Will Atkins-17-Speech

An entire container of cinnamon rolls, and 2 glasses of orange juice. Breakfast. A double quarter pounder with cheese, a large fry, a large Dr. Pepper, and a McFlurry. Lunch. A 12 inch in diameter pepperoni pizza, and a glass of milk. Dinner. Those are my meals from this past Saturday. While some of you may be appalled at how such a tiny human being can devour such copious amounts of food, I would like to point out that between lunch and dinner I ran 4 miles. You might say, "Blasphemy, such a meager child cannot consume such fattening cuisine and remain as skinny as he stand before me today." 

Well I'm here to tell you No. It is possible, because in the scheme of things, I could eat whatever I want, excuse me, I do eat whatever I want, and I have problems keeping my weight up. Some of you as I look at you now are glaring at me because you're on a diet but can't lose any weight. Go ahead. Think of me as the jerk who's enjoying his teenage years of super fast metabolism. Think of me as the kid who's skinny as a rail only until that metabolism dies come adulthood, causing me to inflate as if some sort of balloon. Think of me as that. 

Go ahead. 

Because while you're gawking at me, I'll be grabbing a double quarter pounder with cheese as I go outside. Wait? Go outside? "Will, are you saying that eating a burger while playing outside is better than eating a salad while eating TV?" I am. 

Think about it this way, according to the McDonald's website, a double quarter pounder with cheese is 750 calories, and according to caloriecount.com, a standard Caesar salad is 300 calories. Let's say you take part in the NFL's "Play 60" campaign, and you participated in 60 minutes of non-strenuous but aerobic activities, according to healthstatus.com, you would burn 754 calories. 4 more calories than you needed to. However if you read or watched TV for that same amount of time, you would burn 75 calories of 300 calorie salad. You see what I'm getting at? 

If you don't, listen to this, in Michelle Obama's "Let's Move" campaign against childhood obesity, the First Lady reinforces the idea that, "without exercise, kids can develop a range of chronic diseases, including heart disease, cancer, and stroke, which are the three leading causes of death."  Obama's campaign also states that kids are spending an average of seven and a half hours a day using non-excercise related electronics. This further explains the need for physical activity in children's lives.

Don't get me wrong, Diet is extremely important. Some people live very busy lives. Some people don't have time to run outside for a few minutes. Some people don't have someone to play with. I get it. And for those people, eat a salad if you can. But if you're lucky enough to do some physical activity like I am, enjoy it. and then go eat a burger.