that houses your computer). Can you see outside? Many office spaces lack windows, which is a sad commentary on our society. At home, we tend to keep blinds or curtains closed over other windows, thus “blocking out” the outside, which is even sadder. When we can’t see out the window, we deprive ourselves of information our ancestors would have considered valuable — whether it was raining, snowing, sunny, or windy. We tend to think of ourselves as apart from nature, somehow above its influences, but a prolonged disconnection with the outdoors can have a detrimental effect on our moods.

 

Think about how you feel stepping into a dim house where all the curtains are shut. You may feel tired, depressed, anxious or restless. Kids can feel the same way. In fact, there are many reasons children should be able to see outside (and go outside to play!). In his book, Last Child in the Woods, Richard Louv reports that girls who have some natural view from their homes concentrate better and act less impulsively, increasing their chances of succeeding in school and life.

 

Louv also cites studies of surgery patients who recovered more quickly if they had a view of natural settings as opposed to brick walls and of prison inmates who suffered fewer illnesses if they lived in cells with windows facing farmland rather than the prison courtyard. This all boils down to the fact that cutting ourselves off from nature is not good for us physically or emotionally.

 

Find something to do outside rather than just walking to and from your car, and open the curtains in your house. A little contact with nature every day, even if it’s just a view of some bushes and a patch of grass, is beneficial. Acknowledge nature and reap the benefits.