Quote:
Originally Posted by Trakehner
You know, I think our southern states need to look at exercise. Southerners have always eaten high fat/high carb, the only difference now is they don't exercise much. Down there, few people can walk anywhere anymore. Up here we have bike trails, horse trails, jogging paths, etc,etc. I remember when I went on an exchange to Alabama I was so surprised that few people exercised and they had to drive everywhere, I mean so many places didn't even have sidewalks.
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The South is just not conducive for walking. Brutal summer heat, roads washing away from floods, a lower cost of living also makes for lower fuel prices, so driving, even with $3/gal gas, driving is an attractive option. Then, people just don't want to plain exercise or eat right. Crispy batter and gravies are a way of delicious, mouth watering life down here, as well as BBQ, Mexican food, funnel cakes, fried seafood platters, and we do have salads, they're just piled with 2lbs of meat (as mine was at lunch, I think you really had to call mine chicken with caesar dressing and a small salad topping, lol). We have an exercise class at my church that meets 3-4 time a week. In almost every class, I'm the only person in attendence, I'd say a good percentage of people in the congregation could benefit from exercise, but they like their high fat, low exercise diets. They can keep on, but at least I'm trying to do something.
Houston is probably the worst Southern city overall because we have SPRAWL. Everything is far away. In some places in the US, everything's within walking distance. But in Houston, you could drive from the southern edge to the northern edge of the Houston city limits on I-45, that's about 36 miles, and you'd still have 27 more miles of northbound driving to go before you hit a rural area between Conroe and Huntsville. Our urban sprawl extends up to 30 miles from the city limit lines, and the city limit lines spread about 20 miles from the CBD, that's about 50 miles of sprawl, and it will only get worse. I think in 10-20 years, regular commutes to Houston from subdivisions built in Huntsville, Prairie View, Wharton, and Freeport will be a regular occurance. We're a city that built our International airport almost 25 miles away 40 years ago, might as well called it "South Montgomery County International Airport". Then, there's our smog days, wanna go out and exercise? You can try, but you'll be out of breath soon. But, there's the option of exercising in a nice, air conditioned building, but, laziness abounds!