Archive: Opinions

I just came up with the best diet plan ever.  All you need to do is make a New years resolution to go to San Diego, or Seattle, and the pounds will slide off.  But you really have to want to travel, or it's just not going to work.

You know what they say about addicts needing to reach rock bottom before they can fight the fight to beat their addiction?  That's how I feel about New Years resolutions.  You have to really, really want to accomplish a goal before you will really do it.  I know about this first hand.  I was over weight by a good amount, but it wasn't until I really believed I could lose it that I made any effort to slim down.  Now, even though I hate exercise -- I call it 'exorcise' -- I hate the extra weight more, with the result that I have exorcised many pounds by eating healthier and exorcising almost every day for more than two years. Medieval priests would be proud.

Now the financial Web site Wallethub has published an analysis of 182 cities that ranks them by success at keeping New Years resolutions.  Seattle, WA had the best ranking and Gulfport, MS the worst.  I was especially interested in the health and weight loss resolutions data because I know how miserable it has been to eat healthier and exercise every day.

According to a Statistic Brain survey, 41% of Americans regularly make New Years resolutions, and another 17% make them sometimes.  Only 9.2% actually achieve their goals.  Health related resolutions account for 32.4% of resolutions made.  People in their 20s achieve their resolutions 37.8% of the time, while people over 50 only meet success 16.3% of the time.

So much for the idea that age brings wisdom... well, maybe it brings the wisdom to know that you are just not going to have the tenacity to fulfill your resolutions, no matter how hard you try.  Self-knowledge is valuable, too, you know.

Source: WalletHub

Not surprisingly, people have more success in the first week of January, a whopping 72.6% rate.  That falls to 44.8% after six months.  I suppose, given how much I hate exercise, that's still a good success rate.

According to Wallethub, Fremont, CA actually scored best for having the lowest percentage of overweight people.  Detroit, MI had the highest.  Seattle had the highest percentage of people who exercise, with Laredo, TX having the highest percentage of people who don't.

The analysis has spawned a theory that diet and exercise are not necessarily the key to weight loss, though.  Here is my reasoning:

I just spent ten days in Minneapolis, number 22 on the New Years Resolution scale, a laudable score.  They rank 53 on health resolutions, though.  I can understand why.  I couldn't regulate my diet with all those heaping plates of good Midwestern cooking, and I wasn't about to go for long walks in -3 degree weather.  When I got home I found I had only gained one pound.  I think I worried so much about my diet being shot that the stress kept my weight down.  Hey, whatever works!

So here is my takeaway:

In my ten days in Minneapolis I only gained one pound, because Minneapolis had a fairly low number ranking.  A score of 55 out of 182 isn't stellar, but it doesn't mean I'm going to gain 50 pounds a day like I would have if I had gone to Laredo.  Now my route did take me to the Detroit airport once going and once coming back.  So I figure I maintained my exact weight by spending time in Minneapolis, and gained a half pound each time I had a layover in Detroit.  If my calculations are correct, then exercise and diet have nothing to do with weight loss, because you get way more exercise in Detroit running to make your next flight in time, and the corned beef hash at Ike's in the Minneapolis Airport was almost sinful, it was so good! 

If I had really wanted to lose more weight over the holiday break I should have gone to San Diego, CA, which was #1 in keeping health resolutions.  Or Seattle, which was #2, close enough.  Or, believe it or not, Las Vegas, NV, which ranks as the 9th most successful cities at keeping health resolutions (and 26 out of 182 overall).  I guess you get a lot of exercise running from casino to casino.

I have been wracking my brains trying to come up with a million dollar retirement idea, and this is it!  I am going to write a book about this, and get my own cable TV reality show.  I'm calling it 'The Travel Diet'.  I'll take my viewers all over the country, gaining and losing weight simply by visiting the appropriate cities.

And this is going to be the greatest diet ever -- eat whatever you want, never exercise.  Just visit a city.  Want to lose weight?  Go to Boston (31) and eat all the lobster and baked beans you want! Bulking up for your local Sumo wrestling tournament?  Just visit Jackson, MS (179) and chow down on as much blue crab, Po' Boys, barbecue, and Mississippi Mud Pie as you can swallow.

All you need is a New Years resolution to travel.  And hope you are not in the 42.4% of people who absolutely never succeed at keeping any of their resolutions.

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