Obesity- A Problem That Many Adolescents Face

Many of our adolescents are becoming obese, and there are many factors to blame for this. Adolescent obesity has more than quadrupled in the past 30 years. The percentage of adolescents ages 12-19 who were obese increased from 5% to 21% in the United States in 2012.

            The causes of obesity are complex and include genetic, biological, behavioral, and cultural factors. It stated that if a child has one parent that is obese, they have a 50% chance of being obese as well. If both parents of a child are obese, they have a 80% chance of being obese. I personally believe those statistics, but to an extent. I believe children these days cause themselves to become obese. They choose what they want to eat, how much they eat, and how much exercise they get daily.

            Television, video games, and the internet are some things to blame for obesity. Some children would rather be inside the house, sitting down like couch potatoes watching their favorite TV shows or playing video games instead of being active and playing sports, running, or playing outside. I think parents are part to blame for this as well because they let their children watch too much TV and play video games for too long. I remember growing up, I used to love going outside and riding my bike. My parents never used to let us watch too much TV.

            Fast food is one big thing to blame for obesity! Children can sometimes be so impatient when it comes to how quick they want their food and they would much rather go to McDonalds or Burger King and get order a burger that will be ready for then in a minute. I think it is so sad that you can get a burger for .99, but a salad cost $5. We can also blame that on making our children obese. Shouldn’t the salad cost .99 and the burger $5? Our society is just messed up!

            We know that overweight kids are subject to being bullied by their peers. This can lead to low self-esteem and depression. The health risk factors that these children can have are diabetes and high blood pressure.

Children just should watch what they eat and increase their level of physical activity. I know how hard it is to watch what you are eating, and I believe that parents and kids should all be eating about the same types of food. The whole family should watch what they eat. If the parents eat bad it is more likely for the children to eat bad. I know this because I went through this experience. I am half Italian and half Ecuadorian and we all know that Italian and Spanish food is not really that healthy. I grew up eating both and I was a little overweight. I finally got to the point in my life where I wanted to look good, and I started to watch what I ate. My parents eat what they want (the bad stuff) and I eat all the healthy stuff. It is so hard to sit down at the dinner table and eat my healthy food while my parents are eating something else that looks so good. It is so tempting, but I am pretty good at saying no, but I know a lot of children cannot do that. So, it is best that the whole family tries to eat healthy.

Who Inspired You?

          I have four people in my life who inspire me every single day, and they are my two brothers and my parents. I know four people is a lot of people to consider my heroes, but they are the people who I look up to more than anyone. They set good examples for me in my life.

            My brother Mario is 13 years older than me and he is an Information Technologist (IT).  Growing up, he was very protective over me and acted like he was my “second father” he always watched over me. I guess mostly every older brother is like that if they have a younger sister. He taught me how to play video games, how to use the computer, and most importantly how important education was. Every once in a while, he would tell me how important it is to go to college and get a degree because without that degree I wont make good money. I remember every time he told me that, the first thing that came to my mind was always “I want to be just like you.” My brother is honestly one of the smartest people I know. He graduated high school as Valedictorian and did very well in college. When I was in middle school I remember always trying to get good grades so that I can get into a good high school, get good grades like my brother, and go to the college that I wanted to go.

            My brother Phillip is 9 years older than me and he is a Lawyer. Growing up, he was the one that mostly took care of me while my parents were at work and Mario was in college. I found out that Phillip was going to pursue a career when I was in 8^th grade. I remember back in 8^th grade I wanted to be a lawyer. I was so proud of my brother and I remember always thinking that I can’t wait until I become a lawyer just like him and then we could open our own Laywer’s office together. Then, I had the experience of working in my cousins classroom and it brought me back to wanting to be a teacher again.

            My mom is a supervisor at the bank and an operator at the hospital. My dad is a machinist, he makes parts for airplanes. I honestly do not know what I would if I did not have my parents in my life. My parents do absolutely EVERYTHING for me, and there are not a lot of parents out there like them. Many people call me spoiled, but there is a reason why I am “spoiled” and why they do everything that they do for me. I currently do not work I am just a full time student. My parents buy me everything, whenever I need money they give it to me, they bought me my car, they pay for my gas, basically everything like I have stated. “We don’t want you to work now, because when you get out of college your going to be working for the majority of your life. Just focus on school and get good grades and we will do everything for you.” That is what my parents have said to me. I think of it as a promise. I go to school and pursue a career and they do everything for me in return. My parents have taught me so much in life and I am so thankful. They have taught me how to ride a bike, how to drive, how to work hard for the important things in life, and many more. They have raised three beautiful, intelligent, and respectable young men and woman. They have shaped my brothers and I into what we are today. They made sure that we got good grades and went to college. When I become a parent one day I want to be just like them.

My Piece of Poetry

Main Street, Magic Kingdom

As I stand on the side walk of Main Street,

I look around me and watch the snow start to fall

Thousands of people lined up beside me,

their voices blending in with the Christmas music.

I feel the Christmas spirit all around me.

White, green, and red is spotted all around,

from decorations to the clothes people are dressed in.

Families singing, dancing, and taking pictures together.

Minnie and Mickie dressed in Santa’s outfit,

walking around greeting everyone.

The smell of hot chocolate and freshly baked cookies starts to fill the air

Standing there with my cup of hot chocolate,

I wait patiently with everyone else for the parade.

Every December,

Thousands of people visit Magic Kingdom just like me.

I will be back here again when Christmas time falls!

I wrote this poem in my creative writing class in the Fall of 2013. The assignment was to get a picture, and write a poem on it. We had to actually describe more than what we actually see in the picture. We had to actually describe the emotions going on in the picture as well. I choose a picture that was taken on Main Street in Magic Kingdom during Christmas season.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.R.6

Anchor Standard: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.R.6	Kindergarten: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.K.6	Grade 1: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.1.6	Grade 2: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.2.6
Assess how point of view or purpose shapes the content and style of a text.	With prompting and support, name the author and illustrator of a story and define the role of each in telling the story.	Identify who is telling the story at various points in a text.	Acknowledge differences in the points of view of characters, including by speaking in a different voice for each character when reading dialogue aloud.

Instructional Shifts:

In Kindergarten, students are taught thoroughly how to find the author and illustrator of the story and define what they do. A teacher will go around and help each student figure out what the author and illustrator do in the story. In first grade, the students task transitions into trying to find if the author or someone else is telling the story at different parts of the story. They are also looking to see if the story is told by first person, second person, or third person point of view. Once in second grade, they already know first person, second person, and third person point of view. When they read out loud, they should change the tone of their voice every time the point of view changes.

What and Why Do You Read?

To be honest I never really liked reading until I was in High School. I guess I really never gave reading a chance, since I was so bored and tired of all the “summer readings” and readings that we were assigned in class before my high school years that I did not care about reading anything else. I remember I used to dread going home after school to have to read all that boring stuff assigned for me to read in our English textbooks. When I got to high school, I started to read Nicholas Sparks books  such as: The Lucky One, A Walk to Remember, Message in a Bottle, The Notebook, and the best of me. I also read the Hunger Games and Twilight series. I am not embarrassed to say that those are some of the books that I enjoy to read. Everyone has their own like for what books they like to read.

            Nicholas Sparks has to be my favorite author. I love the way Nicholas writes, he can pull everything together. The characters in his books are always good, I tend to fall in love with them. He tends to use the same writing style in all of his books, but they each have a different plot. I love the whole romance theme in his books. I really enjoy his style of writing, I like not knowing what to expect and wondering if anyone will die or miraculously  live. I think if a book ever truly makes you angry, sad, or happy then the author has truly done a good job at making his scenarios realistic and believable. I can honestly say I have cried in every single one of his books.

            I also really enjoy reading the news everyday. I like to see what is happening not only in my area, but around the world. I use this website called “Daily Mail” and also CT Post. I just want to know what is happening around the world at the moment, I do not want to feel lost if there is anything important occurring. Reading the news is also a form of entertainment for me. I read it during the day when I am not really doing anything.

            I love to read because I learn new things when I read, especially when I am reading the news. I also learn new things by reading nutrition labels on food. I have never mentioned this before, but I am very careful with what I eat. I eat healthy and I do CrossFit and I want to make sure that what I put into my body is good. Although, I do have my cheat day where I do not read any labels.

            Reading is very important and I understand that we may not all enjoy it, but once you find that something/topic that you like to read, you will always be reading.