By CASEY CAMPBELL

Staff Writer

For the past few weeks, it seems like every issue of the Crier has had an article focused on obesity, the most disastrous scourge striking America today. Stories about the fattening of our nation can be heard on the nightly news and read in the daily newspapers each day as well, and it's clear the issue is not going away anytime soon.

And with good reason. While our government bungles the war on terror and overdoses on the wrong antidotes to the war on drugs, we American citizens are desperately losing the war on obesity.

In fact, it seems as if most of us are barely even fighting, choosing instead to simply roll over and let our waistlines expand while our life expectancies plummet. Sure, lots of us exercise once in a while and have cut our Twinkie intake down from two a day to just two a week, but at large, we're not making gains. Or rather, losses. Those Oreos are just too darn tasty.

I say this not as some aloof observer or pundit taking potshots from the sidelines, but as a frontline soldier _ a doughboy, I guess _ deeply entrenched in my own personal Battle of the Bulge.

While I won't shock and awe you with the figures, I will say that I am quite a large fellow with a BMI (Body Mass Index, Google it and learn more about this important figure now) well into the red zone.

Like most of my fellow fatties, I've tried reducing my calories and attempted to exercise regularly, but I've yet to shake the largely sedentary lifestyle that I suspect thwarts most modest diet and exercise plans. In short, I sit around way too much, typically while playing video games or reading.

There are many ways to adjust one's lifestyle to replace immobility with movement and each person needs to find their own way. But as a stalwart defender (what a great, under utilized phrase that is) of the video game generation, I'd like to share an unconventional, but undeniably effective way to get off your butt and on your feet.

It involves a game series called Dance Dance Revolution. The games are fairly simple as far as video games are concerned. It entails standing on a dance pad and stepping on one of four arrows (up, down, left, right) to the beat of various songs. The closer your step is to the beat, the better your score and the higher your score, the better your grade.

The types of song vary, but are mostly of the variety you'd hear in clubs, the kind of thumping boom boom electronic music many adults would prefer not to hear.

There are several degrees of difficulty, with harder songs having more steps coming at a faster pace and including moments where you have to step on two arrows at once.

Often the first few sessions involve frantically hopping around while futilely trying to catch the beat, ending with frustrated defeat. Yet while the beginning is aggravating the beats are catchy and even if you don't like a song, you find yourself coming back to the game, playing until you at least start hitting more steps than you miss.

While I encourage everyone to try this game, I urge parents of video gaming kids to spend the approximately $60 for a copy of the game and a dance pad. Maybe they won't like it at first (it feels awkward and embarrassing to start, so don't pressure them by watching them immediately), but eventually they'll get bored with whatever games they've got and give it a try.

Not only will your kid be sweating during time once spent sitting, but he or she will also learn that with hard work and practice, your scores can improve, as the game's grading system is on an A to E scale, like school.

Start with DDR Max or DDR Extreme 2 for the PlayStation 2 or DDR Ultramix for the Xbox and a soft dance pad. You won't regret it.