Location and Lifestyle

Posted on January 30, 2008 By Joe Fier

Future Living

During the past month I have been doing a little bit of traveling. Over New Year’s I went to Las Vegas, the other weekend I headed out to Phoenix for a day, and two days ago I drove up the California coast to Santa Barbara. Going around to these various places, you can see the large differences in how people live. Growing up and living my life in San Diego, I have been mainly influenced with the hot health topics and lifestyles that are here in town. As many believe, San Diego and the rest of California have, for the most part, very health conscious people. There are a countless amount of gyms located in every nook and cranny in San Diego, ranging from your basic weights and treadmills to exotic self-defense and boxing gyms. The weather is almost always beautiful out here, allowing for many days of unlimited outdoor exercising and adventures. When I travel outside of San Diego, I instantly notice the changes in people’s lifestyles compared to the location and environment they live in. Many of us don’t realize that where we live directly influences how we live our life.

Travelling to Phoenix

Who would have known that this large of a city could sprout up in the middle of the desert? From the few times that I’ve visited Phoenix, I’ve noticed that there is a great diversity of people that mingle together, just as in any other city. With all of these people around each other, it still seems like there is surprisingly not much to do. The main happenings I noticed were checking out one of the many malls scattered about, play a round of golf, or trying to and get tickets to the upcoming Super Bowl out there. Other than that, the largest thing I noticed were the billboards lining the freeways. Just driving the stretch of Interstate 10, through the heart of Phoenix, I counted five billboards showing the consequences of using meth. These were disgusting images of people that have seemingly ruined their lives with a very addictive and devastating drug. Wondering why there was an overwhelming amount of these advertisements, I asked my friend that lived out there, “What’s going on?!” He informed me that Phoenix is the methamphetamine capitol of America.

My friend is one of the healthiest people I know, and he said he completely struggled when he briefly lived in Phoenix. Because of the normal, hotter than average temperatures and monsoonal weather patterns, running became very difficult for him. He did end up joining a gym to solve many of these woes, but was still depressed that he could not complete his typical daily workouts outside. Another problem that he faced was his free time after work and exercise. He said that many of the people his age (around 24 years old) did nothing but drink at the bars and then do drugs after the bars had closed. He was not able to find a single person that was as health-conscious as he is. This put both a strain on his health and social life as a whole.

Pick Where You Live Carefully

As simple as it may sound, picking where you live will definitely change the life that you’ll lead. Analyze the hobbies that you enjoy and the life that you’ll want for the future. If you see that all of these qualities could be met by living in a particular location, then by all means, choose it! Simply choosing a location because of a job offer can seriously hinder someone’s trek to a happy life. Decide what is most important in your life and proceed from there. Of course, you’ll never actually know the consequences until you experience it yourself. To battle this, ask people that have already lived in these possible future locations. If it is job related, ask some employees that already live there. Also, use the internet and compare which cities fair the best for your particular personality.

MSN’s Health and Fitness site lists the 10 healthiest cities in America, from their own research. Explore this and learn a little about these locations, especially if they are some of your prospective living locations for the future.

Top 10: America’s Healthiest Cities