For many of us African people who finds ourselves immensed deeply into the western cultures and trends either because of temporary or permanent migration, one of our greatest challenges is leading a healthy lifestyle. There is a lot of positive things about the western civilisations that I would not want to take for granted. It just that thing a set a little bit different from what we are used to. Anything done to an extreme tends to have some negatives effects to it. This is true of the western civilisation. Its all about material, material and acquiring more material! Walking down the great streets of New york, Dallas Texas, Chicago Illinois, Indianapolis Indiana and many others you will be amazed at how fast the world is moving. Its a traffic jungle.
The same traffic you see in the streets and magnificent highways of Americas heartlands, is the same traffic you will see in many homes. In American for example, most people do not even use their stoves for cooking. All they do is go to the restaurants or other eating house also known as fast foods places. There you will find a lot of cars in drive through windows. These are open twenty four hours a day and generate billions of dollars annually. It is a well known fact that they do not offer the best food diets. Over the years some have tried to improve their ingredients to make them a little bit healthier without much success. Needless to say that many fast food outlets have been sued by their clients for allededly "fattening" them.
Given this scenario, no sooner do immigrants find themselves lost in this jungle. In short we are "forced" to live like an average westerner. Always chasing time. Twenty four hours of the day do not seem to be enough any more. We leave home early in the morning and come back late at night. For most its juggling schooling and work. For some its just trying to handle double shifts or two jobs. Whatever the case, nobody can distinguish the different between them and us. We are all in the same bout. Cases are different though, there are some who are just caught in the trends, and there are some who have little or no choice. When I first came here ten yrs ago, it was said that an average American is one week away from being homeless, and now its even worse. Many people lost their homes to the banks in the past five years than any other time.
Days become weeks and weeks become years and soon we gain a lot of weight. There are weigh loss places and gyms of all names brands in every couple of mile distance. This is one money spinning type of business. Most people just join and pay subscription for the whole year or so. The only problem is that they will only go once or twice and that is it. A lot of people are ambitious but not too many are motivated enough to maximise these amazing facilities. No pain no gain. The challenge of going through an organised facility gyms can be both overwhelming and intimidating for starters. Most people expect same day results just like they are used to cooking food at the speed of a lightning through gadgets like microwaves and so on. The idea of working hard and sweating is foreign to them, even though they want to look and feel good, but the process is too hard for them. Where then do we stand as African immigrants health wise? I will continue. (That was just an introduction)
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