The United States is battling obesity—and kind of winning. The number of normal weight people at 36.6 percent outweighs (no pun intended) the number of overweight people at 35.8 percent for the first time in over three years, according to a recent Gallup poll.

The poll’s authors have come up with theories as to why this is true. First Lady Michelle Obama formed her “Let’s Move!” campaign; the food pyramid was flattened to the food plate. Because of the unhealthy trend being called an “epidemic,” media has also raised more awareness to the issue.

While this might be a victory for the United States, it still does not change the fact that we have ranked moderately high in the list of overweight countries and that the remaining 25.8 percent of Americans are still obese, according to a September 2010 HuffPost World article and the Gallup poll.

Advertising has contributed to this. Watching cable on uneventful afternoons, I notice constant food and restaurant commercials mingled with exercise equipment and get-slim-quick diet commercials. We are made to want that new Chick-Fil-A chicken sandwich or Wendy’s triple decker hamburger, while immediately being told to buy the newest treadmill or elliptical with those oh-so-easy payment plans. No wonder why people get confused about health.

Celebrities have not helped with this conflicting issue either. We see the skinny heroine and buff hero in movies and television shows, but often forget she and he work out constantly. We see the slim model on Vogue and fit male on GQ but forget that the art of airbrushing exists. Also, some celebrities succumb to unadvisable ways of losing weight, like crash diets; however, known figures such as Queen Latifah do counteract the stick-figure images with their proud curvy images.

The current economy tends to limit people too. Walking into Wal-Mart, the consumer sees high prices on fresh fruits and vegetables, the very foods that doctors and health experts preach for people to eat. The consumer may also not have a high-paying job that allows him or her to choose freely from the produce buffet; however, canned fruits and vegetables offer the food-plate/pyramid daily requirement of fruit and vegetables at a lower cost; you just have to be aware of the syrups and juices they might be doused in.

Not everyone is meant to be a size zero. If that was the universal goal, we would have the opposite problem. Some people look at their round stomachs and wide hips and embrace the extra curves, which is fine.

It is up to the person to get fit. You don’t have to shell out a lot of money for a gym membership, just go outside and walk around your neighborhood. You don’t have to eat like a rabbit, just include fruit and vegetables into your diet.

Losing weight isn’t easy. For it to really stick, you need to quit the lose-weight-fast schemes and go with the lessons of your grade school health class: exercise and eat healthy.

You don’t have anyone to impress but yourself. If you are content with the way you are, far be it for me to suggest you change. You have to decide what is right for you. Just be aware of the health risks you could face with your choices; same is true with underweight and even normal weight people.

We are a quick-moving corporation of a nation. Sometimes the swiftness of fast food and the demands of jobs can prevent us from taking proper care of ourselves. At the end of the day, we might not want to chew a salad then go to Zumba, but instead gorge on Cheetos while watching “The Simpsons.” Everyone has a right to eat and move as he or she pleases, and not even Michelle Obama can make you budge unless you want to.