Two to Too Many

For some, somewhere after two the choices become too many. When faced with too many choices most people either choose the same thing over and over again or choose nothing because deciding is too hard.

Deciding what to eat used to be easy. In 1970, the average number of products on grocery store shelves was 7,800. In 2008, that number jumped to 46,852! Is this a good thing? I promise we didn't discover we could start eating rocks and therefore a new world of food opened up. By and large, these foods are manufactured.

Your choices in how to exercise have also experienced huge growth. Have we also manufactured too many exercise choices thereby rendering most people unable to do any exercise? Exercise used to be simple... calisthenics, running, pumping some iron. Some of us fondly remember the Jane Fonda aerobics debut (pun intended). Today, there are thousands, if not millions of different ways to exercise. One could assume this would encourage more people to exercise because everyone can surely find something they actually like to do. The obesity numbers tell the opposite story.

Perhaps we are better off going back to the tried-and-true, simple ways of exercising our bodies. Perhaps all we want is a gym coach to tell us what to do so we can follow along and be healthy. Thoughts anyone?