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| (Fine Fleece Alpacas pic) |
So, as I enter my linked trail of thoughts, like Alice jumping in the rabbit hole, don't be afraid because I'm pretty sure that I'll end up somewhat close to where I started :). I'm sure you will be 'back' lickety-split. Here we go...
As I sat in the mechanics waiting room, for 5th time in a last few months, crocheting on a scarf and listening to the news on the nearby waiting-room TV, I noticed that they had moved their vending machines. I had noted the vending machines the last time I was here since they are the inspiration for my kid's Halloween costumes. The boys are going to be vending / candy machines (not too bad, if I do say so myself), but that is another blog story.
In large part, I noticed that the vending machines had moved because I was observing that the dealership personnel were visiting them quite often. This was about the same time that I was listening to the fact that some fast food worker had successfully sued his employer for a work environment that contributed to him gaining 65 pounds during his 12 years of employment. Hrmmph, I wondered who could I successfully sue for making me fat over the last 10 years? (Now here's where my thoughts start jumping.)
Wait a minute, that worker is not fat because his employer MADE him eat fast food, and having free opportunity to eat badly does not equal pressure to eat badly. We all have a choice in how we eat. But, I sigh -- it can be so hard to eat 'properly'! Look at all these people visiting the vending machine for their apparent breakfast. There's never any time, it seems. I'm just as bad at eating improperly (likely this is not where the similarity ends ;) -- just this morning my breakfast was a chai tea. Sometimes it's a diet soda. If I'm lucky and my husband is feeling hungry for breakfast, he makes me an egg sandwich that I eat in the car on the way to work.
*They* say to eat a lot of small meals a day. I generally eat a couple of snacks and then a large meal, whether that's lunch or dinner. The train really runs off the track if I 'snack' after dinner, but again, that's another story. So, why is it so hard to eat 'right?' (Now here it may seem like I am taking a wild leap, and some of you may not make it with me.) Then it occurred to me that it is biology... in a manner of speaking. Prey animals eat all day long on fairly low caloric foods. When you give them rich foods or too much food at a time, they will get sick. The prey expend a low level of energy obtaining this food, which makes sense otherwise their expenditure would surpass their intake. Predators on the other hand, eat very large meals all at once. And, while they are idle when digesting this big brick of meat, predators use huge bursts of energy when they are hunting and this uses up their stored energy.
So the real trouble seems that in these 'civilized,' modern countries times / lifestyles we are allowed to behave as prey (as a whole population, since there are always exceptions), but still eat as if we were predators. Without these predators' bursts of energy, we are just storing up energy. Therefore, we become 'not prey' and 'not predators', like we are livestock instead -- fattening up for ?. Ohhh, maybe this is like a Matrix or Blade thing and we ARE just food for something. Ha, ha. Okay, not to get morbid or weird... so back on path.
But this does make me think of another sci-fi/fantasy book I read recently where the human girlfriend of an ancient Viking vampire said she wanted to lose weight (some of you may know this story since it is a popular genre right now). He said that when he was human there were simply those who were well fed and thriving in comparison to those who were hungry and starving, no 'overweight' and 'thin'. That seems on the surface to be a good way of thinking, until you realize that in his time frame that there were no real fat people with long lives anyway. So, again, this whole thing really boils done to choices and a frame of mind.
(Another leap, based on the predator / prey thing)... when I was younger and liked having 'mottos' and inspirational quotes up in my cubicle I had this quote:
Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning a lion wakes up. It knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death. It doesn't matter whether you are a lion or a gazelle: when the sun comes up, you'd better be running.
I think that this was from a business meeting, and I understand that it originates with a marathon runner, but it is pertinent on many levels for life. So, with the current topic in mind, not only does this quote seem appropriate for my little weight / eating epiphany, it was also good motto to remember for not just taking control of my eating habits but taking control in other things. It was a good reminder that I had to decide if I was a lion or gazelle because I HAD to. I'm either prey or predator; being in the middle because of lack of choosing is not life, it is letting life pass by or happen to you. Not choosing is actually is just being unhealthy in more ways than just weight. In life, the right thing to do is to CHOOSE -- either way. Then, commit to it. I for one has always believed myself to be a predator (and not just to justify the way I eat ;) so I better get with it!
There, I'm done mostly and I am fairly close to where I started but wiser and calmer for the journey.
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