Thursday, February 21, 2008

I'm Moving to Switzerland


I was reading the News Currents Sr. to my residents this week and there was an interesting article about a new book by Eric Weiner. "The Geography of Bliss: One Grump's Search for the Happiest Places in the World" is the name of the book and there was one place that really struck in in reading the article. The happiest four countries to live are Bhutan, Iceland, Thailand and Switzerland. What I found most interesting were the reasons for their happiness. Bhutan's happiness stems from the governments high value of their residents happiness. Thailand's happiness is related to their ability to remain calm and not to think too much. Iceland's happiness comes from their creativity, fun loving nature and the cold weather, which seems to create a cooperative sense of community. I'd have to agree with that since we've had so much cold and snow this winter.

Switzerland was the country that surprised me. There were three reasons for their happiness.
1. Everything in Switzerland is reliable and runs on time.
2. The Swiss have a tradition of not flaunting their wealth.
3. THEY EAT A LOT OF CHOCOLATE!!!

Can you believe chocolate makes you happy? The last week, I have eaten more chocolate than I have in the last six months combined. I have stayed away from the candy bars I am still selling, but the assorted chocolates left over after Valentine's have been too tempting to pass up. I would love to live in Switzerland.

Thinking back to my pre-WW days, I would always stop at check-out aisle and grab a candy bar while checking out. Those grocery stores are clever and usually have sales like buy 1 get 1 or 3 for $1.00. I could never just buy one! I am proud to say, I have not bought a candy bar in the grocery store since last April. Now that I look back, those were a lot of unnecessary and really pointless calories to go along with my daily trip to the vending machine for a Snickers. The assorted chocolates of this week have tasted so much better than any old grocery store chocolate.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

My philosophy now is that if I am going to have something that is not a staple of my healthy lifestyle (like chocolate or chocolate cake!) then it has to be of the best possible quality and I must really savour it.

kborn said...

I forgot to buy chocolate from Liz!
The Snickers are the best (peanuts and chocolate!--it's like a protein snack, right??)

Diana Swallow said...

pass the chocolate, its great to dip strawberries in

noelle said...

I still get an occasional candy treat, but I'm very generous with the "who wants a bite of mama's candy?" that way I get a bite or two and seem like such a nice mama!!!