Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Food > Life?

What is it about food that makes it so amazing? Well, I mean besides the fact that it tantalizes your palette, awakens your olfactory senses, is aesthetically more pleasing than 75% of women in NY, provides quiet time to converse with people….I could go on for days about what makes food so important.


But one thing I cannot get is why people put food before their own lives. Take this lady for example. Now I’m not going to presume I know this lady’s life, but I have to worry that she’s not being healthy.


I live and breathe in New York City, a prime location for someone such as myself to support my compulsive eating habit. As I was sitting on the train, I have found there are 2 types of people – watchers and hermits. Hermits tend to shy away into their iPods, trying to avoid any and all eye contact or social interactions with other subway patrons. Watchers have active eyes. We observe our surroundings for safety and for general entertainment. While I was on the subway a few weeks ago, I was struck by this image – a woman consistently feeding her body donut holes for 8 stops! Now, I realize this sounds terribly judgmental, but understand I, myself, am known to abuse the delicate, fragile relationship I have with food and my body, sometimes abusing it senselessly and having to then apologize and pamper it the following few days. But I have probably the most active physical workout regimen of anyone I know, so when I do fall off the wagon, at least I have some room for fault. I worry that my compatriots in the pursuit of food fail to consider the toll that cuisine (especially the more delicious items like a quality burrito or a well made gourmet cookie) takes on their physical body.

This begs the question – when does food become more important than your life? A good friend expressed once that to him, healthy habits should start now, and if a person doesn’t get that in their routine early, you can’t expect them to turn back later. I wonder if people consider how what they put in themselves now will affect them later. I find it odd that people persistently disregard how their daily habits can affect them long term. “Oh its just one more cookie”; “I’ll start tomorrow”; “I have good genetics, so I’ll always stay skinny”. Skinny with a gut is not cute – trust me, its in my family genes. Do they ever think about keeping themselves physically fit for their future spouses? Their kids? Themselves? Or do they even care?

I had a conversation with my mother recently who as of late has been re-mastering her relationship with food. Her motivation, she said, was that her only son had so much more to do in his life, and she wanted to make sure she was around to see it….

Who would you rather be? Its your life – enjoy food responsibly.




-The UE


3 comments:

viridiansun said...

75%... a mess
bad habits are self-sabotage. We all do it in some way. Procrastination, over-sleeping, over-working, consistently mistreating others, not to mention drug and or alcohol abuse. It's strange how we can find so many ways to hold ourselves back (and in more extreme cases, endanger our physical/mental lives).

hmmm... do I smell a new blog topic for viridian??

wild cowgirl said...

:)

viridian teaches me the best lessons. she told me that whenever
i overeat...i should quietly go to the bathroom...and force myself to...

pat myself on the back and say
"its okay...go light next time"

it has been amazingly effective.

wild cowgirl said...

p.s.
i like this blog!