Local News Comments

Why don't we start by allowing affordable fitness centers to build in our county? But instead we are monopolized with a fitness center that charges a Ton of money for a basic membership and gets away with it do to the lack of options.

If you listen to kvml you will hear a public service announcement for healthy eating and that 40% of children are obese. Then five minutes later you hear the ad that people are going hungry and one in four don't get enough to eat.
I wish the government would make up their mind. Are we a nation of fat slobs,
or are we hard working people that don't get enough to eat and go to bed hungry?

AMEN Fire0124. The cost of gym membership in this county is OUTRAGEOUS!!! I haven't belonged to a gym in 15 years because the cost is ridiculous and I can't justify spending what they charge. How about Planet Fitness...I heard they charge $10.00 per month. So...I walk, ride my mountain bike, do P90X with a friend, play tennis, do pushups, use FIT TV etc. All are free. People need to eat smart and MOVE their bodies! We have become a complacent, lazy society.

I agree with Fire. affordable fitness centers would be great, but...people will still need to get up and go. Weight is a very personal topic. I'm probably 15 pounds overweight but it's not anyones business but mine. Leave people alone and let them live. Not everyone has the money or means to eat portion controlled gormet food. Some people eat what they can find. You health nuts and people with money need to mind your own business. If you're not overweight good for you. Flaunt your ego somewhere else. Leave people alone. Some sidewalks would be nice. All doctors say walking is good. Give our city and county some sidewalks. Maybe the cars won't kill us as quickly while we are walking.

Agreed people need to take personal responsibility for their bodies and lifestyle BUT healthy, quality food is generally more expensive. Something like 60% plus of the food in the average grocery store is corn syrup based. Something is very wrong when a 2 liter bottle of soda costs less than a head of broccoli. We won't see a significant change in the obesity rate until wages are higher and there are more opportunities for higher learning and skilled trades.

Obesity is like the weather - everyone talks about it, but no-one does anything. When someone like Mayor Bloomfield in New York tries to take action against one of the biggest scourges to public health in the country, namely large containers of soda, he gets attacked from both right and left for "restricting personal freedoms", which presumably include the right to become obese and be a drag on the public health system. These drinks need to be banned, not restricted, or else have the bejabbers taxed out of them, with the revenues going back into health education or fitness centers. It continually boggles my mind how people won't acknowledge how dangerous to their health these drinks are - the bad effects of sugar on the human body have been known for years, but no-one pays any attention!

You do not need a fitness center to be fit. Walking is free. A person can use their own body for resistance to build muscle (pushups, ab work etc...). An example of this would be look any Marine that gets out of boot camp. They are in the best shape they will ever be and no expensive club, or machines.

A person could even go buy some small hand weights and resistance bands at sporting goods store, or large chain store (Walmart)for very little money.

So please don't blame a business person for attempting to make a living. If people did not want their service, or people could not afford it they would go out of business (like many Gyms do in this country).

I agree with Fire! I can't afford the fitness centers in the area. As far as walk-ability is concerned, I live on Middle Camp Rd it's not safe to walk anywhere from home.

Healthy eating is one's own choice!! To anyone that says they are happy being over weight well I guess good for you, but it is bad for you. I can say that because I was 63 pounds over weight and I felt like crude. I've lost 52 pounds so far just by giving up alcohol, walking, cycling, weight lifting and using the elliptical machine. I am from Calaveras county and the only fitness center they have here is ridiculously priced.I live in Florida now and I do workout at planet fitness and they are affordable. But really no business wants to come to a small area where people won't give it a chance!! Except McDonalds and all the other grease pits, because people do support that!!

Agreed, the price for gym membership here is RIDICULOUS. Why?
We DO have so much around us, which is free. Admittedly, I too take it for granted.
It does not take money to eat healthy. There is nothing "gourmet" about fruits and vegetables, lean meat, eggs, beans, nuts and seeds. And water. That's common sense, y'all, no? Plus, if what you say is true, then richer people would be thinner and the less rich, fat and sick. Well, without getting into it, we all know that wealthy people are not all necessarily lean. What could be more worth investing in than what you are literally made of?

Kudos to whomever started a community garden in Twain Harte. Can we do MORE of that and get children involved?!

This is a great affect for TC of the Affordable Health Care Act! That's 'Obamacare', to y'all

PS, Romeo, we are both: fat slobs and starving bags of bones...interesting and familiar, no?

Coachdad-
Marines do not get that way by taking free walks! They have programs and encouragement through peers and superiors positively or negively but still encouragement. Remind you of gym trainers? Or gym "boot camps"?
Do I want to keep my cardio up by running the side of longeway, jumping over snow berms that cal trans has built up over the winter while dodging sliding vehicles? No! I would rather do that in a gym.. Just ask yourself why does this county not let a golds gym or 24 hour fitness in? Why did gym fees go up 75% from when I went 10 years ago? Because they can!! Monopoly!

Guaranteed if a 24 hour fitness was ALLOWED to open up here, these others would be shut down in monthes!

Just to clarify an inaccuracy in the article... OBESITY IS NOT A DISEASE.

Hey all you liberals I have an idea. Why doesn't the county build a top notch fitness center with free membership and serve free healthy meals too. That would put those greedy capitalist fitness centers out of business as they should be !!! BTW I hadn't realized we had a ban on affordable fitness centers in this county ???? Oh and before I forget lets shut down every restaurant that sells unhealthy food too because everyone knows we are too stupid to know better than to dine there more than we should. Now there I think that will fix things for a while :-)

Call the mayor of new YAWWWWWWK! He can suggest banning things like soft drinks, forks...you know...maybe napkins.
You want action against obesity? PUT DOWN THE * FORK!
ONLY YOU CAN PREVENT BRAIN CALICIFICATION!


Sheesh....
like we need a committee to tell people to not get fat...etc
...idiots.

Lets see here....Sugar drinks and Soda you say. When we were kids growing up we drank soda and ate candy like no tomorrow. Drank a gallon of sweet tea a day because our water tasted so bad. From 8 to 5, we were outside playing unless we had homework. We swam, played baseball, football, Basketball, fished, shot our pallet guns. Did a lot of surfing at the beach. We did not have Xbox and play station. Mom would kick us out to go play and we would show up for a snack. IDK, maybe its all the growth hormones pumped into the food chain. Cows, pigs, chickens, and the list goes on. There is a lot of genetically modified food out there we never had. Maybe it is a sigh of the times, but i dont see kids playing outside like they use to.

I am fat and i want the government to do something about it...NOW !!!

Ravvy:)

But your CUTE fat!

haha, case in point! It IS common sense!

It's not expensive to be healthy. The article is actually about the county getting federal money from the Affordable health care act!

Thank you Obama! Another way this act is GOOD thing!!

PS, RMrCommonSense, I know you're being facetious, but this story and the comments prove that not everyone is endowed with abundance of knowledge and common sense like you.

I'd like to quote MCCLINTOCK: Deteriorating health care is government's fault. (Sep 1997)

Love this idea of people wanting to get more healthy in TC! When people are healthier, they can think better :)