Thursday, September 29, 2005
* Apathy kills.
So I was pondering the other day about our apathy. Our apathy as a society - everything from voting to exercise to our health and so on. What drives this? How could we come so far from fighting for our freedom from England to the point where we barely have the desire to vote in a presidential election - much less, a local one. I'm convinced it is a disease of the spirit. Somewhere, someplace, somehow, in the past of each person who has given up on something important in their life, a disease was picked up that seems to have no cure, antidote, or antivenom to overcome it.
To single out health and fitness - yes, once again - it is curious to me that this is such a widespread problem - an epidemic even. Akin to the chicken and the egg, does our laziness come from a poor diet or does our poor diet come from our laziness to put energy into one of the most important things in our lives?
$75 billion to treat obesity in 2003. $75 billion.
Regarding 1 billion:
It seems to me that it really does start with the nutrition (the nutrition being the "chicken") and because we have skimped on our diet, avoided taking action, misspent on foods that our bodies can't process (just look at the shelves and shelves of space in every grocery that are dedicated to antacids and laxatives), misplanned our meal planning, misdirected resources, and disbelieved that we could achieve better health we have created a medical system that is bent on writing prescriptions to treat symptoms not problems and we have created a monster of obesity that WILL overwhelm our medical society in this generation - or if it doesn't overwhelm it doctors will be writing prescriptions faster than the drug companies can keep up.
Our lack of proper nutrition has left us in such a state of inactivity that we don't have the energy to get up before work and exercise because we sleep so poorly (how many are kept up all night because of acid reflux from eating poorly all day?). How many of us cannot get up the gumption to exercise after work because we are too exhausted after barely being able to get up in time for work and then eating so poorly all day that we have nothing left at 5pm? How many of us work such demanding jobs that we can't break away to exercise even at lunchtime to take care of whats most important - ourselves. How many of us don't even have the energy to enjoy any sort of recreation on our weekends because we are so spent or unmotivated?
$8.8 billion is spent on energy drinks yearly. The sales of energy drinks grew by 38% in 2004. We need the "get up and go" apparently.
Believe me - I've done all of the above. I'm not pointing fingers or speaking of anything I haven't experienced myself. And we all need some downtime to just sit around, recharge and do absolutely nothing. But because I have been there and done all of that, and since I've broken through and broken away, my life will never be the same again.
What category will YOU fall into?
To single out health and fitness - yes, once again - it is curious to me that this is such a widespread problem - an epidemic even. Akin to the chicken and the egg, does our laziness come from a poor diet or does our poor diet come from our laziness to put energy into one of the most important things in our lives?
$75 billion to treat obesity in 2003. $75 billion.
Regarding 1 billion:
A billion seconds ago it was 1959.
A billion minutes ago Jesus was alive.
A billion hours ago our ancestors were living in the Stone Age.
A billion dollars ago was only 8 hours and 20 minutes, at the rate Washington spends it.
It seems to me that it really does start with the nutrition (the nutrition being the "chicken") and because we have skimped on our diet, avoided taking action, misspent on foods that our bodies can't process (just look at the shelves and shelves of space in every grocery that are dedicated to antacids and laxatives), misplanned our meal planning, misdirected resources, and disbelieved that we could achieve better health we have created a medical system that is bent on writing prescriptions to treat symptoms not problems and we have created a monster of obesity that WILL overwhelm our medical society in this generation - or if it doesn't overwhelm it doctors will be writing prescriptions faster than the drug companies can keep up.
Our lack of proper nutrition has left us in such a state of inactivity that we don't have the energy to get up before work and exercise because we sleep so poorly (how many are kept up all night because of acid reflux from eating poorly all day?). How many of us cannot get up the gumption to exercise after work because we are too exhausted after barely being able to get up in time for work and then eating so poorly all day that we have nothing left at 5pm? How many of us work such demanding jobs that we can't break away to exercise even at lunchtime to take care of whats most important - ourselves. How many of us don't even have the energy to enjoy any sort of recreation on our weekends because we are so spent or unmotivated?
$8.8 billion is spent on energy drinks yearly. The sales of energy drinks grew by 38% in 2004. We need the "get up and go" apparently.
Believe me - I've done all of the above. I'm not pointing fingers or speaking of anything I haven't experienced myself. And we all need some downtime to just sit around, recharge and do absolutely nothing. But because I have been there and done all of that, and since I've broken through and broken away, my life will never be the same again.
What category will YOU fall into?
