TV is not the enemy. In fact, TV can be good. Without TV this world doesn’t have 60 Minutes, Saturday Night Live and Top Chef. But too much of a good thing can easily become a bad thing for your health. So how much is too much?
Did you know that according to Nielsen Media Research, Americans are watching around 58 hours and 27 minutes of television a week (up 40 minutes from last year). Do a little math and… that’s more than 8 hours a day! That’s a full workday! So if you work 8 hours, watch the tube for 8 hours and then sleep for 8 hours then… well, there’s probably not any time set aside to take care of your health – to take a walk, to cook a healthy meal or to play a little ball. Shocking yes, but also true.
It is also true that Americans are paying a high health toll for all the tube we are watching.
So what do we do? WE DARE YOU! The dare comes in the form of a challenge…
The CHALLENGE: Go a full week without turning on the TV (unplug it, put a sheet over it- whatever it takes)!
Then SHARE YOUR STORY - tell us how going “TV-less” changed your life – if we feature your story on EarthFare.com, you will get a $50.00 gift card!
8 Hours a day??? that’s insane… I’ll turn on the tube for a bit at dinner or whatever but I never go over two hours a day… I can’t believe people are sinking that much time into make believe! (Yes, even reality shows are make believe…)
- Austin
Johnson City, TN
We are TV’less here… We canceled cable because I was going to get it from another company… and whoops *wink* I just ran out of time to do such a thing… a year later, we still don’t watch TV…
Loving this blog and challenges.. and all the new things Earthfare is doing. Keep up the great work!
This past summer, when the infamous little black boxes became required for television signal reception, our household did not purchase the box, nor did we upgrade from our “rabbit eared” TV to a shiny, new digital TV. Rather, we happily gave it up, since our primary viewings were mostly weekend PBS shows anyway. After the first few weeks or so, we decided that whatever we wanted to watch from conventional TV, we could easily find online, which is what we did and still, that remains a random occurence. We do, however, sometimes watch DVDs on our old TV set and online as well.
We did it. Turned off the television and gained insight into each other. We played games, read books and magazines and exercised. We went to bed earlier and felt better. I was wondering what would happen – I don’t feel we are addicted to the television but we do watch alot. I was very surprised especially when the weekend came and we didn’t get up and turn it on first thing. We have been really trying to improve our lives through healthy living and just had our first totally organic Thanksgiving. We still have a long way to go but Earth Fare is really helping us so very much. Each week when we go grocery shopping we learn something new and have jotted down the information in a journal so we can constantly be reminded of the great things Earth Fare has to offer.
Thanks! Congrats on being T.V. free! Great tip for all – Cancel cable! You should submit your story to our site – http://www.earthfare.com/HealthyLiving/ShareYourStory.aspx – if we feature it, you will get a $50.00 gift card to our stores! Thanks for commenting – keep the feedback coming!
Hi julie-
Congrats on becoming TV FREE! That is great!
Danielle, congratulations on going TV Free! Glad to hear that you are seeing the positive benefits, and congratulations on enjoying your first organic Thanksgiving. Keep it up and keep us posted on your journey.