As if offering over-sized portions wasn't bad enough, it seems even the floor plans of restaurants are poised to support the growing obesity epidemic plaguing America.
At the National Restaurant Association's (NRA) conference, a number of NRA members and show exhibitors exposed their plans to introduce a new look by making restaurant furniture larger in an effort to please their ballooning customers. The conference featured numerous displays of super-sized furniture for super-sized diners.
Supporting the Transition
Chili's Grill & Bar is one restaurant that has begun testing roomier eating spaces and is tossing around the idea of refurbishing outlets with tables up to a foot larger than before. In fact, according to the chain's vice president of systems and technology:
The other conventionally sized tables can be uncomfortable.
When a customer sits at them, they're too small.
The biggest issue with expanding tables and eating spaces in restaurants, however, is that in light of building code restrictions for aisle space between tables, it may be hard to do that in more than 1,000 locations without giving up seating capacity.
Additionally, a table and chair vendor says he's rethinking the design of some of his chairs with side arms to provide more space -- yet some chairs have almost a foot of space between the armrests already.
Dallas Morning News May 22, 2005 (Registration Required)
Washington Times May 23, 2005
Many of us have chosen convenience instead of health when we consider our food choices. This indulgence is one of the primary causes of the obesity epidemic. You simply can't stay healthy unless you or someone that works for or with you spends some quality time in the kitchen.
One of the downsides of technology is that it allows us the opportunity to achieve more with less physical effort. It becomes very easy to stop exercising and, unless you become proactive and regularly schedule your exercise in, it just won't get done.
I could remove sleep from my life and duplicate myself, and I wouldn't even begin to make a dent in the list of tasks I would like to complete. However, I always make time for exercise and have done so for nearly 40 years. I believe it is one of the reasons why I have been able to get so much done.
You simply have to take time to stop and sharpen your axe if you hope to be effective in chopping wood. If you don't stop and instead continue to chop with a dull axe, you simply won't be very productive.
Similarly, if you don't stop your normal routine and designate time to exercise then you will lose your personal efficiency. You simply were designed to exercise, though generations ago you wouldn't have had to as your work was your exercise. Today, very few of us have a job that satisfies our exercise requirements.
It seems clear as daylight to me that if more of us abided by this philosophy and made some relatively simple food-choice changes the obesity epidemic would disappear overnight.
It is a sad commentary, indeed, that restaurants are forced to accommodate the obesity epidemic. They simply don't have a choice -- they need to address the public's need and the U.S. public is overweight.
The solution, of course, is to address the cause. In addition to the exercise, let's go through the drill of the other strategies you can take to normalize your weight.
Eliminate or reduce "fast" carbs like grains and sugars from your diet.
Eat smarter by following a diet for your body's unique metabolic type.
Take control of destructive emotional habits by learning the Emotional Freedom Technique, the energy psychology tool I use daily in my practice.
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