Driving home from church today I saw, for the millionth time, a sign along the highway outside of Dockside Marina.
"You CAN Afford it"
Usually I think to myself, "no I can't."
They're selling boats, and I know full well I can't afford a boat. I can hardly afford everything I already have. Like my car and it's gas and insurance, or my phone bill, or the speeding ticket I still have to pay, or...the list goes on and on.
The fact of today's market is that we are bombarded with sales and people telling us what we need.
We need a new car, because right now they're getting cheap.
We need a house/apartment/condo/ect. Because now is THE time for first time buyers.
We need it to be bigger, faster, better, with more memory, storage, RAM, ect.
Mostly, we apparently need "New". Because old is, well...old, and new is new.
Do we really need new? More and more the answer is yes, because a consumeristic culture has been created and things are actually designed to break. Ask any kid who owns an XBox 360 and has gotten the "red rings of death". That is a fundamental flaw with the system, and if you're unfortunate enough to have this happen after the warranty expires, guess what, you're getting a new XBox and it won't be compliments of Microsoft.
The generation of today is referred to as the age of entitlement. We think we've done something to deserve all this stuff we suddenly own or have the potential to own. We want the newest toys, the nicest cars, and the luxuries our parents worked hard for, and we want them now, and we want them cheap.
We fully accept that absolutely everything is disposable, replaceable and upgradeable. We will spend money we don't have for things we don't need. We want it. And if we want it, we think we have the right to have it. Money doesn't need to grow on trees because it exists in the form of debit and credit cards. Many of us have no clue the damage we are doing to ourselves economically because we really can't see it. It's computerized and it's taken care of.
A lot of my generation comes from homes with families that have worked hard to be well off, and so they never had to work. This doesn't describe me as much, because I've been working since I was 14, and I do pay for all my own stuff.
But the fact is that I too have been sucked into the "must have" way of thinking where I make a purchase without thinking of the financial consequence of it. I realize several days later that I no longer have money for other things I might actually need, like food or gas.
Because of all the things in our lives today we have the attention span of a goldfish, and almost as soon as we have something we're focused on something better, newer and, dare I say it, shinier. We have a million options, and a million things vying for our attention. We're torn by bright ads that claim to offer happiness in a box.
The fact is, they don't.
We can't always have the newest, shiniest, most expensive toy. The world doesn't work like that. An honestly the world shouldn't work like that! Sometimes we should actually have to make do with what we have and be happy with that. But on that note, products shouldn't be designed to break, or need replacing/upgrading in six months.
I'm not sure what the point is, or if there is a lesson to be learned somewhere in here, but the choice is actually out there.
You can choose not to be the blind consumer, buying whatever you're told to buy. You can choose to get by on a little, or a lot. But the fact is you need to make that choice, and it needs to be a conscious decision.
The first thing we all need to do, not just the "age of entitlement", is look at our lives face on and see just how much stuff we have filling up our lives, and how much of it we don't actually need. Then we need to make an effort to change that lifestyle.
Sometimes you need to go through everything you have, clean out the bad, the useless, the unnecessary and get rid of it. If someone else can use it, give it away. Donate it. Just remember that if you don't need it you don't need to hold on to it. Having stuff doesn't fulfill you.
Free yourself from the chains of marketing and having.
Money doesn't buy happiness.
And I was hoping not to end this blog with a cliche.
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Societies Expectations and A Healthy Life
I joined a gym.
That was a couple weeks ago actually, but I went today and it got me thinking about why I was there. The fact is that I enjoy going. I feel significantly better after I go. Its not just because I've over come my laziness, or because I'm slowly working towards a thinner, healthier me. I feel better because the blood is pumping and my heart is pounding, and my brain has released the collection of hormones that make me feel happy.
But it got me thinking about our desire to be skinny. Not healthy, but skinny.
Working at a grocery store I see an assortment of goodies pass through my till everyday, and an assortment of magazines. You shouldn't be surprised to find out that the people who buy three tubs of gummy bears are also the people who buy the magazines that promise to help you lose 15 pounds in a week. My guess is that the first thing in the magazine involves not eating three tubs of gummy bears.
So we've been told that we need to look a certain way. We keep seeing these diets that promise to help us lose 'x' amount of pounds over a given period of time, usually a very short period of time. They are quick fixes to a serious problem with society.
We don't want to be healthy. We want to be society's version of pretty.
When I joined my gym I was asked why I wanted to join. The lady informed me that I didn't need to lose weight, which made me feel pretty good about myself. I told her that I wanted to be fit and I wanted to be healthy.
Being healthy has less to do with your actual weight than we are led to believe. It has a lot to do with what you eat, and what you eat has a lot to do with how much you weigh.
But let's look at two examples.
Any of my brother's friends know that he is really tall and really skinny. I'm pretty sure he's somewhere between five-seven and five-nine , and he can't possibly weigh more than 110 pounds. Which means he has a BMI (Body Mass Index) of somewhere between 17.2, and 16. Both fall under the recommended 18.5 meaning he is severely underweight and at an increased risk of health problems.
That might be because he lives on Energy drinks and junk food. At 17 years old he lives on a steady stream of sugar and caffeine. He can eat 3 bowls of pasta a night and not gain weight. He has the kind of metabolism that anyone else would kill for.
Meanwhile your average football player in the NFL is classified as being somewhere between overweight and obese by the BMI because they're all muscle. They live a significantly healthier lifestyle than most of America. Vancouver Canucks Assistant Captain, Ryan Kessler is 6'2" and 205 lbs (courtesy of the Vancouver Canucks Website), meaning BMI of 26.3, which is listed as overweight and having increased health risks.
But that's because the BMI is very limited. It doesn't consider extra muscle acquired by spending your life on skates, working out every day of your life. If you are a certain weight and a certain height, you are overweight.
Society, mostly the media, but a huge portion of society, has created a standard image that people should fit into. Its the one reason I actually feel bad for celebrities, especially the women. Their bodies are so closely monitored by the press, to the point where they must fit into a very specific look. If they slip below a certain weight they're anorexic. If they start to gain weight they're rumored to be pregnant. Heaven forbid they actually get fat.
So we starve ourselves and push our bodies to the point of collapse to get to the perfect weight. But what are we then? Are we healthy? Crash diets don't work because there is no lifestyle change. We simply get to the weight we want and go back to the way we were before, or worse.
We have models whose bodies are splashed across hundreds of magazines for our teenagers and preteens to read, who are so severely underweight some of them might actually make my brother look fat. They aren't healthy. The things they have to do to their bodies to look a certain way are imposed on our children and society starts to suggest that this is how we're supposed to look.
So while the average weight of a person in America goes up, the preferred weight goes down. We don't aim for healthy, we aim for skinny. We end up with the pendulum swinging too far the other way, with girls as young as 12 and sometimes younger, dealing with issues like starving themselves and even bulimia.
So what kind of image do we set out? Here's where I'm actually a little lost.
You cannot impose a healthy lifestyle on someone. They have to want it. It can be encouraged by participating in one yourself and encouraging those around you to do the same. But forcing a child to do something they don't want to, like join a sports team they aren't interested in, or go on long hikes that simply tire them out, is counter productive. They start to hate physical activity and retreat back to their virtual worlds. A required gym class only helps if students don't decide to make it a spare by not going, and it only encourages you to participate if you feel you are doing well, and actually enjoy it. Otherwise you end up hating that it's forced upon you. As a teenager I hated gym class, and it took a long time to change my attitude physical activity.
You could try to scare people into it. If you don't take care of yourself you'll die of heart disease and Cancer and all sorts of terrible things. But fear is a terrible way to do things. It leads to people being obsessed with the result and not the way of achieving them. It is what causes anorexia in teenagers who fear being seen as fat or ugly by their peers. Fear leads to destructive behaviours, crash diets, binge and purge lifestyles, and other unhealthy ways of achieving a goal.
Somehow we actually have to find a way to make physical activity an important part of our lives, and healthy eating an easier choice, and the desire to simply be skinny less desirable. Because a person who is skin and bones because of an eating disorder is not as attractive as someone who is healthy because of good choices in life, and can be less healthy than someone who is overweight.
We need to encourage our children, and ourselves, to choose to be healthy. Eating right, exercising and drinking lots of water can make us feel better every day. It's the difference between how you feel when you have a cold and how you feel when the virus starts to go away. When we eat junk and do nothing, we have less energy, less motivation, and we likely to get sick more often. When we eat healthy food, exercise frequently and choose healthy options like going outside and drinking water, we have more energy and are less likely to get sick.
When we encourage each other, we help each other to live better. We need to make personal choices, and share those choices with each other. That way everyone can live better.
That was a couple weeks ago actually, but I went today and it got me thinking about why I was there. The fact is that I enjoy going. I feel significantly better after I go. Its not just because I've over come my laziness, or because I'm slowly working towards a thinner, healthier me. I feel better because the blood is pumping and my heart is pounding, and my brain has released the collection of hormones that make me feel happy.
But it got me thinking about our desire to be skinny. Not healthy, but skinny.
Working at a grocery store I see an assortment of goodies pass through my till everyday, and an assortment of magazines. You shouldn't be surprised to find out that the people who buy three tubs of gummy bears are also the people who buy the magazines that promise to help you lose 15 pounds in a week. My guess is that the first thing in the magazine involves not eating three tubs of gummy bears.
So we've been told that we need to look a certain way. We keep seeing these diets that promise to help us lose 'x' amount of pounds over a given period of time, usually a very short period of time. They are quick fixes to a serious problem with society.
We don't want to be healthy. We want to be society's version of pretty.
When I joined my gym I was asked why I wanted to join. The lady informed me that I didn't need to lose weight, which made me feel pretty good about myself. I told her that I wanted to be fit and I wanted to be healthy.
Being healthy has less to do with your actual weight than we are led to believe. It has a lot to do with what you eat, and what you eat has a lot to do with how much you weigh.
But let's look at two examples.
Any of my brother's friends know that he is really tall and really skinny. I'm pretty sure he's somewhere between five-seven and five-nine , and he can't possibly weigh more than 110 pounds. Which means he has a BMI (Body Mass Index) of somewhere between 17.2, and 16. Both fall under the recommended 18.5 meaning he is severely underweight and at an increased risk of health problems.
That might be because he lives on Energy drinks and junk food. At 17 years old he lives on a steady stream of sugar and caffeine. He can eat 3 bowls of pasta a night and not gain weight. He has the kind of metabolism that anyone else would kill for.
Meanwhile your average football player in the NFL is classified as being somewhere between overweight and obese by the BMI because they're all muscle. They live a significantly healthier lifestyle than most of America. Vancouver Canucks Assistant Captain, Ryan Kessler is 6'2" and 205 lbs (courtesy of the Vancouver Canucks Website), meaning BMI of 26.3, which is listed as overweight and having increased health risks.
But that's because the BMI is very limited. It doesn't consider extra muscle acquired by spending your life on skates, working out every day of your life. If you are a certain weight and a certain height, you are overweight.
Society, mostly the media, but a huge portion of society, has created a standard image that people should fit into. Its the one reason I actually feel bad for celebrities, especially the women. Their bodies are so closely monitored by the press, to the point where they must fit into a very specific look. If they slip below a certain weight they're anorexic. If they start to gain weight they're rumored to be pregnant. Heaven forbid they actually get fat.
So we starve ourselves and push our bodies to the point of collapse to get to the perfect weight. But what are we then? Are we healthy? Crash diets don't work because there is no lifestyle change. We simply get to the weight we want and go back to the way we were before, or worse.
We have models whose bodies are splashed across hundreds of magazines for our teenagers and preteens to read, who are so severely underweight some of them might actually make my brother look fat. They aren't healthy. The things they have to do to their bodies to look a certain way are imposed on our children and society starts to suggest that this is how we're supposed to look.
So while the average weight of a person in America goes up, the preferred weight goes down. We don't aim for healthy, we aim for skinny. We end up with the pendulum swinging too far the other way, with girls as young as 12 and sometimes younger, dealing with issues like starving themselves and even bulimia.
So what kind of image do we set out? Here's where I'm actually a little lost.
You cannot impose a healthy lifestyle on someone. They have to want it. It can be encouraged by participating in one yourself and encouraging those around you to do the same. But forcing a child to do something they don't want to, like join a sports team they aren't interested in, or go on long hikes that simply tire them out, is counter productive. They start to hate physical activity and retreat back to their virtual worlds. A required gym class only helps if students don't decide to make it a spare by not going, and it only encourages you to participate if you feel you are doing well, and actually enjoy it. Otherwise you end up hating that it's forced upon you. As a teenager I hated gym class, and it took a long time to change my attitude physical activity.
You could try to scare people into it. If you don't take care of yourself you'll die of heart disease and Cancer and all sorts of terrible things. But fear is a terrible way to do things. It leads to people being obsessed with the result and not the way of achieving them. It is what causes anorexia in teenagers who fear being seen as fat or ugly by their peers. Fear leads to destructive behaviours, crash diets, binge and purge lifestyles, and other unhealthy ways of achieving a goal.
Somehow we actually have to find a way to make physical activity an important part of our lives, and healthy eating an easier choice, and the desire to simply be skinny less desirable. Because a person who is skin and bones because of an eating disorder is not as attractive as someone who is healthy because of good choices in life, and can be less healthy than someone who is overweight.
We need to encourage our children, and ourselves, to choose to be healthy. Eating right, exercising and drinking lots of water can make us feel better every day. It's the difference between how you feel when you have a cold and how you feel when the virus starts to go away. When we eat junk and do nothing, we have less energy, less motivation, and we likely to get sick more often. When we eat healthy food, exercise frequently and choose healthy options like going outside and drinking water, we have more energy and are less likely to get sick.
When we encourage each other, we help each other to live better. We need to make personal choices, and share those choices with each other. That way everyone can live better.
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