How Happy are You?
 

I just came across this article this morning, and thought it would be a great topic to discuss here...

http://www.foxnews.com/health/2012/0...d-in-new-poll/

Here is an excerpt:

For the third year in a row, the Aloha State gets kudos as the happiest U.S. state, with Hawaii residents scoring highest in the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index.

But you don't have to jet to an island for a smile, as North Dakota and Minnesota came in second and third, respectively. West Virginia's residents showed the lowest well-being scores.

Following a trend that has been consistent over the past four years, Western and Midwestern states fared well on the happiness index, accounting for nine of the slots on the top 10 happiest states' list, with Southern states sliding into half of the bottom 10 states.


Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/health/2012/0...#ixzz1nh7PON7K

How happy are you?

Re: How Happy are You?
 

Not really very, but it's gonna be better tomorrow!

Re: How Happy are You?
 

Just to make it easier... find your state on this list.. if you are in the US that is :)

Here are the 50 U.S. states in order of their well-being scores, which are out of 100 points.
1. Hawaii: 70.2
2. North Dakota: 70.0
3. Minnesota: 69.2
4. Utah: 69.0
5. Alaska: 69.0
6. Colorado: 68.4
7. Kansas: 68.4
8. Nebraska: 68.3
9. New Hampshire: 68.2
10. Montana: 68.0
11. South Dakota: 67.8
12. Vermont: 67.7
13. Maryland: 67.6
14. Virginia: 67.4
15. Iowa: 67.4
16. Massachusetts: 67.4
17. California: 67.3
18. Washington: 67.3
19. Connecticut: 67.2
20. Oregon: 67.1
21. Wyoming: 66.9
22. Wisconsin: 66.9
23. Idaho: 66.9
24. New Mexico: 66.8
25. Maine: 66.7
26. Arizona: 66.6
27. Texas: 66.4
28. Georgia: 66.3
29. New Jersey: 66.2
30. North Carolina: 66.1
31. Pennsylvania: 66.0
32. Illinois: 65.9
33. South Carolina: 65.7
34. New York: 65.7
35. Rhode Island: 65.6
36. Louisiana: 65.5
37. Michigan: 65.3
38. Oklahoma: 65.1
39. Indiana: 65.1
40. Nevada: 65.0
41. Tennessee: 65.0
42. Florida: 64.9
43. Missouri: 64.8
44. Arkansas: 64.7
45. Alabama: 64.6
46. Ohio: 64.5
47. Delaware: 64.2
48. Mississippi: 63.4
49. Kentucky: 63.3
50. West Virginia: 62.3

Re: How Happy are You?
 

Think yourself happy Matt... Today could be the best day of your life... :highfive

Re: How Happy are You?
 

I'm 66.4% happy. Pardner. ;)

Re: How Happy are You?
 

In a study of the importance of religion by state, all the top ten most religious states are in the bottom half of the happiness study, and 8 of the 10 least religious states are in the top half of the happiness study.


http://sas-origin.onstreammedia.com/...f5qxy-ygbw.gif http://sas-origin.onstreammedia.com/...boqv6hkdug.gif

http://www.gallup.com/poll/114022/St...-Religion.aspx

Re: How Happy are You?
 

(I anticipate a sermon on the difference between "happiness" and "joy". :lol)

Re: How Happy are You?
 

So being "happy" is not the same as being in the pit of depression and yet having "joy unspeakable and full of glory"?

Re: How Happy are You?
 

they are related. "Joy unspeakable and full of glory" leaves no room for depression. Anything other than a transitory feeling that should be more or less relatively easy to rise above should be examined and remedied. Curing depression for me became realizing what was right in front of me.
telling.
I am much closer to God since moving to Colorado, not sure why. Nature maybe.

Re: How Happy are You?
 

I'm in Texas. Heaven is a local call, here. :toofunny

Re: How Happy are You?
 

Nice place to be from; I'm from there : )

Re: How Happy are You?
 

Nevah been happy. Have been content for a long while. Am now discontent.

Re: How Happy are You?
 

:toofunny :thumbsup

Re: How Happy are You?
 

Need a quarter? :)

Re: How Happy are You?
 

Well, at the best of times, there is a sense in which we are to hate this life.
There is a dichotomy here that can be hard to resolve, leads to much misunderstanding.

Life begins at forty, too for the same reason; one begins to prioritize better.

Re: How Happy are You?
 

Ha it's fifty cents now, if you can find a phone.

Re: How Happy are You?
 

Woza! No wonder even people on foodstamps have cell phones!

To answer the original question... I am over the moon happy. I come from a rough start and a rougher middle so I have a great gauge for when life is good. I have learned to appreciate those times and to see hard times and grief as what they are... seasons. They no longer really affect my overall happiness. I can be concerned, worried, stressed but still maintain the knowledge that overall my life is good. It is filled with people I love, who love me back, with awesome friends (some right here at AFF) who love and support me through my best and worst times, with a family that even if they don't totally get me, still allow me to be me.

I also have more material possessions than I ever imagined I would... to me it looks like a lot, to someone else... maybe not but material things are not the center of my being anyway... and I am not stacking my stuff up against anyone else's so I am content.

For the first time in my life I am content with my looks and my body, even though I am fatter, more wrinkled and more gray then I've ever been before. I have learned to appreciate what still works and deal with what doesn't. I realize that while I might be able to fix and patch it up a little, over time I will have less and less physically... so I truly appreciate what I've got now.

People still amaze me. Today I got an email from someone in California... who offered to be my hands and feet if I needed someone to be with mom. I actually cried (so not me). Who does that? I used to believe that there was no one in the world who really cared. I was so wrong... but having believed it I now see human love and compassion as the greatest gift. It trumps anything else one could ever do or have.

I better wrap up my novel before I go all mushy on you and lose my tough farm girl image.

I wish every one of you REAL happiness. :)

Re: How Happy are You?
 

Boy... I really did write a book, didn't I?

Re: How Happy are You?
 

I loved what you wrote, and agree 100% with you.... you could write a book, you write and verbalize so well.... and I agree with you in that happiness is not composed necessarily of material things, but it is the inward peace and contentment that don't have a material measuring cup.

I am happy, joyful, and full of peace today even though my life isn't perfect, some material things may be lacking, but I have a family that loves me, and God who is with me... and... life is good.... :happydance

Re: How Happy are You?
 

:yourock

Re: How Happy are You?
 

I wonder if religious affiliation has anything to do with the % of overweight or obese people in those states also?

One thing the Pentecostals I knew could do, and do VERY WELL was eat... There were NO restrictions on food in any of the churches I went to... and exercise was seen as futile bodily effort, because the Lord was coming back soon... no need to worry... we're going to be raptured out of here anyway, so eat to your heart's content...

And eating out after every service was a big social thing.... folks were in a hurry to get down to the local Pizza Hut or Chili's after just about every service ....

Re: How Happy are You?
 

Yup. For everything added to the list of "Thou shalt NOT" it is simply replaced by an extra helping of <fill in the name of a food item>.

Re: How Happy are You?
 

blasphemy!

Re: How Happy are You?
 

Truth.

http://thechart.blogs.cnn.com/2011/0...uently-fatter/

http://blog.chron.com/believeitornot...ul-are-fatter/


http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504763_1...-10391704.html


(CBS) We don't recall any of the commandments saying "thou shall eat chocolate cake," but an unusual new study has found that people who regularly attend religious activities are 50 percent more likely to battle obesity by middle age.

God only knows why. The scientists sure don't.

"We don't know why frequent religious participation is associated with development of obesity," said Matthew Feinstein, the study's lead investigator and a fourth-year student at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. "It's possible that getting together once a week and associating good works and happiness with eating unhealthy foods could lead to the development of habits that are associated with greater body weight and obesity."

The study tracked nearly 2,500 men and women over 18 years. They filtered for age, race, sex, education, income and baseline body mass index. The last one's important, because it shows that the religious were getting fatter, not that fat people were getting religious.

One thing the researchers could not account for was which God people were praying to. Feinstein says participants were mostly Protestant, but they didn't have enough information on other faiths to really gauge if any fared better than the others.

The news isn't all bad for the heavenly-minded.

"There have been a number of studies over the years that show more religious people tend to live longer, are less likely to smoke and have better mental health," Feinstein told CBS News. "Religious people are doing a lot right, but this is one special area where there is room for improvement."

In fact, another group at Northwestern is already experimenting with a faith-based weight loss program in a Chicago church. And there's reason to believe that those that pray together can also lose weight together.

So while God may work in mysterious ways, it's now clear that cookies and cake are pretty darn predictable.

Re: How Happy are You?
 

I know it's true sheesh don't rub it in. *Sulks away*

Re: How Happy are You?
 

Ya, I thought I had seen something written about this issue before... thanks for digging this up T2W!!! The proof is in the pudding!

So happy people are not obese or overweight, and are not religious, according to some of this... what say ye?

Therefore, if I'm happy, overweight, and religious... I guess I don't have a category to fall into... :happydance :happydance :happydance

Re: How Happy are You?
 

It's an epidemic...Colorado, your most healthy state, has a 50% obesity rate. We have 100 million pre-diabetics in this country now.

Re: How Happy are You?
 

I'm trying my hardest not to be a statistic. I don't look at scales, but I'm slimming down, or so people tell me.

Re: How Happy are You?
 

At one time, I used to blame people for eating themselves to diabetes. However, now I blame the corn lobbyists for adding their poison (high fructose corn syrup) to so many of our everyday foods.

I also blame the American government for doing nothing about this poison in the face of scientific studies that show high fructose corn syrup to make humans insulin-resistant.


Alas! All this blaming has made me thirsty. I think I want some orange Hi-C.

Re: How Happy are You?
 

If the American government would outlaw high fructose corn syrup, I have a feeling there would be an uprising.

Re: How Happy are You?
 

Well it is banned in most non-3rd world countries as it is clearly documented to be poisonous to the human body.

I think it should be banned in America too.


Let the corn people convert their poison into alternative fuels and leave it out of our foods and drinks.

Re: How Happy are You?
 

It's not just HFCS either Jermyn. Our food is full of chems. I posted this on another thread but I'll post it here also since I think it bears repeating. We literally are what we eat... If you don't want to be junk, don't eat junk.

Easy rules for healthy eating:

Eat as close to the ground as possible Veggies, meats and fish, fruits.
Eat as close to raw as possible.
Avoid anything that comes in a package.
If you must eat packaged or canned food no more than 3 ingredients on the lable. Example 1.Greenbeans, water, salt. 2. Oats.

Example of good food:
Wheat, water, butter, salt, honey, yeast.(Bread)
Cream, salt (Butter).

Example of bad food:
Ingredients: lliquid soybean oil, partially hydrogenated soybean oil, water,whey, salt, vegetable mono and di-glycerides, soy lecithin, potassium sorbate, sodium benzoate, artificial flavor, phosphoric acid, vitamin a palmate, beta carrotine. (Margarine)

Wheat flour, water, wheat gluten, high fructose corn syrup, soybean oil, salt, molasses, yeast, mono and diglycerides, exthoxylated mono and diglycerides, dough conditioners (sodium stearoyl lactylate, calcium iodate, calcium dioxide), datem, calcium sulfate, vinegar, yeast nutrient (ammonium sulfate), extracts of malted barley and corn, dicalcium phosphate, diammonium phosphate, calcium propionate. (Bread)

It only took four ingredients to get a piece of my homemade bread and butter but somehow it took over 30 to get a piece of store bread and margarine. That is because food is now produced with esthetics, shelf life, waste control, ingredient cost, travel-ability and many other factors that have nothing to do with feeding you healthy in mind. As a matter of fact your nutrition is at the bottom of a long list of concerns for food 'manufactures'.

Easiest question to ask yourself when making a food choice is: Could someone have eaten this 100 years ago? If not pass it up
Easy rules for healthy eating:

Eat as close to the ground as possible Veggies, meats and fish, fruits.
Eat as close to raw as possible.
Avoid anything that comes in a package.
If you must eat packaged or canned food no more than 3 ingredients on the lable. Example 1.Greenbeans, water, salt. 2. Oats.

Example of good food:
Wheat, water, butter, salt, honey, yeast.(Bread)
Cream, salt (Butter).

Example of bad food:
Ingredients: lliquid soybean oil, partially hydrogenated soybean oil, water,whey, salt, vegetable mono and di-glycerides, soy lecithin, potassium sorbate, sodium benzoate, artificial flavor, phosphoric acid, vitamin a palmate, beta carrotine. (Margarine)

Wheat flour, water, wheat gluten, high fructose corn syrup, soybean oil, salt, molasses, yeast, mono and diglycerides, exthoxylated mono and diglycerides, dough conditioners (sodium stearoyl lactylate, calcium iodate, calcium dioxide), datem, calcium sulfate, vinegar, yeast nutrient (ammonium sulfate), extracts of malted barley and corn, dicalcium phosphate, diammonium phosphate, calcium propionate. (Bread)

It only took five ingredients to get a piece of my homemade bread and butter but somehow it took over 30 to get a piece of store bread and margarine. That is because food is now produced with esthetics, shelf life, waste control, ingredient cost, travel-ability and many other factors that have nothing to do with feeding you healthy in mind. As a matter of fact your nutrition is at the bottom of a long list of concerns for food 'manufactures'.

Easiest question to ask yourself when making a food choice is: Could someone have eaten this 100 years ago? If not pass it up

Re: How Happy are You?
 

"If the American government would outlaw high fructose corn syrup, I have a feeling there would be an uprising."
Ha, it'd prolly just create a black market!
I consider this naively benevolent, to assume that the Gov has done nothing here. They did just what their masters wanted.

Re: How Happy are You?
 

<Ready for my second can of Coke this morning>

There! All better!

Re: How Happy are You?
 

I wonder if there's a weight limit for that "catching up"! :lol

Re: How Happy are You?
 

Hmm, there's a Bible verse somewhere, about people who think they're saved but are actually fattening themselves up...

Re: How Happy are You?
 

Maybe the "weight of sin" ???

:laffatu

Re: How Happy are You?
 

Check this article out... sorry to ruin your morning soda...

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/198598.php


Soda Consumption Linked To Obesity, Type 2 Diabetes, Other Health Concerns
23 Aug 2010

Drinking too much soda could have health consequences ranging from weight gain to osteoporosis to kidney problems, according to the August issue of Mayo Clinic Women's HealthSource.

Soda was once considered an occasional treat, but consumption has steadily increased over the last three decades. Many Americans drink soda every day. Demand is so great that manufacturers produce enough soda to supply the average man, woman and child in America with more than 52 gallons each year.

Mayo Clinic Women's HealthSource looks at possible health effects of sipping too much soda. For example, studies have found an association between Americans' soda-drinking habits and the rising rates of obesity and type 2 diabetes in adults and children.

Sugar overload: Many concerns about soda center on sugar. One 12-ounce soda typically has nine teaspoons of sugar and 140 calories. Research has shown that adults and children who regularly drink beverages high in sugar tend to have higher calorie intake overall and experience weight gain. As weight increases, so does the risk of type 2 diabetes.

Diet soda no better? Although diet sodas are low in calories, nutrition surveys have shown that those who drink them don't always eat healthier or lose weight. Some data suggest that the artificial sweeteners in diet drinks may increase sugar cravings and encourage poor food choices.

Metabolic syndrome: A study in the journal Circulation found that middle-aged adults who drink one or more regular or diet sodas daily had an increased risk of developing metabolic syndrome - a cluster of conditions that includes high blood pressure, excess weight gain around the waist, high cholesterol and insulin resistance.

Osteoporosis: Consumption of milk, an important source of calcium, may be less for someone who prefers drinking soda. Lower calcium levels can increase the risk of osteoporosis, a condition in which bones are weak and prone to fracture. It's possible that the phosphoric acid and caffeine found in soft drinks may promote the loss of calcium in bones.

Kidney stones: Some evidence indicates that sodas are linked to the formation of kidney stones. Drinking two or more diet or regular sodas in one day may increase the risk of chronic kidney disease.

For those trying to lose weight or improve their diet, forgoing soda or indulging only on occasion may be wise. In other cases, cutting back may be a good idea, especially for those who drink more than one soda a day.

Re: How Happy are You?
 

It didn't ruin it at all. Not even a little. :)

So I guess beer really IS one of the healthiest drinks, comparably speaking? LOL

Or maybe even.......

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_DPp-MT5jrx...00_tequila.gif

Re: How Happy are You?
 

Great information T2W!! Easier said than done to be sure! I mean, you might as well just stay away from the grocery store, because almost everything, except produce, comes in a package! And then, the produce is usually from Mexico, where we know they use human sewer water to irrigate their crops... ughhh! Even the ORGANIC stuff in my grocery store is from .... Mexico!

What's someone to do?? ... wish to God we could all be as self-sufficient as you are!!!!