Fighting Obesity Through biking

I took a class called Global Peace. This class was about looking into problems that we might not have even known exist and figuring out where they originate from. We learned about many problems such as racism which is very common in Chicago and many other places, affect our lives. Another massive problem is the clothing industry's way of producing clothes. What they do is have people in third world countries such as Bangladesh go to really bad factories that could collapse at any moment and have them work for hours. What we had to do for this action project was find a problem in our neighborhood. Then we had to try non-violent way to protest the problem and pose a solution. I chose obesity because I really don't like when people are overweight and could do something about it. This issue could be fixed with some simple exercise. What I did was make a video about how to mountain bike and hopefully, it will inspire people to go out and get exercise and get healthier. I posted my video on youtube so that people watch it and more people see it.

I'm addressing child obesity which falls under cultural and structural violence. It addresses culture violence because we don't put enough stress on being fit and healthy then people won't try and be fit. The reason this is also structural is because their neighborhood might not have parks or clubs that they can join so that they can exercise. So it doesn't encourage people to be healthy, and many parents don't encourage their kids to be fit. This leads to millions of children being overweight and unhealthy. This is a form of violence because many of these kids are unhealthy because they are being stopped from getting access to easy exercise.

This problem falls under mutual learning on the ladder of tolerance because they are learning but they aren't doing anything. It also could be understanding because understanding is a lot like mutual learning but a little better. Neither of these is good enough, we have to be at a celebration because that takes action. The reason this problem is happening is because people know the problems and how to fix them but they don't do anything about it.

There is an organization named Let's Move that is also fighting to decrease the number of people with obesity in the U.S. This website has a few different sections containing different information about obesity such as facts about obesity, how to eat healthy, how to get active, and how to take action. They give you activities that you can do such as the Fitbit challenge which is when you have a set workout goal and you have to achieve your workout goal by the end of the two weeks.

I used the Iceberg Model of Conflict Analysis. The first problem was infrastructure, that's a problem because there aren't enough safe roads and facilities for kids to go and get exercise at. My second problem was culture because American people don't put enough stress on being fit so people don't try to be fit and aren't encouraged to go outside and get exercise. Another problem I came up with is the lack of easy access to healthy food, and the easy access to fast food, fast food is a huge contributor to obesity. Possibly the biggest problem is the lack of information that is available on schools, schools need to have more information regarding health and have more health classes.

The purpose of this intervention is to bring attention to a growing problem and to encourage obese people to get out of the house and exercise. I put together a video teaching my sister how to mountain bike. I put this video together so that she gets a taste of something that she can do other than to sit indoors. This video is meant to encourage others to go outside and ride bikes, It's especially directed at those who need it. There are different ways of peacefully protesting these problems so I chose to do a teach-in which is number 50 on the list of 198 ways to peacefully protest. I chose this because it's a great way to bring attention to a problem such as obesity.

This plan directly aligns with Gandhi's Sarvodaya principle because it is definitely non-violent and it seeks to rise up from the bottom. My plan targets the people who are in bad neighborhoods as well as everyone else.

First I'm going to gather the parts to make my video. I'll have to gather bikes, cameras, students, and warm clothes to wear. Then I'll have to go outside and videotape my sister my mom and I riding bikes and me teaching them how to ride properly. After I gather enough video I'll make a final video that I'll post to blogger later. In this final video, I'm going to put together my videos into one longer one that has facts about obesity in it. This should bring awareness to the people watching it.

For this project, I will need two bikes that we already have, warm clothes that we already have, two students one above twenty-five one under eighteen, and finally, I will need a camera, I used a GoPro hero 3 black edition for this project. This project didn't cost me any money because I didn't have to buy anything separate from the materials I had.

I did my project in Lincoln Park by the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum. I carried my plan out on Sunday, December 4th.

There wasn't really anything that could go wrong. But I did plan against the possibility of my sister or my mom injuring themselves before the project started. What I did was I contacted two of my closest friends who also mountain bike and I asked them if they could go if I needed them, they both said yes so even if the unlikely situation of my students getting injured did occur then I would be covered by them.

The method I'm using is very good way to fight against a health issue because youtube is a very popular site. People are constantly on it so attracts many many people that hopefully will click on my video and will be encouraged to try something new and hopefully learn something. They might realize how important and big this issue is and they might even be inclined to donate money towards this cause.

For the intervention, I made a video that showed me teaching my sister how to bike and it is meant to inspire others to go outside and exercise and try and get more fit. My props would be my bike and my sister's bike.

I documented my invention using my camera that I had a chest mount for. I also used an iPhone for the second part of the video.

I hope you learned something about either biking or obesity, get out and get some exercise!