Wednesday, December 1, 2021 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon Fit For Sisters Andrew Loscutoff Columnist Is your weight a social dilemma? How much of a person9s behavior is free will? Do people actually have a say in their health and wellness? It turns out, free will is second to what others around us are doing in regards to obesity and exercise habits. Behavioral psychology and health studies are reveal- ing that a person9s body weight is tied to their social network. Not Facebook or Twitter, but real-life net- work. In the New England Journal of Medicine, 10,000 subjects were analyzed with lifestyle questionnaires. Results showed people have a 45 percent higher chance of becoming obese if the people around them are obese. If they are friends or family, chances were even higher at 57 percent. What is going on here? We think we possess the state of mind to make our own choices and use ratio- nality and motivation to make decisions. This notion quickly crumbles when we go out with colleagues and a pitcher of beer and baskets of chips are on the table. Or when a compassionate friend bakes a cake to help one overcome a hard time. What others are doing quickly becomes part of us. Adolescence is even worse. Going home to junk food, convenient foods, and takeout is only showing a growing mind that cheap and easy is the proper way to feed themselves. In college, the