Hot tubs

I like to consider myself a champion of the environment. We run reliable old cars, we save 50% of our income, we make mindful purchases.

So why do we have a hot tub?

Thank you Covid for causing Air France to cancel our flights to Madagascar. Forced lockdown and an impulse purchase-able Hot tub in Tesco and here we are. Well actually, we received a photo of said hot tub, 3 children plus one adult cried ‘buy buy buy’ but the text message was missed. A next day early trip to beat the Covid queues secured our ownership of the Lay Z Boy tub.

I have read in scientific journals about the impact of a sauna three times a week on longevity. I am hoping that immersing myself in water twice per day has a similar impact.

Since I now don’t drive into the office 5 days a week I have saved over an hour a day and use this bonus time for a relaxing soak. How is that for a swap-out!? I don’t know if it is the heat of a sauna or the act of total relaxation combined with an inability to do anything else that shows a correlation with a longer life but I am hopeful it is a bit of both.

Covid weather in UK has been one very long, sunny and hot ‘summer’ and the purchase of the tub was a fraction of the cost of the flights to Madagascar never mind the internal flights, accommodation and food.

I have no intention of taking a flight anywhere for the rest of this year. Financially the decision was straightforward. I do now feel less good about the impact on the environment.

Is there a website dedicated to the carbon footprint impact of the choices we make? Does saving five flights to Madagascar plus internal flights add up to more or less of heating up a large body of water in my UK back yard? I am not sure, but I do wonder.

So ‘environmental champion’ one who treads lightly on the earth, do I add up or am I a terrible hypocrite? I am not sure about that. But I am sure that a morning soak after exercise and an evening soak either after work or after dinner has been the biggest accelerator of joy my life has experienced since having my children.

I am outside in my tub as a type this on my phone, life doesn’t get much better than this.

Can you get a hot tub? If you can, I for one, would highly recommend it!