About six years ago I started to realize that people where living beyond there means. There was no way that their income levels could sustain the lifestyle they lived. The people I'm talking about are not people on TV or others that I've heard about. These people were my co-workers, family, friends and other acquaintances. They were real people who I had real interaction with.


It was not until about a year ago that I starting to really analyze this situation and came up with a name for it, the Super Sized Life. But why shouldn't we Americans be living a super sized life? A lot of us act like our world is just like McDonald's. We expect everything fast, cheap, and a little bigger. Of course this would never hurt our waistlines or our pocket books. Or would it?

Did we super size our lives a little too much? I mean so what if we buy a few items at the store that were not on the list. If we bought a car with a few more features then we needed. Who couldn't use an extra bathroom and bedroom in their home? And God forbid we don't buy something from all of the fundraisers going on in the area. Plus, I think that it's important to keep your kids extremely busy with at least 4 extra curricular activities each per season.

Do you sense a little sarcasm above? I hope so. Our mentality of "a little more of a good thing won't hurt" has caused us all great pain. Our economy is in the toilet, people are losing their super sized homes and cars, we (and our kids) are over weight, and we are all stressed from our crazy schedules.

We say forget the super sized life! It's really not as much fun as it sounds. We have found that our family did better when we went back to the basics. We are healthier and happier. Not to mention our pocket books have something in them.

Were you living super-sized? Has the current economy put an end of the super sized life? Are we going to stop living one size larger and start living one size smaller?

Image courtesy of MSNBC