Programmed to Eat Crap
Let me start by saying that I’m a fat kid at heart. I was chubby until seventh grade when I got really sick and didn’t eat much for a week. After recovering, I had lost quite a bit of weight, and it finally hit me that eating less was the only way to actually lose weight. Since then, I’ve been very conscious of what I eat and generally lead a healthy lifestyle consisting of regular exercise and a controlled, typically healthy diet. But eating healthy still does not come naturally for me.
I’ve been reading Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell (almost done and review forthcoming). One of the major points of the book is to demonstrate how are culture and conditioning are very difficult to break. This got me thinking about my eating habits.
You see, I grew up in a home where I was surrounded by way too much food. I had three younger brothers, so my mother was always scared that we’d run out of food. Unfortunately, we grew up in Lancaster County, and food around here is not exactly of the healthiest variety. We always had all kinds of food available, and dinner was high carb, high calorie and often included dessert. If I wanted it, it was there.
When I moved away from home, it became much easier. I simply didn’t buy and keep food at home that was unhealthy. If I want dessert, if I want soda, if I want coffee, if I want potato chips, I have to go out and buy them and typically spend a premium on it. This has been very effective, but I still struggle to eat healthy sometimes.
I went to the gym tonight for about an hour and a half. Today was cardio and abs. I spent 45 minutes on the stationary bike and 15 minutes in the pool. (I’m planning to do the Philadelphia Triathlon next summer.) While I was on the bike, I checked Twitter and saw @kessler’s tweet, a picture of his Double Double Animal Style from In-N-Out Burger. All of a sudden I wanted a burger. I’d already planned out a healthy dinner at home, but even getting hopping off the bike, doing abs for 20 minutes and hopping in the pool for 15 minutes, I still wanted that burger. I wound up at Five Guys and undid all my work in the gym tonight.
Now, I’m not such a health nut, I’m not so obsessive with my health that I’ll never eat a burger, but I was disappointed tonight because I had already planned a healthy meal, and I’ve been on a bit of an unhealthy kick recently. I knew I shouldn’t have eaten that, but I still did.
No matter how hard I try to not be a fat kid, I just can’t seem to stop it. I guess I’ll just have to continue to keep crappy food out of my pantry and just realize that sometimes, I’m just going to give in. If I do figure out how to decondition my habit, I’ll let you know.
(Disclaimer: I don’t blame my mother for any of my habits. Frankly, she was just making sure that we were well fed and able to grow, and two of my brothers are the exact opposite of me when it comes to food. The other one is just like me. The problem is that people in the US are conditioned to think that the traditional American diet is actually healthy. It is not, and more importantly, we don’t understand portion control.)