Recently some stores have increased the costs of cigarettes due to a governmental increase of the cigarette tax. It actually starts on April 1^st but some are already passing along the new taxes to smoking consumers. How much of an increase? Try a 155% increase on for size… It effectively makes a pack of cigarettes cost $1 more and a carton $10 more. The taxes are a way to increase the revenue of the various government entities in an effort to offset the losses in tax revenue received through the gas taxes. No, gas taxes did not lower, the amount of miles being driven has, thus less gas being bought and taxed.

Back to my threat… My primary reason for even saying such a thing revolves around the various “days off” associated with smoking and the ensuing breaks to feed this harmful addiction. Let’s just say a smoker takes an extended break each morning and afternoon… we’ll just throw 15 total extra minutes a day into the equation. 15 extra minutes devoted to smoke breaks that your normal non-smoker doesn’t utilize. Bathroom breaks and all that other stuff are effectively cancelled out in this simple equation. The bottom line is the smoker takes an extra 15 minutes a day off in this example. 15 minutes per day comes out to 75 minutes per week, 5 hours per month, and 60 hours per year… all devoted to smoking… while at work.

Let’s say we all get 2 weeks of vacation (80 hours) each year. We have just almost doubled it by simply smoking each day. And, we get paid to do it. Sounds great doesn’t it? Well, it does with all things being equal. But, smoking isn’t exactly an equal thing… we all know how harmful they are and over time, can dramatically affect the standard of life. Smokers are known to become more susceptible to various respiratory illnesses among other sicknesses caused by a damaged immune system. We can actually throw in a multitude of sick days taken by your average smoker per year that immediately decreases the hours worked even more. If we just throw in say 3 extra sick days per year as a direct result of smoking ailments, we are now up to an extra 2 weeks per year off.

You may not think that sounds like much, but multiply those numbers out over a 30 year career. That comes out to 2400 hours less work as compared to a non-smoker… 300 less work days… well over a year of actual work. That’s the smoker’s vacation.

But, at what cost does the smoker actually pay for this vacation? Various studies have tried to put a number to the amount of time you sacrifice of your life per cigarette you smoke. Searching the internet for a few minutes gave me an average of about 10 minutes of lost life per smoke. So, a smoker who smokes on average of 5 cigarettes each day is costing 50 minutes of their life. Just using the 5 day smoking workweek, this comes out to a little over 4 hours of lost life per week. Multiplied over that same 30 year period, we have now lost about 200 hours of our life each year because of smoking, or 6,000 total hours for a grand total of over 250 full 24 hour days of our life.

These are small estimates in my opinion. I believe I am underestimating the amounts of cigarettes smoked and the amount of time associated with doing so. But, given this simplistic example, a smoker has traded almost a year of the end of their life for almost a year and a half of extra vacation time over their 30 year work career.

I’m not quite sure the tradeoff is worth it given that the last remaining years of a smoker usually aren’t the most fabulous and of a healthy lifestyle. The tradeoff is probably closer to a 5 or 10 to 1 ratio. Smoke and yes, you get extra vacation time, but the last 5 to 10 years of your life is going to be very poor. Is the vacation time worth sacrificing your last years of life? Quality of life is important and it will be dramatically lower for a smoker in the waning stages of existence. I’ve seen this first hand. So while I threaten to become a smoker to generate more vacation time for myself, I am rational enough to know that is not the right, or sane, choice. Purposefully sacrificing my health for such nonsense is irrational… not to mention more expensive these days. Receive the vacation time, but you are costing yourself more money and pain in the end hands down.

Our current social times has placed being “religious” into what many consider some sort of horrific stigma. Nobody wants to be labeled the “Bible Thumper” within your group of friends. People have been led to believe that being “religious” must mean that everyone is closed minded and all followers must abide by some specific doctrine or they are not accepted. The last I checked, Christianity is much different than the religion of Islam… However, people have associated nearly all religions with such radical ideology and have thus started turning their backs to religion of all forms and fashions.

I’m not so sure that these times are any different than the past. It seems to me that religious people have been generally treated differently and persecuted throughout our world’s history. But, the United States is a relatively new society as compared to history and we were founded upon Christianity and the freedom of religion as one of our fundamental building blocks. If we are losing contact with our roots, where are we going?

Some people may think that we are becoming more affluent and intelligent as we gain more knowledge regarding the science of life. Some people may think that religion was just a figment of our immature minds looking for meaning to our otherwise mundane existences. Whatever the case may be, more people are choosing to not believe in anything rather than believe in something.

A fast rising segment of society is the so-called Atheists. These people have rejected the idea of God and choose to believe in nothing. The number of Atheists has doubled since 1990 according to the report. Another segment that is growing is the agnostic group. This particular segment has not completely rejected the idea of God… they just choose not to believe at this point.

Another alarming fact from the report is that those who call themselves Christians has declined from 86 to 76 percent. There are several “reasons” given for the decline… from various political parties establishing footholds within certain religious segments to the horrid news stories of religious leaders doing unthinkable things while in power. If these are reasons to discount or reject God in your life, I would say God was never in your life…

America has long been the hope of the free world. Our personal ties to Christianity have long been one of the building blocks of our great society. If you follow the tumultuous existence of our last few generations, you can very easily track the increasing number of Americans who have no faith to the increased violence, lack of hope, and general downward spiral our society has undertaken. Some of these are fact and some are opinion, but who can argue that the United States is in the best of times these days? That’s right, no one can.

As we allow our faith become overrun by those with no faith and no hope, our society will continue to pay the price. Our nation is a Christian nation… at this point. The remaining Christians in our society must make it a point to make the right decisions and live our lives according to our Christian roots. We have seen that the mistakes made can be devastating and can turn people away from hope and Christianity. It is up to us to turn the tide and show the world that being religious and being a Christian is nothing to be ashamed of. I’m proud to call myself a Christian, even though I am not perfect… the last I checked, neither was anyone else.

No, I’m not only talking about the supervisors or managers of us in our work lives, I am also talking about our own ability to manage ourselves. Our lives, both at work and at home, have simply become overwhelmed by too many multitasking opportunities. We are focused, but unfocused at the same time. We are trying to do too many things at once while accomplishing nothing. We are effectively in a constant state of paralysis. Our attention is being pulled in so many directions, we cannot move forward without pulling something else backwards in our lives.

Our single person isn’t enough to continually push the amount of stuff in our lives forward at once. So, we live a life of unfocused focus. At work, we are responsible for many things because as Americans, we pride ourselves on efficiency and hard work. At home, we over subscribe our time because we have so many irons in the fire. While we focus on one thing, something else is falling behind. We switch our focus to correct that and something else lags. We just cannot catch up. It eventually leads to an overwhelming situation where we feel that no matter what we do, we just cannot keep up, get out, or complete a project.

As we manage ourselves, we must decide what we can do. We must decide how thin to stretch our time, our resources, and our energy. Our managers at work must also do the same. If we are stretched beyond our capabilities, we end up where a lot of us are today… overwhelmed and paralyzed. So, we have meetings to have a meeting in an effort to fix a certain situation. We make a plan to have a plan so that we can push forward something that is dragging behind. We continually have the same conversations over and over again because our focus has been split into a hundred different directions. It seems as if we are reinventing the wheel over and over again.

At some point in time, we should put a stake into the ground and announce that we are pushed as far as we can go. There is a finite amount of energy and time in our everyday lives. We must recognize that as an individual and our supervisors must also realize that. If our lives are allowed to continue down this path, a breaking point will be discovered and over time, everything will come crashing down. Rather than living in a state of paralysis, we will enter a situation of freefalling disaster. The pressures of everything around us that we were capable of holding at bay will crush us and we will not be able to reverse the momentum.

We need to regain our focus and whittle down the amount of things we are undertaking in our lives. We should focus our efforts on returning to a more minimal state of living and recover some of our time at home. Our managers at work must realize that a “Jack of all trades” is not better than an expert… or king of the trade. We can still be efficient and not be responsible for umpteen different tasks at once. Focused worker attention is more efficient and also more productive. Focused home life allows for a more stable household and creates better relationships.

But, this is America… we are the “go go” society. We want to be number one and the price we pay to be number one may just not be worth it. If we sacrifice ourselves and our identity to achieve so-called prosperity aren’t we really the losers?

I take things seriously, I am a competitive person. If I commit to doing something, I have chosen to enter into a competition with myself at the very basic level. I will continue down the path even if futility is certain. Quitting to me is an abject failure and should be averted at all costs. I believe there is always one last “Hail Mary” in our quiver of life’s arrows. Are you similar to me or is your standard of commitment a variable in an equation that changes by the day, hour, or even minute?

Personally, I know people who fall into each category. I know people who are like me… steadfast in their pursuit of their commitment. I know people who are the complete opposite of me… wishy-washy individuals who throw around the term commitment like yesterday’s worn socks. I know a whole gamut of people in between… that’s where most people are these days. Who is worse, the people who are wishy-washy or the in between commitment makers?

Being that I’m the polar opposite of the wishy-washy person, you may think I believe they are the worst ones… you would be wrong. The fact of the matter is that with the wishy-washy people, you know they will not honor their commitment and if they do, you should view it as a miraculous event… a true bonus in life. The middle of the road commitment makers are the most disturbing group of people to be around. You never know what you’re going to get. Are you going to get the guy who means what he says this time or not? Can you depend on him over the long term or is he just into making commitments for the short term? Or worse yet, is he the person that sometimes shows up and sometimes doesn’t?

Who makes you angrier? At least the wishy-washy commitment maker has his cards on the table and you know what you’re getting. Anger in their direction is your own fault… you shouldn’t have counted on their commitment anyway. Hoping against hope isn’t the answer here, track record is the answer.

I get aggravated, angry, and upset with the middle of the road guys. How can you pick and choose what you are committed to when other people are expecting you to uphold your end of the bargain? Do these people value their time over everyone else’s? What makes them more important than the other people involved in the commitment? I don’t understand the rationale here. If I commit to something, I have undertaken a responsibility and I honor my duty.

Duty, responsibility, and commitment… those are pretty large words in our vapid society today. No longer do the masses respect other people and their sacrifices required to honor their commitments. There’s another large word… respect. We have also thrown around the term honor. Honestly, how often do you see these traits in the world today? I would venture to say that if you have experienced these traits in an individual in your life recently, you probably couldn’t wait to tell the next person in your life about your “awesome” experience. These instances have become increasingly rare, and that’s sad.

Starting right now, think about the commitments in your life, no matter how large or small they may be. If you are not honoring your commitments, think about how your actions are hurting those who have chosen to respect their commitment. You may not be an all in person, all the time, but focus on honoring your commitments and people will respect you.

Lose weight/Get in better shape/Become healthier…

This seems to be the standard resolution for the majority of society for a variety of reasons. I’m right there with you. We can always strive to become healthier in how we eat, exercise, and live our lives. We must set goals that are attainable so that we do not become discouraged… nothing happens overnight. Remember, it took a long time to get into the state we are in and it will take time to reverse it. Focus on small battles on the way to the overall victory. Think about things in terms of weeks and months, not days and never allow a minor setback destroy your resolve or momentum in your journey.

Save money/Get out of debt

Everyone always wants to make that nest egg a little bit bigger. We also want to reduce the stress in our life that debt creates. Managing our money better during the new year is also a very important battle we wage each and every paycheck. Again, we must focus on the small victories in the course of our war on debt and savings. This particular battle may be a multi-year war and thus there are many opportunities to stray off course and allow the pitfalls of the war disintegrate our willpower. We must focus on the small victories and remember that things take time to right the wrongs of the past.

Be nicer or more caring/Volunteer more

As human beings, most of us have the born in need of wanting to help others. Giving our time freely by volunteering and helping others in need is a prime opportunity to satisfy this need. However, we all know how strained our current time allocations are. We can’t arbitrarily state that we will join several volunteer groups in our community or church and believe that we can sustain a drastic change in lifestyle. As with our other resolutions, we must think small first, and move to bigger and better things.

Many resolutions are dead and buried by the 2^nd week of the new year and some may only last into the 2^nd month. Overall, our resolutions are made in good faith because we all want to become the person we envision ourselves to be, but it’s very easy to become discouraged and migrate back to our previous way of life. If we make too many changes, we simply cannot stay on track and our resolutions become nothing more than pipe dreams. Stay small and focused and true change can happen.

With the economy, housing market, and job market in the dire states they are currently in, what kind of new resolutions make sense to make this year?

Work harder/Be more efficient

With jobs becoming scarce, we all need to work harder at the jobs we do have and also become more efficient at them. Society is spending less money and as a result, there is less money in corporate pockets. Production decreases and job slashing will continue to erode the job market. If we can make ourselves more valuable while decreasing overall costs by becoming more efficient, we can help protect our jobs.

Rebuild family/friend relationships

As the overall economy deteriorates, we all need help at some point. That help comes from our family and friends for the most because the government is not our support system. If there are issues that currently are keeping family or friend relationships broken, they should be worked through because these relationships with loved ones can make the difference between a lifestyle of depression versus one with hope. We all need loving relationships in our lives. Repair those that are broken.

Find your faith/Become active in church

America was born upon the Christian philosophy and faith. The vast majority of Americans still consider themselves Christians. However, church attendance is down. Our church family is another relationship we must rebuild and refocus our attention on. If we can come together again and put away our selfish and greedy differences and focus on living our lives through our faith, we can overcome the trials and tribulations the world continually tries to punish us with.

The new year can be a great year. Focus on each day by doing whatever you can to achieve your overall goals. Remember that winning the battles will not be easy and they will take time… some will take years. However, if we truly work on them, we can make a major difference in our lives and also those around us by simply trying to become better people. Our individual attention to ourselves will translate to everyone around us and we can make an immeasurable positive impact on society.

In the past, New Years didn’t mean anything to me. Well, it did mean something to me if my favorite college football team was playing, but other than that, it was just another cold day in Missouri. However, now that I’m in my mid 30’s, New Years means a bit more to me. I’m not sure if it has something to do with my age, my mental outlook, or my continued growth as a husband and father. Maybe it has to do with all of the above.

Each January 1^st now brings a sense of hope for me. It gives me a fresh mental outlook at what can be and not what is or what has been. It’s a simple thing really, but the reality of the matter is, I can feel the difference, physically, emotionally, and even spiritually when the calendar shows January 1^st. Does that mean the day before was worse than the new day to come? Does that mean the past year wasn’t as good as I hope the upcoming year is going to be? No.

I now view January 1^st as a date in which I can reflect on my life up until that point and set goals around how I want my life to be so I can be the best version of me. It does offer a clean slate, an empty notebook, and a chance at excellence. It also offers redemption and a mentality focusing on new beginnings. Does the simple change of date really make any difference? Of course it doesn’t. But, we all know the absolute power our mind has over our body and some of us attach great importance to certain calendar dates.

Sometimes, my New Years goals are the exact same as the year before, they never change. I set goals that I strive to achieve. Some goals may not even be goals, but are actually standards to live by. Some goals may be easily tracked and accounted for. Other goals may just be simple goals that are entirely personal and cannot be qualified or understood by others. It doesn’t matter. Our goals we set allow us to view the new year as a path to a better version of ourselves.

As we get closer to January 1^st, I find myself thinking of goals I want to set and I’m beginning to work on them already. The date itself isn’t the important factor, the mental outlook is most important. Allowing your mental outlook to focus upon the hope and greatness of what may come in the new year can truly alter your daily life.

So, as I get older, I pay more attention to New Years Day. It makes me feel excited. It makes me focus upon how I can improve myself. It makes me live with hope and excitement that each and every day is a step towards achieving my goal of a better me.

We all need goals and January 1^st is the easiest date to set them on. If you’re not a New Years person, try and set some goals this year. Start small and honestly try and attain them. See how it can change your life and make you feel different inside as you near your accomplishments and eventually conquer your goals and even surpass them. It’s not about having lots of goals, it’s about making you the best you there is and working every day to achieve that. Will you join me and set goals that will make you a better person come January 1^st? I’m in, let’s do it!

One very important aspect of retirement to consider… on average, people are living longer these days. No longer is retirement lasting for 10-15 years… it may last 20-30 years. If someone thinks they are going to need 80% of their maximum yearly income during their later years in life, what exactly are they spending their money on? Won’t lifestyles change as you age? I would surely think so.

After a lifetime of working and spending money to survive, priorities change, tastes change, and expectations of life change. A retired couple isn’t in the market for a massive house with multiple bedrooms, four car garages, large lawns, and pools. In my mind, a retired couple is looking for a quaint lifestyle with a nice cottage, a vehicle, and a nice front and back yard to relax in. Even if you are in the upper echelon of wealth, the “perks of life” are meaningless once you reach a certain age. Practicality supersedes possession at some point in a rational existence does it not?

Rational to me means retirement is achievable with much less money than the “experts” are projecting… for normal people that is. Yes, we can always assume that prices will always increase and that must be accounted for. But, we must also assume that our lifestyle will change and our costs of living will decrease because our purchase decisions will be affected by our changed mentality. Will a 70 year old man still want to spend money on frivolous things like a young man would? Will a 70 year old woman still be making purchase decisions like she was still a 30 year old? I would hope not. Not meaning that age removes the freedom of living young, but I’m saying that our mentality truly changes… our life’s focus changes.

If I ever reach retirement age, I can guarantee you that my tastes will be different when that happens and my purchase decisions and spending habits will change accordingly. I will not WANT a big house. I will not WANT a new car in the driveway. I will not WANT a large yard to manicure and take care of. I will not WANT all the latest gadgets and devices that are pushed upon society.

Do you know what I will want? What I will want is what I want now… more time to spend with my wife and my family. I want more freedom to serve my Church and my spiritual calling. I want more of what life offers and not what possession offers. I want LESS. I want LESS possession. I will HAVE LESS… ON PURPOSE!

Our retirement analysts push the same mentality for our seniors as they push for our young and middle aged investors, more, more, and more. We all must have MORE! At all costs, make more, buy more, earn more, and HAVE MORE! Somewhere in there, time is lost, sacrificed for the all important more. Time with your family is lost. Your life is lost. You retire and yet you never lived. But hey, your retirement will sure be a fancy one won’t it?

I say forget about the money, focus upon saving for a retirement of practicality. We must live life without sacrificing today for a future that may never exist. Be practical yes, but be rational. If you feel that you must have more even in retirement, what need are you fulfilling in your life that requires your sacrifice of time today? Is your family paying the price for your perceived reward? Are you really costing yourself and your family more than the return in a potentially nonexistent future?

Usually in a public place with a variety of individuals in close proximity, people often try and speak softly or in vague terms in an effort to preserve some privacy and also extend a branch of respect to the other people. However, some people tend to miss this standard common sense rule and treat everyone to their business in an effort to garner some much needed attention in their lackluster lives. This is the situation I was in while waiting my turn at our local DMV. Two teenage girls, recently out of high school based upon the information me and the rest of the public were so graciously given, were intent on having a “cool” conversation so that the rest of our lives would pale in comparison to their “awesomeness.”

As I sat there with my paperwork slowly being twisted into garbage by my whitening hands and fingers, I was given a play by play of their plans for the day, their recent history, and their future plans for the week. I felt as if I were sitting in an auditorium listening to some cackling teenagers on a public address speaker informing us of the upcoming spirit week at school. To my delight, only about 20 of my 30 minutes were under this deluge of nonsense and I completed my task without bothering another single human being while doing so. I even had the chance to engage in a polite conversation with the clerk and elicit a genuine smile and laugh from her.

What does this have to do about my scholastic tax dollars at work? Let’s see, where to begin… Returning the focus to the teenage girls, now in college based upon their announcements, their intellectual speaking level and grasp of English left me in a state of amazement. At one point, I began counting the word “like” in their sentences and according to my last count they could not create a single sentence without utilizing the term more than four to five times. I lost count of the overall total at somewhere over 30 (after only counting for about 3 minutes) because I felt like shoving my birth certificate into one ear and my proof of residency in the other.

I made the correct choice and allowed my ears to bleed internally as their inane chatter bludgeoned my ear drums so I could actually finish the process of getting my new license. What I have a problem with is not the two girls and their lack of public sensitivity (that is to be expected by the youth these days). What I have a problem with is their skill level in both English and thought to sentence to speaking ability. I understand shorthand and people speak without having to focus upon perfect grammar and whatnot, but seriously, can’t someone make coherent statements when released from 12 years of publicly financed school?

At times during their conversation, I felt like I was trying to decipher some sort of audible version of hieroglyphics. I believe these two teenage girls have created their own dialect solely focused upon the word “like.” I felt as if I were a CSI investigator trying to find the motive behind the story. After 20 minutes of speaking, their lives seemed to center around a few highly important issues: no money, getting their nails done, buying a new dress for a frat party, and moving out even though they have no clue how they can afford it and their parents disagree with it.

Of course, my investigating prowess may be a bit non-professional, but in between all the gibberish, I’m pretty sure I’ve nailed their conversation. I guess my tax dollars served them well because they both seemed to be able to integrate within society and function without the help of a parent (well, they did talk to one of their parents on their cell phone so maybe not). After my brain returned to normal size from the enlarged state it was in from the incessant bashing of it by their baseball bat-like conversation crushing my skull, I realized, this is the generation that is going to be running my country when I’m old.

After realizing such a nightmare no horror movie could ever hope to achieve, I felt a little nauseous. I know common sense has become uncommon sense, but given the billions of dollars we drain from our citizens’ bank accounts can’t we expect a better product? Can’t the product of 12 years of school be something better? Our kids are in fact a product of our system and it seems that we are failing at producing young men and women who we would be proud to have lead our country. I know, there are lots of good kids out there, but where are they when I am out in public? Are they hidden away from public view as to save them of the horror we all face? Are they hiding out in the ignorant masses trying to fit in like some undercover mafia agent waiting until the time is right to show their true colors? Please normal young men and women, come out and show yourselves, I am begging you… for the sake of our country, show us that our tax dollars are not being spent in vain.

Premise of the situation is as follows. Man facing dire economic conditions has a choice: pay his house mortgage or pay for his lawn to be replaced. Now, I’m fairly certain any rational homeowner would make the sane choice in this manner and pay his house mortgage. The man of course paid his mortgage and allowed his lawn to deteriorate into a brownish display of dead grass. Wouldn’t we all? Well, his brown grass created such an outrage in his community that he was served a notice requiring his appearance in court to settle the damage created by his “criminal action.”

Like any good citizen not bullied into following the rules and regulations of those who wield power as if it’s a magic wand, he didn’t appear in court. The local judge, “enraged” by the citizen’s use of free will, decided that it was appropriate to arrest and jailed the man for 2 days. Contempt of court, show up or be jailed. Seriously… arrested, finger printed, photographed, entered into the criminal database and jailed for 2 days over a brown lawn? Yes, it actually happened.

How can something so simple be allowed to reach this level of absurdity? How hard would it have been for the Civic Association to work with the man in an effort to settle this issue without it going to court? Knowing that he is a retired individual living on limited resources, they should have understood the situation and worked on a human level to help correct the issue. However, their “rules are rules” approach led to this man being treated like a second rate individual.

A testament to the fact that humanity and rational thinking still exists, a man and several volunteers helped the man replace his lawn and make it a nice shade of compliant “green.” Who was this kind gentleman? He was a former resident and former Marine who felt the man was treated unfairly. Thank goodness for some basic common sense in our uncommon sense world.

How much time was wasted because of this lunacy? How much money did it cost taxpayers by having the courts and law enforcement involved in this “incident?” Why did this man have to be demeaned in front of his neighbors, his family, and country because of his lawn? Sometimes I just cannot fathom what our judicial system is used for when there are actual criminals roaming the streets because they don’t have the time to charge and prosecute them or place to keep them jailed.

Can’t these matters be taken care of without laws, rule books, and police involvement? Can’t we act as rational adults and work these things out without someone with a gun enforcing the “law?” Weren’t we taught in school, and even as toddlers, the ideas of compromise and helping others? Since when did we become accustomed to a third party being necessary to mediate all disagreements or arguments? I’m pretty sure people are generally smart enough to work things out in an agreeable manner without help from an “objective” third party.

We need common sense to return. Without it, we are nothing bunch a bunch of crying babies asking for mommy and daddy to come solve our problems because we didn’t get what we wanted. Next thing I know, I’ll be reading about a grandma being arrested because she left her laundry on the line for 2 days when it clearly states in the bylaws of the subdivision that all laundry must be removed 30 minutes prior to dusk. Oh, you think that won’t happen? Did you think someone would go to jail because their grass was dead before you read this?

Citation: http://www.nypost.com/

Basically, this bill is aimed at national restaurant chains and not the mom and pop restaurants or local “mini chains.” While this bill makes sense in a logical way, does it really need to be a law? Are our citizens so mentally challenged that we cannot rationally understand that a triple cheeseburger with a large fry and large soft drink is bad for us? Is a law requiring caloric counts of foods seriously going to deter the eating habits of our society?

Sure, some people will see the numbers and alter their decisions and parents may even make better choices for their children when bringing home the quick dinner. But, the problem is in the food itself. Chain restaurants are notorious for having unhealthy food. Do you see people on a healthy food regimen eating at the local fast food stops on a regular basis? Of course you don’t. Do you see people trying to eat healthy ordering a small fry, rather than large, because they saw the calorie counts on the menu board? Well, maybe for some who aren’t metabolically challenged, but for the most part, healthy eating in no way or form includes eating fries from a fast food restaurant.

In the end, this law is a gentle reminder law. What you order may be bad for you. It’s a warning label similar to other warning labels on things that are bad for us. Problem is we already know fast food is “bad” for us. However, it’s cheap, fast, and satisfies hunger. We don’t need a law to tell us this “new” information. What we need is more time at home so we can effectively make healthy decisions about what we eat. We need more time to cook and prepare healthy meals for our family.

Is a fast food chain with a menu of salad going to make it? Nope. Is a fast food chain with only healthy yogurt and fruit drinks going to make it in mainstream America? Nope. Even then, the so called “healthy” menu items aren’t really all that healthy at times. The pyramid of nutrition has been around forever as far as I know (yeah, I exaggerated). We are all taught that we need the basic staples of nutrition to live healthy and we even have a general idea of how many calories it takes for us to survive each day. But, we just don’t have the time to focus upon one of the most important aspects of living.

Preparing a healthy meal takes time, something we don’t have an oversupply of. We can continue to sign into law “tricks” to help society make better decisions, but the root of the issue is time in my opinion… time with the family and also time to prepare healthy meals. I’ve not even gone into the issue that the “healthy” items in grocery stores are generally more costly to purchase. Adding a law requiring calorie counts makes us feel better and more informed, but it doesn’t change the fact that we are still faced with the underlying problems of why we are at the fast food restaurant in the first place.

Maybe we’ll see a new law from California in the coming months requiring Californians to drink their eight glasses of water per day. Or maybe we’ll see a law fining people who don’t have their tire pressures at maximum efficiency. How about a law requiring people to take a daily vitamin in the morning? I could go on forever. Yes, we want to make things better and we need to eliminate the obesity problem our country is facing, but rather than focusing on the calorie counts on menu boards, how about focusing on the ingredients in the food itself? Make the FOOD healthier or remove it and give the family more time to prepare healthy meals while making healthy foods affordable.