The Couch Potato Crisis

By now, everyone knows that inactivity and extra pounds are dangerous to health. But what else? Money. Both individual and community resources get eaten up (so to speak) by obesity. Someone has taken the time to calculate the community costs and, while you may not need to know that much, Active Living Leadership gives some enlightening and, in some cases, sad facts and figures. The most disappointing to me is from a 1995 USDOT study that concluded that 25% of all trips in the US are less than a mile in length, and that 75% of those trips are made in a car. Am I the only one who feels virtuous and self-righteous when I can combine physical activity (bike riding or walking) with an errand or two?