Moses+B's+Final+AmEx+2015+Speech


 * A New Generation Fitness **

Boom! Headshot. Double kill, triple kill, quad feed, posterized. These are all the things that we want to do in video games like call of duty, battlefield, NBA 2k15 and other popular video games. We spend countless hours playing video games trying to unlock things that will not do anything for us. But what good does it do to sit on a couch all day eating flaming hot cheetos and drinking coca cola? In America 1 in 3 kids are obese due to a lack of physical activity. This attitude of laziness and apathy is the new normal lifestyle of kids, and it is starting to become a problem. I see an America where kids are involved in sports, where parents make health conscious choices, enroll their kids in sports, and take a stand, promoting a healthy and fit generation.

So what can we do to promote physical activity of american kids? We need to start with parent involvement. The parents are the ones who can start the process of physical fitness since they have the money and control of their kids. Parents need to put their kids into sports at a young age. Doing sports does not only improve the fitness level, it improves the mind as well. It has been proven that kids who play sports or do other activities outside of school, have better test scores and grades in middle school and high school. Kids who have played sports since they were little kids are able to focus more in school. They have been introduced to the “real world”. They know how to interact with different kids because they had to cooperate with them in their sports.

Being physically fit and playing sports also builds confidence. Part of the reason people are overweight and don’t participate in a physical activity is because they are not comfortable with their body. They don’t want to workout in front of other people because they think that they will be made fun of. We need to change this by promoting the activeness of the youth. I don’t want to see an America where kids don’t enjoy playing basketball because they don’t think they are physically capable. I want to see everyone involved in sports. I want to see everyone being fit and having fun.

Playing sports also builds friendships. I have made friends in all the sports that I have played, basketball, soccer, baseball, water polo, cross country, track, and swimming. I am still friends with all of these people to this day. Having a good friendship helps us face adverse events. Friendships are the most important type of people in our lives next to family so why not be active and make one at the same time. Having a friend builds confidence. We always feel more comfortable when we bring a friend somewhere. If we need to do community service, we ask a friend to come because we don’t want to feel left out or awkward. The point is that we need friends in our lives, they give us support, advice, and comfort. Participating in a sport will bring you fitness, confidence, and friendships.

But what really holds us back from being fit is the type of food that we eat. I mean come on, McDonalds Big Mac and the McFlurry. The last time that I ate that I felt like I was going to throw up. And what about the advertisements of these types of foods? At McDonald's they give you a choice of either buying a small soda for one dollar or a large one for the same price? Which one are you going to buy? Obviously the large one, it's a better price and you get way more.

The other day I went to Toppers with my family and we ate 4 large pizzas for about 10 of us. We didn’t touch the last large box of pizza at all because of how full we were. But then my dad and I were looking at a picture of the ice-cream chocolate chip cookie that was on the table, and it said “buy 2 get 1 free”. I love these giant cookies, even though I already ate about 6 slices of pizza i was still “hungry” for the ice cream. Small advertisements like encourage us to eat more than we need too. We need to change the way that we eat. We need to be able to look at the Sausage Egg McMuffin poster at McDonalds and say “that looks like a dead animal”. We need to set an example of healthiness for the younger generation by getting rid of these types of foods. It will help them to become more fit and active.

This is a weird example but have you guys seen the movie Wall-E? If you haven’t, the disney movie takes place in the future where planet earth is destroyed and when the main character wall-e goes into space where all the humans evacuated, he sees all the humans overweight, floating on hover chairs. Personally I think the hover chairs are coolbut I don’t want to see the entire world using them because of how fat they are.

We as a nation, can fix the problem of fitness in America. We can cure the youth of feebleness by putting them in physical activities, giving them confidence, and boycotting foods that are unhealthy for them. I want to see an America where kids are happy, self-confident, fit, and involved in sports, a nation that is ready for the future.

http://www.cdc.gov/healthyyouth/obesity/facts.htm
 * Sources: **
 * Centers for Disease Control and Prevention **