Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Castaway

When Angie and I were in the depths of our holiday binge-fest recently, she made the following comment while we were driving home from a buffet: "I am so sick of food."

I was too. Strange, how the thing I'm most addicted to can cause such a dichotomy of emotions within me. The more unhealthy garbage I ate, the less I enjoyed it. Each Big Mac tasted progressively less yummy than the last, yet I couldn't seem to stop myself. At that point, I believe it was pure addiction, and not true desire, that was driving me.

I often find myself wishing I could be stranded on a deserted island. Hopefully, I'd have ice skates and a volleyball like Tom Hanks did...but there's one thing I wouldn't have, and that's the ability to make food choices. Coconuts? Crab? Raw fish? Bring it on. But please, oh please, don't let there be Golden Arches on my island.

America is a country with a lot of freedom. Sure- there's life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness to contend with. But, we also have the freedom to get really fat, to get diabetes and heart disease, and to let our addictions to various things control our lives. I'm grateful for all these freedoms- even the ones that lead to negative consequences. I would hate to take the Right to Drive-Thru away from anyone. But I sometimes wish I could take it away from myself.





8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I struggle w/the same issues as you and totally know what you mean. I've often said to my husband, "I'm so sick of eating." We agreed that it would be much easier if we could just be hooked up to IVs or swallow a capsule and that would be it! Ugh...

Matt Keeling said...

You know my girlfriend said the same thing and it was the weirdest thing as I could not relate at the time. Then as the weeks rolled by I to was able to understand.

Luckily I feel like I am back in a groove and hopefully will be hitting that running stride again soon.

Great post!

jules4422 said...

My partner and I have had the VERY same conversation numerous times. The more we eat out at restaurants, the harder it gets to be satisfied by the experience. We often think it would be much easier if we just ate one thing all the time -- sort of like our pets do. They seem to make it just fine!

Anonymous said...

My husband and I (who have 15-20 years on you) were talking about the "perfect storm" that created such an obesity epidemic--the proliferation of fast food places has astounded me. I had very little in the way of fast food growing up--now even the itty bitty town my parents live in has all the basic drive thrus.

Add to that the advent of video games, color TV with more than the standard 3 channels of my youth, and the fear of child abduction and you have a recipe for muffin tops!

It's hard to be addicted to something that you can't quit cold turkey. I understand that love/hate, can't stop feeling. Yuck.

mary in tx

Anonymous said...

Drive thrus were the most difficult thing for me. We moved abroad, to a country that is drive-thru-free, and that one difference has been such a blessing :)

Anonymous said...

I find that the healthier I eat, the less I want to eat junk food. I actually feel physically sick within 3 hours of eating a Big Mac. It always remind me of that episode on "Married with Children" where Peggy killed the healthnut bodybuilder that was suppose to whip her into shape when she was abled to turn him into a junk food addict instead. Within a week, he dropped dead on the show because his body was unable to process all the junk. Sometimes I wonder what would happen if we get rid of all the fast food and junk food. Would this country still be as obese?

Anonymous said...

I've emailed a more 'indepth' comment, but being British, I am sure that the only reason I only got up to BMI 32 is that fast food, whilst available, is not as available here. Also, I live somewhere where owning a car is pretty pointless, because you'd have to walk 15 mins from where you parked it, to where you want to go to. As a result I either walk, cycle or get the bus. I think if I could park easily, and still had a car, my BMI would be in the 40's! There's a lot of anonymity that goes alongside a drive through or ordering takeaway - my big fear is being 'found out' or 'seen' eating crap food, cos if no one sees you, you didn't eat it, right? RIGHT! Oh yeah, apart from this flab dripping off me!

I have noticed over the past 10 years here in England, that as the availability of fast food and junk food has increased, so has obesity. About 12 years ago, I was an au pair in your wonderful country, and was stunned at how easy it was to get the good, i mean, bad, stuff. Now, we're getting closer to you, and so is our obesity problem!

I'll shut up now!

D x

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