Anybody ever wonder if the obsession over weight loss is somehow a metaphorical expression of our desire to conquer our more internal shortcomings? No?
So I'm trying to lose weight. I want to go from a pudgy to a normal, a size or two. Not impossible. I find it's not terribly hard to watch what you eat, monitor your intake. The lovely iPhone (or Android, or whatever) has many apps that can do just that; there are even apps that monitor how much you walk or exercise, estimating how many calories you use. Exercise is, of course, key to losing weight. Yet the diet manages the weight, and keeps what has been lost, off. You can't expect to lose much weight chomping on burgers in between jogs. No, a healthy diet is paramount. And grocery stores offer fresh produce, lean meats, Healthy Choice meals, weight loss shakes, and all manner of aids to facilitate shedding those extra pounds.
Only two real problems stand in the way of a successful diet change: time and money.
"Oh, only time and money? That's nothing!"
Money is the most straightforward of the two problems; you simply can afford to eat healthy, or healthier, or you simply cannot. Fast food (see: time) costs terribly less than fresh, well-prepared healthy meals. I made 4 quarts of vegetable stew at home--all of my ingredients fresh and prepared by myself--and it costs me around $30. And salad? Salad is expensive at home and away. But you can get a hamburger for a dollar, tacos for 89 cents. Yet, if you have the money, if you're comfortable enough to afford it, the healthier items are within reach.
But who prepares them? You do, good sir or madam! You prepare them with your own two hands and your collection of expensive (see: money) pots, pans, and kitchen aids. You've got a few free hours before or after work or school, and you're stuck in line at a grocery store. Poor you--first world problems. Then later, when you get off work; it's 6pm--or 9:45pm for myself--and it's time for you to start cooking. Thirty minutes to an hour later, and you're eating healthy--or healthier. Yet you sure did pass that McDonald's on the way home, and you've got a few bucks in change in your car...
These problems seem daunting. They seem practically insurmountable, when the cheaper, faster, and sometimes tastier alternatives are close at hand. And certainly most of us--even those with time and money--find it easier to eat cheap and quick. I possess neither unlimited time nor unlimited money, and I fall prey to eating garbage, and pay for it in the long run.
So how is my diet fairing, then? It is my current internal battle. I asked earlier if our (modern) obsession with weight loss--with our image and our eternal search for good health--isn't some metaphor for our internal drive to improve ourselves on less corporeal levels. I certainly think it is. I find my search for myself in my new home, my new life, to be a search for a better self, a better life. Why settle? Why accept unhealthy patterns and habits as inevitable? One doesn't have to, and it doesn't take miracles; just hard work, and that one characteristic which seems truly key to thriving in life, above possessing money and time: the will to accomplish.
Enough blathering. Where's my boring rice cake?
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