Have you ever noticed that the 2 biggest topics in magazines, tv, pinterest and all around us are: Food and Weight loss? Isn't that funny? So we spend our time finding, making and enjoying some of the most amazing foods we can, then stress about what we can do to prevent it from making us fat. So the message is- Eat Eat Eat then whoa! slow down and restrict certain foods while participating in a exercise program (some of them extreme). It makes me wonder why there is this battle to be indulgent in foods only to feel guilty enough to put our body through the recovery of the side effects.
Years ago I noticed that EVERY months edition of "Woman's World" magazine had the same 2 topics on the front 1) some kind of food recipe, and 2) some kind of weight loss tip. Yesterday I noticed more magazines have taken suit because it sells, that's what people want to read about. (that and the latest celebrity gossip apparently)
As society we have become one of indulgences. It's a status you can have by driving a nice car, going to certain restaurants, wearing certain clothes, presenting yourself in certain ways (hair, make-up, nails etc), having your house look a certain way, and even the kind of job you have. We have concluded that others will judge us and not like us less unless we appear to be of a certain status. And we in turn may choose to only associate with people of a certain status appearance.
My family watched the movie "17 Miracles" the other day. It's a movie about the Mormon Pioneers journey to Utah with handcarts. Food was limited and they were starving for a large portion of the journey so much that many died of starvation. On top of the limited amount of food there was also extreme cold weather they were traveling through. Anyhow, it was enlightening to see how spoiled we are these days. It made me realize the shifts in our behavior and how food was once seen as a necessity for your body and people were willing to eat anything just to sustain themselves. Now we eat food as a luxury. How many times have you chosen not to eat because it didn't "sound good" ? I know I'm guilty of this!
We have become spoiled, our priorities have become skewed. In a continued comparison of history, we have more over-weight people now then ever before (in recorded history- but I believe it!) Let's see, take 100 years ago: if they ate food for sustenance (tasting good was a luxury) , had to work daily to provide for their family (almost everyone had a farm- no Walmart's existed!), walking was the main form of transportation unless one was going long distances. So they got more daily exercise and ate healthy garden food they grew themselves.
In comparison to today where the ratio of people and those that have their own garden has DRASTICALLY been reduced to where hardly anyone does (if you take the entire population and how many have gardens) on top of which we feed ourselves highly processed foods, fattening fast foods, indulgent desserts & candies. When it comes to exercise we walk less, drive our cars if we need to go somewhere a block or two away, and we have technology to help us be lazy! (100 years ago they didn't have stoves, microwaves, indoor plumbing- so that meant more physical work and movement to do the daily things we have readily available to us) I told my kids that if a major disaster were to happen, I wonder how many people will starve to death with food all around them because they've become so spoiled and accustomed to eating a certain type of food, or refuse to eat anything that doesn't taste good to them.
What is needed for change? An attitude shift- I'm not saying we should abandon all modern conveniences, but rather find ways to shift our mentality to work with them. Find ways to eat better food- and actually EAT it because our body needs to be fed, not because of a mood we're in. Finding ways to be more physically active daily- small changes will eventually catch up with us. This is something my family is working on. It takes small changes over time.
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