Today’s issue of The Oklahoman, featured online at newsok.com, has an article by Bryan Dean detailing the mayor of Oklahoma City’s plan to have the entire city go on a diet.  Evidently the Mayor launched a new website on 12/31/2007 called thiscityisgoingonadiet.com and is encouraging residents of Oklahoma City to register on the site and subsequently track their weight loss.

According to The Oklahoman article:

The goal is for the city to lose 1 million pounds. The effort was in response to the city’s continued inclusion on lists of the nation’s fattest cities.

I think that the Mayor’s idea is fantastic, what better way to lose weight than to do it with tens of thousands of your closest friends? All joking aside, this is a great plan and it has garnered national media attention. Obesity, and even more so childhood obesity, has reached truly epidemic proportions in the United States. The children of the United States, for the first time in decades, have a shorter life expectancy than their parents mostly due to obesity.

It is time for everyone to get on this weight loss and get healthy bandwagon. The entire country’s future is truly at stake. I love to read, a new book I’ve found is called Eat This Not That: Thousands of Simple Food Swaps That Can Save You 10, 20, 30 Pounds-or More! I highly recommend this book as there are some pretty simple to implement steps in there that will make a huge difference on your efforts to lose weight. Staying on a diet for life is not only unrealistic, it doesn’t usually work. Making lifestyle changes is truly the only way to get that weight off, and keep it off. Using some of the ideas from the book will help you with your new life!