Panda rambelings, Money and Health

[windwalker]

I was thinking last night about how interrelated money and health are in the world today. To start with, money gives us options, options we wouldn't have without it. A healthy body does the same it gives us options. We can literally do things with a strong healthy body that we couldn't do without it. I'm not talking about just sports either but an endless range of activities. We can do everything from playing with the kids to having a satisfying love life if we keep our selves in good physical shape.

Money is the number one cause of stress in this country. Yep, tons of studies out there to back that up. Husbands and wives fuss over money even more than the children or sex now, surveys show. What do people do when they are stressed, they eat or spend money, or both. It's a good bet that if your credit card debt is out of control so is your waistline.

Another problem that is that when times get tight the health related stuff is cut back first, expenses like workout clothes, gym memberships and race related expenses are out the window. Then we eat to ease our stress and not the veggie burger either but comfort food. Did you know that since we went into this current economy crisis that fast food places are still doing super. Fast food, ice cream and movie rental stores are thriving, so are the sales of beer and cigarettes. Yep even with the mega taxes on cigarettes they are still selling well.

Now what is wrong with this picture? We are in a budget crunch and we can still afford to go to Wendy's or pick up a bucket of Kentucky Fried, but we can't swing a new pair of exercise shoes to replace the ones hurting our feet. I saw someone at the Minute Mart the other day, looked like a laborer worker of some sort and he was getting two hot dogs and a coke then asked for a pack of cigarettes. Well when he found out the price of the smokes he put the hot dogs back and just got the coke and the cigarettes.

Right now a lot of us are slapped silly by the economy. But we can't loose sight of what's really important. Remember this mess will end and wouldn't it be nice if it ended with us still having a healthy strong body instead of us weighing fifty more pounds and stressing about that also.

Thanks for reading.

Healthy Panda

 

[GrumpyOne]

That the unhealthy comfort items are doing brisk sales doesn't suprise me. Recently, I read an article talking about the best stocks to buy in a severe downturn. It refered to the stocks that did best during the Great Depression. While there were a few old standby industries, logging was the best back then, stocks that dealt with vices comprised about 1/2 the list.

It's unfortunate but unhealthy food is often cheaper than healthy food, on a per calorie basis, and eating healthy takes more effort. What's most disappointing is that exercise and eating right tend to lower stress levels but since they take effort and everyone is tired from being stressed, it's easy to procrastinate until the tomorrow that never comes.