BY CODY WERNEBURG, NDTR
This story sponsored by
Apocalypse of a Healthy Lifestyle
F
rom 1946 to 1951 the number of televisions in homes grew from 6,000 to 12 million. Today there are on average 2.5 televisions in homes across America. Technology continued its march into our homes and our lives in the form of computers, laptops, internet, WI-FI, tablets, smart phones, smart TV’s, streaming services, and endless social media content. Couple that with ready-to-eat meals like TV dinners, fast food delivered by Door Dash or GrubHub, and cookies, candies, and cakes. We begin to realize we are smack dab in the middle of a “Healthy Lifestyle apocalypse.”
I used to think family meals were reserved for special occasions like Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, and birthdays. Those kind of moments only happened if extended family was in town. I grew up the same as many, dinner plate on the coffee table and eyes glued to the TV, seemingly unaware that there was big button on the remote labeled POWER. The best thing we can do for ourselves and our children is push that big button, turn off the TV, set the table, and meet with one another.
It is the year 2021 and we just rolled through a year where our lives were fully mediated by screens. They were before and they definitely are now. The time is now to think about what a healthy, but technologResearch conducted at Harvard first linked TV watching to obesity ically plugged-in life could look like. more than 25 years ago. Read that again: 25 years ago. Since then we have increased the number of screens into our daily lives. Research • Making screen time recreational and not habitual. also shows that while 63 percent of consumers believe that eating at • Enjoy electronics-free meals. • Involve yourself in face-to-face socialization. home with their families is important, only 30 percent actually share • Cook and prepare food together, instead of choosing delivery. dinner every night. Those numbers come from a September report published by the Food Marketing Institute Foundation. If “boredom” from a lack of tech-stimulation begins to set in, I encourage you, make every effort to continue to limit screen time to less-thanScreen time effects our diet and life style multiple ways. It displaces two-hours. Remove TV and media from the bedrooms. Save TV time our time for physical activity, promotes poor diets via ads, and gives for the weekend. Find a new hobby, go outside get some sunshine, more opportunities for unhealthy snacking and overeating. It even efdraw pictures, play games, sit and talk with an old friend or make new fects our sleep patterns. friend, take off the head phones turn up the music and dance. Make the cognitive choice to do something other than pacify time with pixSo what do we do? How do we put an end to the apocalypse? elated entertainment. It will help create a healthier and happier you! 36 | MOORE MONTHLY | DECEMBER 2021
