Daily Musings
People aren’t asking for a miracle. Most are just asking to stop making their lives so fucking difficult.
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I think I weigh too much. Not that I think I’m fat, it just feels like I have to eat a lot of food to maintain my size. And after watching people starve for the last two years and somehow make it through, I’m feeling like I can go with a lot less food than I currently consume. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, an afternoon snack, and a bedtime snack is probably too much.
I’m not gaining weight. I’ve eaten this way for the last few years and the whole time I’ve maintained an average weight of 150 lbs with minor fluctuations in both directions. But 2,300 - 2,500 calories on average per day to maintain my weight just feels like a lot of food.
I don’t eat mindlessly, and I’m usually pretty hungry when I sit down to eat, but every now and then I think that it’s too much, and in fact I’d function better, both physically and cognitively, at a lower weight with a lower calorie requirement.
But it is so fucking hard to cut calories. Losing weight sucks no matter how big or small you are. You feel like you’re torturing yourself and all you want to do is end the torture and eat. Right when your about to get below your set weight an innate survival instinct kicks that makes you eat voraciously.
I’m not talking about the 10 pounds gained over the holidays. That’s a weight fluctuation and once the holidays end and back to back to back days of heavy holiday food goes away, that weight starts to come off. I’m talking about if I tried to get below 150 right now. Any time I’ve ever tried to drop below a weight I’d been at for a while is when I’d be met with the most severe huger followed an uncontrollable impulse to eat. It happened when I went from 170 to 160, 160 to 150, and 150 to 145.
It would be so painful right now so I don’t think I’m going to do it. I’m just not ready to make that sacrifice yet. But I’m thinking about it, and I know it would be good for me. And as long as I’m thinking about I know that one day it will happen. One day when I’m ready to commit and make the move. But for now I’ll just stay happy where I am.
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I checked out at Target yesterday and again prices, what we pay for different things, jumped out at me. I bought a 16 oz Harmless Harvest Coconut water for $5.99, a bag of Dark Chocolate Cherry Tru Fru for $7.29, and a four pack of Too Good Vanilla Yogurt for $4.69. As I was ringing everything up I couldn’t help but think about the prices I was paying versus the nutritional content I was paying for.
I went on a run earlier in the day and did a kettlebell workout before that, so I was feeling a bit parched and thought a coconut water would help alleviate that. The TruFru and yogurt were for my fiancé.
When I got home I decided to compare the nutritional facts of the three products.
I know it’s not as easy as looking at the nutrition facts, and none of these three items I would consider of high nutritional content, but it is interesting to put them side by side. The bag of Tru Fru, arguably the worse of the three nutritionally, cost the most. The second most expensive and second least nutritious is the coconut water (while the only real macro is carbohydrates, it comes from an all natural source and aids in hydration). The yogurt, as one would expect, is the most nutritionally balanced, and surprisingly the cheapest.
But of the three which one is the most appealing? Of course it’s the Dark Chocolate Cherry frozen Tru Fru treats. The coconut water was a nice treat given the workouts that day, but not really necessary. It’s a really good example of how we choose to spend our money, what we’re willing to pay for, and how much we’re willing to pay.
In a way it ties back to this article I read last week about how GLP-1 use has begun reshaping the food industry, and is forcing big brands like Pepsi, Coca-cola, and General Mills, to begin offering “healthier” options. Including shortening ingredient lists, removing artificial colors, and focusing on nutrient density, specifically protein and fiber.
One CEO said that users of GLP-1 drugs exhibit “a stark reduction of mindless munching and binge eating." Essentially acknowledging that mindless munching and eating was a part of their strategy before.
The takeaway though is that the consumer is always in control. That consumers have the power to dictate the food we see in the stores, and what we’re willing to pay for. Of course it’s easier said than done, and for many families there are a lot of obstacles that get in the way of making healthier choices. But this proves it’s possible to move the needle without having to rely on government or CEOs to do the right thing. That if we can come together as a society, we can reshape the environment around us.
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I wrote the other day about the weird tendency we all have as humans to deflect and delay when we have no information or bad news to report. I thought about it because I was waiting for an order I had placed a couple of months ago but put on hold because I wasn’t going to be home to receive it. After a couple of emails asking when the order would be sent, and another email offering to help this small business expand, with no mention of the order, I finally got a response.
“Hey we can ship out on Monday if you’re going to be home on Thursday to receive it.”
Well it’s Friday and I haven’t received the package or a tracking number. So it made me rethink what I was saying. That not getting an answer, even if the answer would have been bad news, and being left to wait and wonder, is the worst. But I realized that actually the worst is being appeased with an untruth. Managing expectations is a huge part of any relationship, and being fed false information is a guaranteed way to mis-manage a relationship.
Being told the order would be here this week even though they had no intention of meeting that deadline is actually the worst. Where does one go from there?