Recently house-sitting for a friend of mine, I discovered the concept of 100 calorie snack packs. This is where basically any junk food in the world is pre-portioned out for you into individual 100 calorie packs. I will spare you the obvious commentary on how that’s essentially paying more for less. I won’t say how all that extra packaging is bad for the environment. Or point out how easily one could then apply Garfield’s theory (yes, the cat) that eating a whole pie one slice at a time actually has far less calories than consuming said pie en masse. What struck me was how embarrassingly ideal these 100 calorie packs are for me. I am someone who has always had trouble with portion and control when it comes to food. And well, life. How much to I wish this concept could be applied to other areas of life.
How about a vodka pack that only gives you 100 minutes of a hang over?
Or a smoking pack that may risk only 100 hours of cancer? Okay, that still doesn’t seem worth it. But I’ve never been a smoker. I can’t fathom paying that much money for something that goes into your mouth but you can’t swallow.
What about a 100 kisses pack that guarantees the exact right amount of fun without any heartbreak? I’d buy those in bulk. Wait ...
Having always been ashamed that my problem is I have too much. That I can’t control myself with food while others go without, I began to look into positive ways to empower myself over the helplessness I felt at being overweight. To make my battle not only about improving my own health but to fight for hunger relief. Educating myself on the subject I found this quote on Bread.org, “But we CAN end hunger. We have the mean. The financial costs to end hunger are relatively slight. The United Nations Development Program estimates that the basic health and nutrition needs of the world’s poorest people could be met for an additional $13 billion a year. Animal lovers in the United States and Europe spend more than that on pet food each year. What makes the difference between millions of hungry people and a world where we all are fed? Only a change in priorities. Only the will to end hunger.”
I could get all cynical and soapboxathon to you about the evils of a world where 850 million people go hungry and a WGWaFA like myself is championing the value of 100 calorie packs. However, what resonates for me is not purchasing a sea of brightly colored elfin packaged snack food but the redefining of what is a proper portion. That even this is a change in priorities. Becoming aware and enabling control over personal issues, I believe that kind of priority shift can and will spread into all areas of person’s life and then into the world around them. Miserable people are no help to anyone. Perhaps later I will wean myself into separating my own snacks into portion controlled baggies without mindlessly eating the entire box in the process.
I then thought about other ways I could shift my negative thoughts to inspire myself. After I got dumped, and I began working towards getting healthy both physically and mentally, oddly people kept making the same joke, “Hey look at it this way you’ve already lost 160 lbs.” Why they all decided this was my ex’s weight is beyond me? I once read that the average human, if eaten, is 206,250 calories. Since, for various reasons, I consider my ex below average presently I decided he is approximately 186,250 calories. So whenever I have a bad food day, I remind myself that I recently cut 186,250 calories. It is surprising how much better this makes me feel. Right now it’s about food and body issues, I’m not working on petty until next year.
Blessed with the fact that being tall I carry my extra weight well, I was always mortified to tell people how much I actually weigh. Until I decided that I am no longer going define myself with a number. At 191 lbs, I weighed the same as a Yamaha EF5200DE Generator. In an attempt to overcome my horror at putting this information out into the world, I came up with a list of reasons why I am superior to my like-massed generator friend. Let’s break down Yamma’s features, shall we?
