Healthy country life!? (to buy, college, living in)

[honeychrome]

I was born in upstate NY and spend early childhood living in various places upstate. Lived many other places since then, but something always 'spoke' to me upstate, and finally, after a bunch of years of big-city life I've been able to 'return to my roots', so to speak. I love it, but I am truly stunned by one thing: how unhealthy so many of the people upstate appear to be! Wow, 4 out of 5 people I see in the markets, at the post office, wherever are obese, most morbidly so. It's pretty frightening. All that fertile farm land, easily accessable fresh, local produce, farmstands, etc. and it seems most people would rather hoist themselves up into their gigantic 4X4 truck (which usually look like they haven't seen a day of use as a 'truck') and haul a** to a fast food joint to gorge. It makes me sad and depressed to see so many of these people struggling to walk across the parking lot. Something is really wrong out there. Maybe it's all the ice cream stands where a small cone is about a pint (but everyone seems to order XL)!

[homeward bound]

Statistically, the Northern states tend to have *less* of an obesity problem than the Deep South states of Mississippi, Louisiana, etc. It makes sense when you think about it. Sitting around in air-conditioning is proven to increase appetite in the sense that when you feel hot, your eating slows, so when you're cooled by a.c., you keep eating at a faster clip. With a.c., the summer eating slow-down-'cause-it's-hot doesn't really occur. Plus, the southern diet still tends to be greasier than the northern (though fast food has probably leveled this out a lot.)

But certainly some northerners go overboard "getting ready for the winter." And it's certainly a nationwide problem. I've noticed it among the college students I've been teaching for 20 years, too. It all depends on whether people avail themselves of all the outdoor activity that you CAN do up North, where summers are great for swimming, biking, hiking, playing sports, etc.--and not punishingly hot as they are down South and out West. Up north, we always got plenty of exercise in winter, from walking the dogs in the snow to hiking the wide-open, bug-free trails, to skating, etc. Used to hunt a lot, too. A five mile walk through deep snow, up and down hills, burned up a lot of calories. And chopping wood is always great exercise! Just the incredible park, biking, and hiking opportunities available up north make the area a mecca of exercise to us--many southern states don't offer nearly what NY state does in this regard....

[iluvmypets]

I moved from N.Y.to N.M.last yr.I can't find clothes my size,they seem to only carry larger sizes.I have to buy from the children's dept.or order from catalogs.I never see anyone walking!Thinking of going back to N.Y.
The pace is much slower here,that probably doesn't help.