Last week I logged in to my Facebook homepage only to see  colors popping up all over the place.

Black, white, pink, red, blue, and so on. 

At first I was confused, but shortly afterward I was informed that this was a fun little game where women posted the color of their bra as status update to promote awareness of breast Cancer.  Although this possibly played into some men’s fantasy of women listing their bra colors as they danced around their rooms with friends having pillow fights, I’m curious to know how many of the women who participated actually did a breast exam that day.  Moreover, I’m curious to know how many of those women have done an exam in the past month.  My guess is that this little game (although fun) probably did little to actually help in creating awareness of breast Cancer among participants.  I would also hazard a guess that it didn’t generate much in the way of donations either.

I think the problem with this overall campaign is that, while it hit thousands of people, it didn’t force people to actually do anything that would force them to discover anything about themselves.  It didn’t remind them to do the two critical things…do an exam or donate.

But what if we could get people to spread the word about another global epidemic and learn something about themselves at the same time?  What if the game itself required the participants to do something that highlighted their own personal risk and alterted them to the problem with a brief dose of reality?

What I’m talking about is that we know now that men with a waist circumference greater than 40 inches (102cm) and women with a waist circumference 35 inches (88cm) are at greater risk of obesity related illness and death.

Can we as intelligent fitness oriented men and women create our own viral message to actually alert those to their own risk?

Even if this doesn’t apply to you, there are probably a few people on your Facebook who need a reality check.  Please post this as your status and let’s see how far this goes.

“Men with waists above 40 inches and women with waists above 35 inches are at risk of obesity related illness and death.  If you’re brave, list your waist measurement.  If not, please repost anyway and raise obesity awareness.  Mine is 32.”

If you’re on Twitter, please retweet.  Let’s change the world one click at a time.

As many of you may know, I believe that reading for an hour per day is paramount if you hope to become a leader in any field.  Fitness and nutrition are no different.  Here is something to get you started for today.

Obesity is a Sign, Overeating is a symptom

One thing that drives me absolutely nuts is when some people in the fitness industry talk about obesity. 

“Get them off the scooters”.

“Tell them they just need to eat less”.

Wow…brilliant deduction Sherlock.  Or you could actually investigate the obesity research to determine that obesity (or excess weight in general) is more complex than just eating less and moving more.  If it were as easy as making a simple recommendation, most of North America wouldn’t have a problem would they?

Check out Dr Arya Sharma’s post above and spend some time on his blog.  It just might change the way you think about obesity.  If you work with people who are overweight, this is an absolute must.