My battle with the bulge

Spring is here and it is time to get in shape. 
Let’s face it, most Canadians are not in the best physical shape.  As a First Nation person, I can say that the Native peoples of Canada are generally in really bad shape.
For the past 10 years, I have been struggling to keep my weight down. I eat too much and I don’t exercise enough. This past winter, I scared the heck out of myself when I hit 200 pounds for the first time and I am five feet eleven inches. People say I wear my weight well but I don’t feel great and as I am becoming middle aged, it is becoming a problem.
It is a fact that First Nation people right across this country are dealing with all kinds of disease related to obesity and poor nutrition. In a lot of remote First Nation communities it is difficult to access inexpensive high nutritional foods. We end up eating lots of canned junk, wieners, sausages, processed meats, pastas and breads. We don’t have a lot of fruit and vegetables in our diet because they have to be shipped long distances by air and that makes them expensive. They are also not appetizing to people because most of the fruits and vegetables that arrive are the cheapest that can be bought and they are not fresh.
Diabetes and heart disease are two major negative results of our poor lifestyle these days. Many First Nation people are dying too young because of these diseases or they end up incapacitated at an early age.
As a matter of fact First Nation people are predisposed to diabetes.  Several years ago, there was a scientific study in northwestern Ontario that looked into why Aboriginal communities had higher than average numbers of cases of diabetes. The study concluded that Aboriginal people may be more genetically predisposed to this disease because of our natural lifestyle.  Before we were exposed to the European culture, First Nation people followed a more natural life cycle that included periods of abundant natural food and times of famine when food was scarce. Our bodies adapted to this situation by essentially gorging ourselves during times of feasting because we knew that periods of famine could occur at any time.
It is believed that this genetic predisposition has contributed to the present situation of Aboriginal people in modern times. We are living in times of feasting with no sign of famine in the future. Our bodies are accumulating food stores for a famine that will never come.
Add to this fact that for the past few decades my people have been watching television while snacking on chips, pop, hot dogs and pizza. This has resulted in a lot of overweight couch potatoes. I know because I am guilty of this lifestyle too. On top of all this for the past 10 years, just about everybody has also moved to surfing the internet for hours and hours and hours.  The result has been disastrous. This is killing us slowly.
So, here I am with a new start and the spring season to make an effort to get in shape. 
Actually I found the hardest part was to get up and start exercising.  However, once I was past that hurdle, I actually started to enjoy exercising.  I started by just walking. At first, I walked about a kilometer and then very quickly in about a week, I was up to two then later three and then four and five. It didn’t take all that long but the big deal was to keep doing it every day. Once I made it part of my routine, it became easier.
Then I decided to buy an inexpensive treadmill so that I wouldn’t have the excuse of bad weather.  I even placed a television set in front of it so that instead of sitting on the couch watching my favourite programs I was burning off calories.  Once I started exercising I found I was more reluctant to eat junk food and I became interested in eating healthy.
It is up to us if we want to be around to see our children grow up and enjoy life with family and friends. One of the secrets is to exercise at least once a day and try to eat well. It is not easy and it is a constant struggle for me but wow am I feeling good these days.