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Obama Says May is Fitness Month, Indian Air Force Does Yoga, and NY is Fat

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Following to keep in mind if you're looking for additional motivation to exercise in, say, May:

NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim May 2009, as National Physical Fitness and Sports Month. I call on the American people to take control of their health and wellness by making physical activity...an important part of their daily lives.

Call it Federal boilerplate, or use it to motivate yourself. Not to whine, however, if you happen to be a Republican, about wasteful, meddling government  programs. The Council was created in 1956 by Eisenhower (R), and has been duly renewed every year since. Ike and crew worried that "the nation was becoming soft."

He'd have been seriously freaked out if he lived in East Harlem these days, where two thirds or residents are obese, and there are four junk food restaurants to every "healthy" one. Being a military technocrat, though, he would have loved FoodStat, Scott Stringer's latest brainstorm, which compares health to unhealthy food options by neighborhood in NYC.

Speaking of exercise and the military: "In order to release stress among the air warriors," the Indian Air Force has jumped on the yoga bandwagon, putting 250 officers and personnel through a seven day yoga workshop. There is something odd about mixing ahimsa with fighter pilots, but whatever. The U.S. miliatary is less earthy-crunchy: They're into mixed-martial arts workshops.