*This is a semi-rant, personal story, stream of consciousness about past weight loss, my vices and how much I don’t like most media post Read at your own risk.
I don’t know what’s sexier– the backside of a jar of almond butter or the back of a CocaCola can. What about the backside of Bill O’Reilly or Keith Olbermann, er Kaitie Couric … oh wait, don’t answer that…
Do you look at the labels of the food you eat? Do you know the calories, sugars, fiber, protein and various chemicals that you put into your body? Probably to an extent, huh? Sometimes, but only if you’re trying to lose weight and you look for certain things as being wrong but accept the rest… Are you the same way with the information you consume?
I’m guilty of this lackadaisical attitude towards information AND food when times get hectic and I let my guard down. If you put enough junk food in front of someone who’s bored or even hungry, they’ll probably eat it regardless of what the ingredients say on the back of the package. Life gets busy, yet we’re still probably bored with a big chunk of our day, so we’ll often entertain ourselves with drivel.
When I was 20 years old, I was way overweight. I’m still a big dude, but I’m talking WAY overweight to the point where I could barely do a push up or jog a mile. It was too much reality too soon and I basically cut all junk food out of my diet and started exercising regularly by riding my bike to work. One of the most profound memories I have about that period of time was giving up soda all together and alchohol for 5 months. I drank lots of Coca Cola and Pepsi on a regular basis and I liked it. I liked it with rum, whiskey, vodka, by itself, whatever…
Quitting drinking was tough because it was the summer and giving up junkfood and soda was tough too because I loved it as a comfort food. However, I quickly learned that there was an entire world outside of food and culinary goodies and I became distracted with a lot of things my life was missing out on before that.
After I lost 50 lbs–which is where I lie at my current weight contemplating another run at another 50 lbs– I remember grabbing a can of CocaCola, greedily grasping the can, cracking it open and putting it to my lips taking 3 long, hard guzzles… then something happened. I felt my teeth grit, I felt my tongue get sticky and tingle and I spit what I hadn’t swallowed up on the ground.
Something so simple and what I thought to be good, was completely gross to me after depriving myself of it for a period of time. I became aware of vitamins, minerals, veggies, lean protein, pushups and other cool things about becoming healthy again and I had no room in my life for this water flavored with corn sugar syrup and lord knows whatever else they put in that stuff.
I cut the cord on watching television in the same dramatic fashion, traveled the world a little, learned about some injustices, heroes, made some bad and great choices and realized that life had very little to do with the pre-packaged bullshit that you get throughout television channels, newspapers, magazines and whatnot.
This title obviously sounded better when it popped in my mind than it does now, but I’m going to keep it up there. This post took an expected turn towards a personal story, but either way, my main point is that people, including myself, tend to do a lot of self-destructive things. Some of those things are more socially acceptable than others, but at the end of the day, they’re still killing us, lowering our quality of life or keeping us dumber than should be allowed during this short time on earth.
Just something to think about whenever I look at some sugar, alcohol, or plastic surgery laced images on the TV with the “ohhh you want this!” aura branded all around.
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
It’s funny you talk about giving up soda and what that change was like. I used to drink tons of soda when I was a teen/college student. Sure, I’d drink water while I was rowing or dancing, but usually after 4 hours of practice, I’d think I didn’t need anymore water…back to soda. My senior year of college I tried to get better: 2 glasses of milk a day plus only water, with soda on special occasions. I found I needed the sweetness in the water, and I was always drinking some berry mix. After a few months, I started watering everything down. I couldn’t take the sweetness; it’s as if someone had flipped a switch. Now I rarely drink soda, can’t stand most juices, and I really stick to water and coffee. That shift has changed my palate, as well. I don’t need foods with tons of salt to balance out the sweet. I can enjoy subtle differences in flavors. I’ve had a similar food epiphany to you, and it is nice to know there’s more in the world.
More delicious and enlightening things out there! We’re put here to find them I do believe!
Ah! What a great post. I myself was never much of a soda drinker, but I have always been really concerned with staying healthy. I grew up in a house where no one was overweight, but my father was (and still is) a fairly hardcore smoker. It frustrated me to no end to see him do things to himself that I knew were stupid. I like the balance and the culinary differences you have found. (I am also really guilty of needing several flavors/textures at a meal to keep me satisfied.)
Awesome job!!
Thanks! I’m not there yet, but I’m working on it. I’ll get there eventually
Hope your dad feels better/healthier!
Great post! I’m a little obsessed with nutrition, but hopefully in a good way. When forced to give up all things gluten-y I became hyper-aware about reading labels and paying more attention to nutrition came along with it. And once I put my focus on my health, extra weight came off too. Like most people, I’ve floated up and down the scales, but food blogging has definitely helped me stay on track in the last couple years. And joining Dailyburn.com to track what I’m eating and workouts has been great too.
@Jenn, you’ve really got me interested in the streel cut oats. Stuff like that is great to me because it tastes great, is healthy and just different than eggs and toast. I’m gonna check out DailyBurn.com too! My lifestyle has been kind of hard to keep a regular schedule, but I’ll be damned if I don’t try!