Is Thanksgiving a Mistake?

Thanksgiving

What is it we are really thankful for? I can take a good guess and say that most people are thankful for their good health and the good health of their friends and family. If this is the case, which I believe it is then why do we celebrate by gorging ourselves? Why is it that in the United States that the best way we show what were thankful for is to go and eat a huge meal with our family? How is this seen as an acceptable way to celebrate everything that we are thankful for? Think about it…..

Thanksgiving is a non religious holiday that is celebrated across the United States. We get together with friends and family, all the people we love and sit down and eat everything we want from turkey to dessert, and then sit around and watch football. Is this really what thanksgiving has come too? Why are we not so thankful for our good health that we go out and go for a run with our loved ones instead of piling the food into our bodies? Isn’t this a little crazy if we are being honest? I know that I personally had to go for a nice long run before I went to my aunt’s house for thanksgiving dinner, not because I had the intentions of eating until I could not move, but because I knew that the temptation would be there and that I should better prepare myself. I am a consistent runner and when I am home I always run about the same loop and always see other people out walking, running or biking in my neighborhood. I can sadly say that when I went for my run thanksgiving morning that I only saw one other person out their working on their health like I was. This made me sick.

What also made me very upset was watching my family what everything that was offered to them without hesitation. Pie, cookies, mountains of mashed potatoes etc… This makes me so upset, because it makes me feel that us physical education teachers are failing. I watched my younger elementary aged cousins go up for seconds and thirds on dessert. This is terrible and it breaks my heart to see children be unhealthy like this and not even knowing what they are doing to themselves. This is also motivation for me to go out there and do the best job that I can to help and make sure that my students are much more physically educated then the people I saw this past weekend.