2013

Question: Are your friends making you fat?

Question: Are your friends making you fat?
I've advocated for years how important is to associate with people who are positive and like-minded.

Power of association is no secret!


An amazing thing happens when you get around people who you admire, respect and learn from... you grow!  You want to get better at something, go to the person that does it best.  You want to be more fit? Hang around fit people.   You want more happiness?  Hang around with happy people.  Encapsulating the WHY behind this concept, a Mahatma Gandhi quote:

M Gandhi Quote

I had to remind myself of this quote when I opened up an email from  Christie  this morning.  My first reaction was "yay!" another TedX video ( I said that with my inside-sinewy-less-than-positive voice ).  Seriously, when I read the title " The hidden influence of social networks ", who wouldn't have had the same response.  I love Ted talks as much as the next guy, but one can easily lose an afternoon in TedX videos if you aren't careful.  I hit play relunctantly and was immediately hooked.  Nicholas Christakis' presents research proving a direct correlation between one's health and social circles.  His point?  If you have overweight, unhealthy friends, chances are high that you will be overweight and unhealthy.  BAM! #ToldYouSo
Now, headline writers had a field day with our studies. I think the headline in The New York Times was, " Are you packing it on? Blame your fat friends."  What was interesting to us is that the European headline writers had a different take: They said, "Are your friends gaining weight? Perhaps you are to blame."  And we thought this was a very interesting comment on America, and a kind of self-serving, "not my responsibility" kind of phenomenon.

Enjoy the talk and remember next time you are trying to get back on a health and fitness kick, you might not want to enlist your couch potato friends...

[ted id=852]
Share by: