Is Britian making us fat?

[bunnycd]

The destruction in this country is across the board: the politics, the transport system, the monetary system, the economy, the social culture including the family itself and the most important - the work ethic and morality of businesses.

People in this country just seem to accept working a 50/60 hour working week, driving two or more hours to work just to be in a stuffy office when they can do their jobs from home. Businesses don’t trust their worker will actually work from home so we are all trapped in this crazy 9-5 rat race. I worked for a FTSE 100 company who promoted working from home and have won awards for remote working. It was a load of cr*ap as they made you go to London twice a week - which was stress.

Why do we do it? to pay a massive mortgage!

Average house prices are now a whopping £200k which means you need to earn at least £60k to get on the ladder! The average salary is £24k - it does not add up! The Government will not allow builders to build enough houses which means it will keep on going up. In ten years my kids will not be able to buy a house unless it is with a lifetime mortgage which means a lifetime of working in the rat race – great for the Government a lifetime of tax and national insurance!
Tesco's is full of packaged/high fat food to cater for the work culture in this country.


I find myself sitting at work thinking "what the hell am I doing here wasting my life away just to pay the mortgage and pick up a pay check; surely there is more to life than this!

Since eating again I am left wondering if the British culture is making us all fat. What do you think?

 

[I will do it this time!]

Hi there,
I am doing a social science module as part of my degree and it has opened my eyes to many of the problems you talk about.
I was talking to a friend who works for the council and was told a record number of people are trying to get council houses as it is the only truly affordable housing option these days.
It also drives me mad how pre packaged convenience food is shoved down out throats, even my children have a boxed mc donalds type meal as school lunch on Friday.
I must admit i am a rubbish cook, but I do try to give my kids good food, luckily they are all slim... I am the only 'fatty in the house' But it is so hard when they see the adverts for crap and they see all their friends eating some really strange stuff....
I think many of us could do with stepping back and really looking at our selves and our lifestyles and what we want from life....
Thats the sort of decision that brought me to the CD, the need to take control....
It's really hard sometimes isn't it?
Anne

 

[Mia01101]

It's not a British phenomenon...

me and my hubby have decent paying jobs by Irish standards...


yet after childcare, mortgage, food, nappies, loans, credit card,petrol...I have SFA for the month...

Most people who work in dublin don't live in dublin...too expensive...there are people coming from Kilkenny and Carlow to work in Dublin...leave at 7 in the morning and dont get home till 8 at night....Tesco's, M&S are making a killing!

 

[Mia01101]

Oh yeah - to qualify for affordable housing in certain new developments here, you have to earn over €64k...complete joke...

 

[Ceri]

Hi there. Interesting thread.
I think that you have a good point. Why do we all have to work so hard, travel so far, pay childminders etc.
I blame the break down of community. If there was still such a thing as a community you could work locally, send your children to the local school, travel less for work,shopping, and possibly wouldnt even need a car or second car (which you have to work twice as hard for to afford!)
Why are we all on this site? O.K, I accept it is mainly to get dieting information, but also I feel like it is a small community in itself. I have had great advice, made friends, have a good chat at the end of a hard days work. Everyone tries to help everyone else out. That is what a community is all about.
Ceri

 

[bunnycd]

Hi there. Interesting thread.
I think that you have a good point. Why do we all have to work so hard, travel so far, pay childminders etc.
I blame the break down of community. If there was still such a thing as a community you could work locally, send your children to the local school, travel less for work,shopping, and possibly wouldnt even need a car or second car (which you have to work twice as hard for to afford!)
Why are we all on this site? O.K, I accept it is mainly to get dieting information, but also I feel like it is a small community in itself. I have had great advice, made friends, have a good chat at the end of a hard days work. Everyone tries to help everyone else out. That is what a community is all about.
Ceri

Community is what is lacking in this country I think due to the work ethic and long hours.

 

[Ceri]

Shall we all try living the 'good life'? Tempting isn't it?
Ceri

 

[nadhak]

wow you have made me think - I used to work horrendous hours and was salaried therefore never paid for the work I did!
i was accepting of it because of my positive attitude and grateful that this fatty had a good job!
I would have no idea where to start on the property ladder if I was just getting established - lukcily I am not!
I was stressed & tired, so lived on M&S ready meals - drove a 60 mile round trip to work - you are so right Britain did make me fat!

 

[KD]

Being a little controversial here (as I am), remember that we are Britian, it's culture is what we make it. We make ourselves fat. We make choices that aren't always right in pursuit of material objects.

We chose to buy our own houses, feed our kids crap. Okay...I don't feed my kids rubbish food, but I do overwork.

It is our choice at the end of the day, and if people chose not to eat McDonalds, nobody is going to force them to do otherwise. Having said this, I can leave some of the blame on Margaret Thatcher's doorstep

Here's a great story.

An American tourist was at the pier of a small coastal Mexican village when a small boat with just one fisherman docked. Inside the small boat were several large yellowfin tuna. The tourist complimented the Mexican on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took to catch them.
The Mexican replied, "Only a little while."
The tourist then asked, "Why didn't you stay out longer and catch more fish?"
The Mexican said, "With this I have more than enough to support my family's needs."
The tourist then asked, "But what do you do with the rest of your time?"
The Mexican fisherman said, "I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take siesta with my wife, Maria, stroll into the village each evening where I sip wine and play guitar with my amigos, I have a full and busy life."
The tourist scoffed, " I can help you. You should spend more time fishing; and with the proceeds, buy a bigger boat: With the proceeds from the bigger boat you could buy several boats. Eventually you would have a fleet of fishing boats. Instead of selling your catch to a middleman you would sell directly to the processor; eventually opening your own cannery. You would control the product, processing and distribution. You could leave this small coastal fishing village and move to Mexico City, then Los Angeles and eventually New York where you could run your ever-expanding enterprise."
The Mexican fisherman asked, "But, how long will this all take?"
The tourist replied, "15 to 20 years."
"But what then?" asked the Mexican.
The tourist laughed and said, "That's the best part. When the time is right you would sell your company stock to the public and become very rich, you would make millions."
"Millions?...Then what?"
The American said, "Then you would retire. Move to a small coastal fishing village where you would sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take siesta with your wife, stroll to the village in the evenings where you could sip wine and play your guitar with your amigos."
-----

 

[AmandaJayne]

Yes, our country is what we have made it. We are responsible.

The house price problem is not going to go away. There are people out there who have borrowed 4 ,5 or 6 times their salary to get on the housing ladder. It will only take a small upheaval in their finances to tip them over the edge and cause them to lose their home. Our quality of life is under threat, and some people have already realised that they don't have much of a quality of life now.

This country is teetering on the brink of a financial disaster on a massive scale. The amount of borrowing/debt is huge and cannot be sustained in the long term. I am worried for the future, but just live for today.

I have suggested to my kids that they get a good education here and get out when they can, to Australia or somewhere where they can set up an affordable home. There is no future here for them, that I can see.

Excuse me while I nip upstairs to top myself!

Does anyone have a solution? Apart from revolution, that is.

 

[bunnycd]

Thank you for posting this. The problem with this story is that this assumes that the Mexican is not slaving his guts out to try to catch enough fish to support him and his family. The whole premise of the story is incorrect flawed as it assumes that people do not work as hard. Maybe the story would be more accurate if the mexican went fishing when the tourist was in bed and came back when the tourist woke up. If it was so easy to make a living in Mexico why are so many Mexican's risking their lives to get into America. Nice story through xxxxxxxxxx

 

[bunnycd]

Does anyone have a solution? Apart from revolution, that is.

I think voting with your feet is the only way or becoming self employed. I think big American businesses run this country so no escape from the Work ethic, I work in the healthcare market and most GP centres will be owned by United Healthcare 10 years from now - that is just one example of how the Americans are taking over.

America = fatness = due to work ethic = stress!

 

[AmandaJayne]

Other aspects of our society which cause me despair...

How we treat the elderly in care homes compared to how we treat criminals in prisons. Our elderly have little dignity, and their human rights are ignored. Compare that to prisoners and you see lawyers apparently throwing themselves at the feet of these people, ensuring that their human rights (?) are catered for. This is where a prisoner can get a sex change on the NHS while people go blind because they cannot get drugs to prevent it, or others suffer the effects of Alseimers (sp.) because they cannot get the very inexpensive drugs to slow the process down and give them and their carers more time.

Our government attempting to bring American gambling dens into our country, along with the accompanying criminal element, prostitution, extortion, drugs etc. Talking (incredibly) about 'job creation' as a justification. They are really taking the *****. It makes me so furious.

Judges being out of touch and frankly, rather suspect. For example the judge who gave a paedophile a lenient sentence recently for raping a 10 year old because 'she dressed provocatavely' or something. That's irrelevent. She was just 10 years old for heavens sake. She was 'in care' and was therefore ripe for exploitation by paedophiles. They target children like that because they usually have no-one to look out for them, they have been through great personal difficulties and are vulnerable to being used and abused. It is sickening.

I was reading an article about police searching for a registered paedophile who had 'gone missing'. He was found abroad working as a childrens' DJ. These creatures stop at nothing to get to their target - our kids.

That's enough for tonight. Sorry to go on. I just get frustrated that this country is going down the pan.

 

[sallies]

I think i now live the good life, i have been self employed involved in housing the homeless and supporting them for many years now. I got involved with the government who paid me a fantastic fee to stop supporting the people in my properties and allow the great bureaucratic people in to support them. One being a homeless action group who should have been providing support to my alcoholics and heroine addicts. To cut a long story short the organisation took the money and didnt do the work, people suffered so much it was unbearable. I kicked out the action group, took a massive cut in my money, sold one of the properties due to the bureaucrats making me ill with pre diabetes, high blood pressure etc. Im delighted to say I just run the one house now, my tenants are happy people and we support them for free.
I live on the outskirts of the city in the country with sheep and chickens and I cycle everywhere i can including racing the bike. My grandchildren spend most weekends with us and enjoy the same. Life is simple now and i dont get involved with any crap that i dont have too. I recommend it folks but sadly we dont allways realise it until later in life.
The good life is sweet.

 

[AmandaJayne]

"The good life is sweet"

What do they call it, Sall, downsizing? It's a risk that has paid off for you - great stuff!

I often wonder when I will be brave enough to get rid of the TV. This huge grey monster dominates our living room and takes the place of conversation I think.

What am I afraid of? Fear of missing my favourite TV programmes, the convenience of vegging out on the sofa, the switching off at the end of the day.

It's like what stops us from succeeding with losing weight? Fear of change. Fear of missing out on nice comfort food, perhaps, fear of not being able to get our quick sugar fix when we want?

I think I'll start a new thread asking who has got rid of their telly.

 

[Isobel1965]

I do take on board everything that people have said already but - and I'm saying this in a non-conphrontational manner (lol) - don't you think that people throughout the ages have always complained about their society?

In Victorian times, people weren't that keen on child labour and prostitutes being chopped up in the streets.

In Medieval times, people got a bit narky when the king could throw you in gaol or lop your head ophph iph you didn't pay your taxes......I could go on and on lol.

No society is perphect - Utopia (or even Arcadia) doesn't exist - but I think that here in Britain, we do a pretty good job with most aspects.

We have phreedom oph speech. We have the vote. We can sleep saphely in our beds at night, without the phear oph bombs or government soldiers invading our lives and raping our children. Iph we are victimised by the minority, we have a reliable police phorce who do try to dephend us. We welcome those unphortunates phrom other countries, with regimes less tolerant than our own - to name just a phew!

We have rights and responsibilities as citizens - some people are a little hazy on their responsibilities, that's true but that's humans phor you.

I have downsized too - got out oph the rat race - and have a brilliant liphe. Doesn't stop me pheeling guilty that I'm not working phlat out 18 hours a day - but I guess that'll pass in another 20 years or so lol.

Apologies phor weird spelling - my laptop has no letter between the d and the g - but I can't blame the government phor that lol.

And don't get me wrong - I can moan about the state oph the country as well as anyone - I just think we need to keep looking at the bigger picture too.


xxxxxxxxx

 

[Barb]

I'm with Izzy on this - it is all to easy to moan about how 'hard'life is, but in some ways it always has been. I just think peoples expectations are so much higher these days. My 26 yr old son and his wife have a 2 year old daughter. When they got married they moved into their 2 bed flat with everything you can think of, all 'white goods', all the technical stuff and of course sky tv. When he complained of being short of money it was all I could do not to go bonkers. When we got married we had 1 table, 2 chairs and a bed! no telly, no wardrobe (well bit of string) and very minimal everything, quite trendy these days, lol! When our kids came along I stayed home and looked after them, did an Avon round which paid for Christmas and birthdays. There was no funding to help with nursery education and we didn't go on a holiday until the kids were, 12, 10, 6 and 6! I am not whining about any of the above, it was how it was and we were happy and hard up. We had kids, we took responsibility for them and we paid bills and bought food as our 2 top priorities.
I just think we live in a 'blame' society, many people don't want to accept responsibility for their own lifes.
Britain doesn't make people feed their kids McDonalds, parents who can't be bothered to cook a decent meal do.
Britain doesn't stop children enjoying parks, playareas, skateparks and make them sit in front of tv/computer screens, parents allow it.

Ohh, reads like a bit of a rant!

 

[sallies]

"The good life is sweet"

What do they call it, Sall, downsizing? It's a risk that has paid off for you - great stuff!

I often wonder when I will be brave enough to get rid of the TV. This huge grey monster dominates our living room and takes the place of conversation I think.

What am I afraid of? Fear of missing my favourite TV programmes, the convenience of vegging out on the sofa, the switching off at the end of the day.

It's like what stops us from succeeding with losing weight? Fear of change. Fear of missing out on nice comfort food, perhaps, fear of not being able to get our quick sugar fix when we want?

I think I'll start a new thread asking who has got rid of their telly.

Now thats where I am sad i havnt ditched the t.v. however i have said as they break down im not replacing them and certainly not paying for digital.

 

[bunnycd]

I agree. People have moaned about the Government throughout the ages, I was mainly coming from a work ethic. It is great and so inspiring that you downsized and are out of the rat race, but many people are trapped and feeling it.

This is a typical day for the average guy at my office: Leave the house at 7am and get to work for 9am leave work at 7pm get home at 9pm. By 9pm all they can face is a tesco's finest meal oh and a bit of choclate to cheer them up. When can they go to the Gym? Weekends? Well they are recovering from the 10 hour commute. So why do people have this life style? So many reasons:

• Because they are single and trying to pay a large mortgage that is 4-5 times their salary
• Married with kids and they are the main wage earner
• No jobs in rural areas
• House prices so high in areas of where or people don't want to live in the city.

According to Government Figures the amount of road tax will be £1.28 in todays money per mile. Every road will be taxed by 2025 so maybe this will change this type of situation? forcing companies to offer work from home options? Or maybe this is another excuse to tax people and put the traffic problem on the motorist rather than culture who requires everyone in the country, including school children to get to work at 9am.

 

[Ceri]

I totally agree that Britain has a blame culture. I still think that there is a breakdown in society and community.
To be honest I think that vanity, pride and greed drive the vast majority of people into running on the hamster wheel. We all want bigger, better, newer......
If I am totally honest I know that I could live hand to mouth if I were not so worried about the way my house looks, wanting new clothes, having to buy a decent car. In reality I could do without a lot. But keeping up with the Joneses is something that a lot of do...intentional or not.
Ceri