Lately, food prices have been going up. There is no denying this. But what I hate is that fat people use this excuse to not eat healthy. They claim that produce is too expensive for them to afford. When I see some fat person in the store with their cart full of junk food and soda pop, of course they're going to think the healthy foods are soooo expensive because they've already spent so much on crap that isn't even food!

Case in point, me and my partner are able to eat quite well for $40.00 a week. We go to our farmer's market in the summer/early fall for produce both to savor the goodness of fresh, local foods and to save money (buying from the farmer cuts out the middle man of retail mark-up), and get the rest of our stuff at the grocery store. So in the summer time we pay half of what we would at the grocery store to get these locally grown goodies. The rest of the year, we stick to sales for our produce. There is always something on sale - if you look, you can get good deals on healthy fruits and veggies.

My partner still has some junk food vices (he manages through his iron willpower to control his portions and not go overboard), but he pays for these separately since I refuse to eat them.

Together, we buy basic groceries: whole-grain breads, flour, and pastas, brown rice, eggs, olive oil, milk, low-fat cheeses, nuts, beans, lean meats, and produce. So we each get to eat for around $20.00 a week, give or take a few dollars, and we eat well. There is always enough food for both of us on that amount of money. All people really need to do is learn to cook at home and use basic ingredients to make tasty and healthy meals. You don't have to buy prepackaged everything! It may appear to be cheaper, but in reality it's more expensive to buy the prepackaged "meal" than to buy whole, fresh ingredients and put it together yourself!

People are lazy and stupid about things, I guess.

Fat people who stay fat rationalize that they can't afford veggies and fruits, but if they put the sodas, chips, candy, and snacky-cakes back on the shelves, they'd find that they suddenly have money available to buy some produce...go figure!

If these people were buying that crap before food prices started going up then their excuses are mute in my eyes.

BTW...a careful look through the vegetable isle will find that some veggies have gone up very little recently.

In fact some of the greatest pricing pressure has been on traditionally bad for you foods that use the corn derivatives like HFCS (because of ethanol production).

Good point, Chris! I didn't even mention it, but that's true. I have noticed that our favorite whole wheat pasta has gone up by 50 cents or so, not crippling by any means, but still surprising. He eats it more than I do - my carb of choice is rice these days. But it's true, veggies have only increased a little. So, there really is no valid excuse in using that argument whatsoever. After all, even if veggies HAD gone up, if one puts back the soda, one gains several dollars back that one can spend on produce.

I will say though that the price of food depends on where you live. I live in Montreal, Canada and vegetables here are expensive year round. I can pay 15 bucks for 4 tomatoes in the winter and they're not organic or anything fancy. Even in the summer veggies aren't that cheap since the bulk has to be shipped over from California.

Jeeze... 5 bucks for 4 tomatoes!!!!

I rarely notice any price difference based on season in Indiana???? What gives??

What else are they spending their money on?

These are probably the same people that complain about gym membership rates, but spend double that drinking on the weekends

When I went to the grocery store the other day, I bought a large bag of potatos for $5.99. I was curious, so when I passed the chip isle (which I never venture down anymore, yuck) I saw a large bag of chips for $5.49. Now come on, my family can eat on a bag of potatoes for a few weeks. Junk food and processed food is WAY more expensive then your basic nutrious food. And don't get me started on soda. Water is cheaper by far and no sugar and caffine.

Plus, I grow our own tomatoes and peppers. We get a ton of tomatoes out of just eight plants. Sure it's a little more effort, you have to actually get off of your butt and water, and weed, and get rid of any worms, etc, but it's well worth it.

Your very right Stephanie, a huge quantity of tomatoes can be grown with a minuscule amount of dirt, (even in pots), in the summer, with little cultivation effort.

Drew...in the context of "the gym is too expensive on my economy strained budget", I found this ludicrous article.

Tighter budgets cause some to ditch the gym

QUOTE:
"If an income is fixed, the more they spend on have-to-haves, they are going to cut back on their Starbucks or health clubs," he said.

Come on folks...If the gym is too expensive build a gym at home. You don't need a lot of space or money.

Use craigslist to buy a set of adjustable dumbbells and a bench, and you will have a set up that you can use to respectably exercise every part of your body. You can easily get all this for less than $100.

A friend at work introduced me to these "scooby's" work out vids on Youtube.

They are very solid, and notice this guy uses standard plates and adjustable dumbbells that can be purchased cheaply used or at walmart, no other special equipment is used.



excuse this fellow's loud drawers (lol)

Two of my favorite workouts require almost no equipment at all.

The first one involves performing as many rounds of the following as you can in 20 minutes, nonstop:

5 chin ups
10 push ups
15 body-weight squats

Equipment required: a chin up bar

The second involves performing the following for three rounds, with the goal of completing it in as little time as possible. 20 reps each the first round, 15 reps each the second round, 10 reps each the third round:

Chin ups
Thrusters (combined squat and shoulder press, can be performed with either a barbell or dumbbells)

Equipment required: a barbell and plates or dumbbells heavy enough that you can barely complete the prescribed reps for each set.


For those who can't do chin ups with bodyweight, substitute pulldowns with adequately challenging elastic bands (even good ones are inexpensive) or barbell or dumbbell rows.


High tech machines and state of the art equipment has it's benefits, but is not at all necessary. HOW you train is far, far more important than the equipment you use. A person training properly and with a high level of effort can achieve incredible results with nothing but bodyweight exercises or something as simple as heavy rocks and logs, while the best equipment in the world won't get one very far if they are not training properly or putting forth adequate effort.

I realy need to play devil's advocate here. The excuses are actually true. I live in Manhattan and there is no way in hell I could eat for 20$ a week. it costs me $10 to order in greasy Indian for two and leftovers for lunch tm --- and 15$ for a dinner salad for two(2.50$ for one pepper, 2$ for one tomato, 2$ for one cucumber, $5 for chicken breast....etc). I use to order the indian (or the equivilant), but i gained weight so the only thing i spend money on now is food --- i dont buy a thing for myself, i take a cab only in emergency. I am not saying its an excuse but you do have to understand how expensive things can be in other cities.
As far as make a gym in my home? I live in a studio for 2375$ a month, yes a studio (1 room) --- Sounds expensive, huh? not a fancy building - i just chose not to live in the ghetto. How shall I fit a gym in here? I can barely fit myself. I do pay for a gym membership.
But my parents help support me or I couldnt buy fresh fruits and vegetables or go to a gym.
I just wanted you guys to undertsand that for some people this isnt an excuse. Its not always as easy as it seems.