“And then there are
some things, that you are just wasting your money on, like organics! People have lived for thousands of years
without organics, and now this whole organics craze has got me paying double
when my wife goes to the grocery store.”
My mouth hung open, I couldn’t believe that my well-educated college professor
was saying this. Living without organics
for thousands of years? No actually its only very recently you could get things
non-organic. Its only in the past 50 years
that un-natural chemicals have been used in the production of our foods. Since then, we (Americans) have found
ourselves becoming increasingly unhealthy.
That professor is not alone in his thinking, so many of my friends agree
whenever we talk on the issue of health “Its just soooo expensive, I want to do
it, but I just can’t afford it!” “Going
to a drive through is just so much cheaper and easier.” It doesn’t stop with organic foods
either. Constantly we hear parents
complain about how much effort it takes to organize children into doing
physical activity and it is “just easier to put them in front of the TV’
We constantly say that
we don’t have the time or money to eat the way we should, but is that really
it? Or is it simply the big companies who gave us drive through lanes, video
games, and cable TV want us to believe that buying into their unhealthy
products makes life easier and cheaper.
When you buy organically yes you’re paying more, on average it is about
a 20%-40% markup, however, when you go through that easy drive through you are
paying 3X as much for the low quality food that you are getting. Not to mention the cost of the gas to drive
to the drive through for every meal as opposed to the one trip to the grocery
store a week.
If you order off the
breakfast dollar menu, you will probably spend about $3 per person. Seems cheap enough, until you consider the
actual math of the situation; at home my
organic eggs cost $2.50 per dozen, that is about 20 cents per egg, I eat my
eggs with toast which is the most expensive bread you can buy (100% Whole
grain, Whole wheat) at $7 for 16 slices, that’s 44 cents per slice. So, if I ate two slices of bread and two
eggs, which is much more food than the dollar menu meal provided I will spend
$1.28, less than half what I spent on breakfast for far more. The time you spend making an egg into
whatever way you want (except for hard boil but you can make those in advanced
while doing other things) is about the same if not less time than you will
spend in the drive through on their quickest days. The same formulas can be used for any meal
and for all of them you can come up with simple, more filling, cheaper,
quicker, and healthier meals every single time.
Eating Healthy foods is
only half the equation, exercise is also part of it. We always hear parents complaining that it is
easier to put their child in front of the television than to have to go through
the time and money it takes to organize them into sports. However, they are forgetting that, it cost
quite a bit of money for all the electronic equipment, the monthly cable fee,
and that lovely air conditioning you have blowing through your child’s climate
controlled environment. To send them outside
to play, is well, free! Yep, that’s right
the most you as a parent have to do is stick your child on the front porch and
lock the door, and guess what within 5 minutes, they have come up with their
own game to entertain themselves with for free!
I’m not saying don’t keep an eye on them, but children can actually
manage themselves when left to their own devices, and first and foremost, they
will find a way to entertain themselves.
Often they find entertainment, not by sitting down and lethargically staring
at rocks, but by running around, playing tag, chasing birds, and getting
physical activity.
The same goes for us as
well, we say we don’t have the time to exercise, and then take every available
moment to sit down, after spending full days sitting. The key to our problem is that we have taken
unhealthy treats such as fast food, cable, and video games, and tried to turn
them into our lifestyles. As a result,
we have seen extraordinary obesity and diabetes in our world. Our bodies are revolting against our own
treats and failed attempts to spoil it! Our bodies need healthy foods and they crave exercise. So why not be lazy, and give in to the
healthy lifestyle, because at the end of the day it’s actually easier!
Sources:
No comments:
Post a Comment