So I will start out by saying that my pet peeve is when someone who does not look disabled presses the elevator button to go one or two floors. It ties up the elevators, which are extremely slow to start with, wastes electricity, and is not a particularly healthy habit. I feel it is emblematic of laziness in general but I know that's not fair and unproven. So the other day someone did that and while silently cursing her I discretely looked her up and down a bit. She was well dressed, put together-looking in general, very young - maybe 22-24. She could maybe have stood to lose 5-8 pounds, but was by no means heavy. Yet. I couldn't tell if she looked like she was an exerciser or not. She looked like a sweet person. Regardless, she had gone to the first floor to get a Coke and a bag of Doritos and took the elevator back to the 2nd. Somehow, assessing this young woman made me really sad for our country. Young people! What is wrong with them today??
She was doing so many things wrong I was just irritated - not at her but at our society that produced her. For some reason I thought she was a nice person. But why was she eating that crap? I don't even think those things taste good. Why didn't she walk the one floor? What was going through her 22 yr old mind? Doesn't she read any of the guilt-inducing media I suffer through daily about our planet and our obese society? Doesn't she care about those of us who work on the 7th floor!? For the record, I do walk often but not always. It depends on what I'm carrying and how energetic I'm feeling. But 7 floors is a lot in an overcoat and with heavy bags.
If we can't get NIH employees living healthier habits then what hope is there?? I mean, I'm kind of kidding, and a lot of NIHers are healthy but there is some truth to the idea that employees of the largest public health institution in the world (I think) should know what healthy habits are and the impact of not partaking in them. There are programs for HealthyFeds, etc. but they're not working well enough.
OK. I will stop now. This is a big topic that I can't even begin to cover. Time to move on.
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