Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Day 62, What If...

... 10% of the world did The Peak Condition Project? This thought bubbled up in my mind today as I was jumping rope. Of my friends and acquaintances who know I'm doing this, (and it's getting more and more obvious that my physique is changing, thus, more people keep asking) the reactions fall in this range. Let's take a sample of 10 people:

  • 4 will say something like : "Why? You weren't out of shape or anything..."
  • 3 will be in the ballpark of: "Wow, sounds tough, I could never do that..."
  • 2 will say something along the lines of : "That's cool. Good luck! I'll check your blog!"
  • And 1 out of 10 will say: "How did you do it? I want to do it. I want to start tomorrow. Tell me how you did it. I'm serious."
When I was an aid worker, a 10% compliance rate for a given health initiative was considered a huge success. So I've been surprised to have so many people not only express interest in the PCP, but practically beg me to let them do it too. (This is why I decided to open it up to three others) All I can say is that the Project brings out the best in people, especially in that 10%

So anyway, I was just trying to do a thought experiment. What if 1 out of every 10 people in the world started eating right, controlling their diet, and exercising consistently? How would that change the planet?



First, a lot of industries would see an immediate 10% drop in profits. Fast food, restaurants, bars and the like would have 1 out of 10 tables empty.

Other sectors of the economy would see big upticks, especially agriculture and sporting goods. Fruit prices would go up as demand soared. There would be a lot more eggs sold too, which wouldn't be a great thing considering how most egg farms are run.

But there would be other effects. If 1 out of 10 people started looking and feeling really good, the people around them would naturally start to become a little healthier too. As I wrote about way back on Day 19, when you're on the PCP diet you don't take your friends to restaurants, everyone in your house eats the low sodium soy sauce, etc...

As a result, healthcare costs would go down. The 10% wouldn't want to opt into insurance plans that supported the other 90% who had unhealthy habits.

Maybe even a divide would open up, as indeed it already is, between people who think about their health and those who don't. There would be those who took their smoke breaks, and those who took their jumprope breaks.

Readers, what am I missing? Do you have any ideas for how the world would change for the better or worse if 10% of the population did the PCP?

4 comments:

Amy said...

It would be awesome if even 1% were able to do this. Unfortunately, I'd guess that the folks who need it most -people with severe obesity issues that lead to heart disease, diabetes, and etc-are the least likely to even be interested in something like the PCP.

Anonymous said...

I feel like it is almost something that has to come about in a very personal way. I can't look at my brother, who is very out-of-shape, and say "Get the hell off the video games and exercise!" because he's been so conditioned to thinking it's an insult!

Parents have been breeding their children with too fragile of self esteem. People simply can't say to one another, "Wow, you're too fat!" even when it needs to be said. Love isn't always about being nice!!

Love the PCP! Even though I'm maybe sounding all weirdly cultish... PCP is helping me!

Sean said...

That whole entry makes me think that maybe the PCP could become something really big like a biannual thing or something complete with its own dedicated web site that takes applications for new PCPers, has the daily blogs, forums, etc. to really get the word out and spreading to the one out of ten people who are truly interested.

Also, I thought you might enjoy this: Bruce Lee, The Musical. I don't really know what to think about it.

Anonymous said...

Patrick,
checked out your blog via zen is stupid. i am new to zen and have been looking for something zen-like to get into shape. PCP seems to be my thing. i am going for it! so...we'll see what happens.
peace,
craig