Why is it so easy to be healthy here?

So I've been thinking about this and discussing it some with BK, but I keep asking myself why it is so much easier for me to be healthier in Switzerland than it is in the US? I think a lot of things play into it, and there's not just one specific thing that does it, but it's crazy to me just how different our activity level and food consumption is the minute we get back over here.

Like I said, I think many things play into this. Why is it that my convenient snacks here are much more likely to be an apple, a pear, some grapes or a clementine that I can just throw in my bag on the way to school? As opposed to the granola bar, prepackaged bag of crackers, or other random thing that I used to eat in the US. Is it because it's hard to peel fruit in the car when I'm on the go and seems to be easier when I'm walking along here? Not sure, but that seems pretty weak.

Maybe I'm more aware of what I have here because food is more expensive, so it pains me much more to waste, not to mention that even the trash bags are expensive, so we try not to produce nearly as much trash as we did in the US.

Another thing that you notice right away over here is that fast food and convenience food is expensive, so it makes you seek out other alternatives if you can't eat at home. A six-piece nugget at McDonald's will run you around $12. For that (and probably cheaper) I can easily go next door the "to-go" part of the grocery store and get a sandwich with a piece of fruit and a drink. Even the convenience stores are different- they're not full of prepackaged food or a million choices of candy and chips. For one, they typically all have a fruit stand out front, but have mostly things you might need after the grocery store closes such as dairy products, some breads, and fruits and veggies.

Are we healthier here because our food is fresher? Swiss people would rather pay more for a Swiss product than pay less for a product from really far away. The grocery chains do a lot of advertising around "From the region, for the region." I know I've mentioned that I haven't had berries in quite a while, but they are not out in the grocery store, and I'm honestly not sure when they come back into season.

Obviously our activity level factors into things as well. I write this post after returning from a walk with the dogs that was nearly five miles, and took us a little more than an hour. On a Saturday morning in the US, I would have never woken up on a Saturday morning and thought to myself, "Let's go for a five mile walk." Not sure why, but I'm sure I would have wanted to relax with BK after a hard week at work.

For us, and many people who live in Basel, a car is almost an inconvenience. You have to pay more at your apartment for a parking spot, you pay to park anywhere in the city that you're going, often where you park is far away from where you're going to run errands, you're legally required to have two sets of tires (summer and winter), and the list goes on. In fact, because of all the one way streets here, it typically takes longer to get somewhere in a car than it ever would via public transportation.

And even though I do use the buses and trams at least once a day, it still requires a walk to the bus or tram stop. My dad was asking BK how he would get to work if it got really cold, as in, could he take a tram? He could, but ultimately because of where we live, it would be out of the way to catch a tram. So the answer is, suck it up, bundle up well, and walk to work like he does every other day.

Interestingly enough, I recently ran across an HBO documentary about the obesity epidemic in the US called Weight of the Nation.  It's a multiple part series that looks at the various ways obesity is impacting the US, and after pondering this Swiss versus US thing it was interesting to watch. Maybe BK and I are healthier here, because the US has essentially engineered its way to unhealthiness. Everything the US does is based on convenience, not necessarily what's actually good for you. How fast can the US mass produce this thing and make sure that everyone stays busy, busy, busy?

I'm not really looking for an answer, nor do I think I've found some new key to it. It's the old eat healthier and be more active. Nothing too earth shattering about it, but it seems so much harder to do in the US for some reason. Hopefully we'll stay mindful of this and it will be a lifestyle change that stays with BK and I long after we return to the US.