Believe what you want
There is an article in this months Scientific American. I know, you are expecting me to next say "Actually, there are many articles in this months issue, but I will only speak to one this blog post", but I'm not going. I'm going to take the high road tonight and stick to the topic at hand. The title of the article in question is "Eat, Drink and Be Merry" and is it more of a commentary on a new book called "The Gospel of Food: Everything You Think You Know about Food is Wrong", which I just ordered from Amazon.
The premise of the book is that food science really isn't a science - we really do not know much about food. The article picks a specific example from the book to show that what you believe about your food affects how well your body processes that food. Enjoying your food is more important that what you eat. Shocking...
Actually, the shocking part is that I had heard this back 1991 and had actually attended a talk on this topic. The speaker made a compelling argument, and I believed it for many years. But, over time, Others persuaded me that that was nonsense, there is no way that this could be true. I began to doubt my beliefs, I started to gain weight and appear to age. Once that began, it became harder and harder to retain my beliefs - one look in the mirror and I could see that I wasn't turning out like I should be if I was really enjoying myself and my beliefs were true. Since I not only ate hamburgers, I ate the hell out of them, obviously my beliefs must be false part of the equation! I felt I had to start eating food that I hated to look and feel better. The problem was that I didn't look nor feel better. That is the problem with beliefs, once there is doubt, it is like a crack in a damn that slowly spreads.... okay, it is like a guy saying to his gal, "Let me just put the head in, that's it, just the head" which slowly leads to full on fucking. I was screwed by my doubts.
Now, with this article in hand, it has lead me to some other doubts in what I believed about myself. The most important thing I realized: Believe what you want! The whole world, or at least the small section of it that you meet every day, could and probably is very wrong about what is truly correct. Pick something that you believe to be true and follow that belief. If you believe it, who knows what will happen.... maybe they will have an article about it some day!
Oh, and eat whatever you want, because it really doesn't matter. Only stress matters.
The Edward
3 comments:
That's why I have things I eat that may not necessarily be "good for you" but goodness, are they good for my soul. Like Oreo milkshakes. So I have made the Frozen Yogurt concession, but still, I'm having a shake with Oreos blended in it. Granted, I am not having several/day, but I do let myself have one if I've not had something desserty already.
MY belief is eat what you want and use moderation. It's better to have it when you want it than to feel bad suppressing your urges and to binge on it later thus feeling guilty for eating it.
I am trying to add more veggies to my diet and I already have started eating oatmeal (with choc chips of course) regularly to help with roughage and chloresterol. And got a pedometer to walk more steps. But that's about all the changes. Oh, and doing this really painful exercise that shows me how much of a fat weakling I am, but I'm interested to see if I can increase my strength and endurance. Lay prone face first on the floor (you men should be good at this:) Prop yourself up on your elbows and forearms and then lift your entire body up onto your toes maintaining a straight linear line from your shoulders to feet. OMG is this hard. I can only hold out for 30 sec so far. So out of shape! I would never be able to pull my self up a cliff if I went over!
I must admit, the exercise you mentioned sounded so wimpy that I didn't try it - and being a man I'm used to laying prone face first so it should have been even easier for me. I finally broke down just now and gave it a whirl. Wow. Easy at first, but 10 seconds in I was shaking like a freshly sheared lamb. Where did you hear of this exercise? Seems like it would be tough on the shoulder muscles? If I master this position, when else in life would I be able to use these new muscles? (ie lifting weights would allow me to move heavy objects, running every day would let me run for more than a minute before I start coughing up blood, etc)
I saw it on TV and one of my co-workers told me about it a couple years ago and I forgot til I saw it on TV. Its for your core muscles and once you've mastered that one, try lifting one leg a couple inches, extending it back a bit (no higher than your back). Not for me yet!
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