Sort of content-free: Reframing
Feb. 23rd, 2007 11:43 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
featherynscaleThis is gonna be long, and it's probably gonna be dumb. I'm cutting it to spare you both. I'm writing it down, though, because it's sort of a Hey Wow moment for me. (It might be a Well Duh moment for you. In fact, I expect it. Feel free to pass by.)
As it turns out, my household has been talking about trying to eat better. Our hedging justification for this has been something along the lines of "No, we're not interested in dieting to lose weight or look good, or pander to the beauty-industrial complex, but wouldn't it be nice to be a little thinner? I mean, that would make it easier to fit better into the elevators at DragonCon, right? Just a little thinner. Then we wouldn't be so miserably hot in the summer, right?". And so on.
This is, of course, lame. Yes, dieting is lame, and mainstream culture beauty standards are really lame, and there's very little on this earth that is more boring and wretched than a conversation with a person who is obsessed with their eating plan and whiny about what they "can" and "cannot" eat, or who blames you for eating a cookie, or bringing sweets to the office, or whatnot. That is all lame. But even so, our justification is equally lame. We should just do a thing because we want to do it, and not worry about the other stuff.
But I digress. We are looking at the South Beach Diet, which seems to be very effective for people, and not terribly onerous. Both of those things are important, because we don't wish to devolve into Weight Watchers. (Capitalization here is for emphasis, not to refer to the company of the same name. I'm referring to the obsessive weighing and tracking and bitching and feeling powerless and whatnot behaviors referenced above.)
So I am looking at some of the recommended food choices for this plan, and I have discovered that many of the things they recommend you eat are actually things I want to eat. They are things that I would eat independently of being on any kind of diet, if only I thought of them.
Suddenly it occurs to me that much of my eating choices are based on unexamined habit. I choose what to order or what to buy at the grocery based on habit. And some of those things I habitually choose, are not even things that I particularly like. They're just things that I get because I had a really good one once at some other restaurant that no longer exists. Or because they're simple enough that I think there's no way the place could screw them up. Or because they're easy to cook, and I can't be arsed to cook things that aren't easy to cook.
I'm not cool with that. I would much rather make choices that bring me enjoyment than make choices that bring me mediocrity. So now, in about two minutes, this whole 'we should diet' thing has ceased to be about health or attractiveness or fitting into the elevators, and has begun to be about breaking habits and making choices that improve my experience of life. The initial motivations or possible motivations feel stupid to me, but breaking habits and choosing experiences that I will enjoy more seem practically noble motivations to me. If that somehow leads to some other effects, that's all well and good, and if it doesn't, that's okay too.
EDIT: And,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
gamera_spinning reminds me that it is Lent, which means that suddenly, everybody has fish on the menu. I love fish, and consequently, I love Lent. (I fail at Catholicism.)
As it turns out, my household has been talking about trying to eat better. Our hedging justification for this has been something along the lines of "No, we're not interested in dieting to lose weight or look good, or pander to the beauty-industrial complex, but wouldn't it be nice to be a little thinner? I mean, that would make it easier to fit better into the elevators at DragonCon, right? Just a little thinner. Then we wouldn't be so miserably hot in the summer, right?". And so on.
This is, of course, lame. Yes, dieting is lame, and mainstream culture beauty standards are really lame, and there's very little on this earth that is more boring and wretched than a conversation with a person who is obsessed with their eating plan and whiny about what they "can" and "cannot" eat, or who blames you for eating a cookie, or bringing sweets to the office, or whatnot. That is all lame. But even so, our justification is equally lame. We should just do a thing because we want to do it, and not worry about the other stuff.
But I digress. We are looking at the South Beach Diet, which seems to be very effective for people, and not terribly onerous. Both of those things are important, because we don't wish to devolve into Weight Watchers. (Capitalization here is for emphasis, not to refer to the company of the same name. I'm referring to the obsessive weighing and tracking and bitching and feeling powerless and whatnot behaviors referenced above.)
So I am looking at some of the recommended food choices for this plan, and I have discovered that many of the things they recommend you eat are actually things I want to eat. They are things that I would eat independently of being on any kind of diet, if only I thought of them.
Suddenly it occurs to me that much of my eating choices are based on unexamined habit. I choose what to order or what to buy at the grocery based on habit. And some of those things I habitually choose, are not even things that I particularly like. They're just things that I get because I had a really good one once at some other restaurant that no longer exists. Or because they're simple enough that I think there's no way the place could screw them up. Or because they're easy to cook, and I can't be arsed to cook things that aren't easy to cook.
I'm not cool with that. I would much rather make choices that bring me enjoyment than make choices that bring me mediocrity. So now, in about two minutes, this whole 'we should diet' thing has ceased to be about health or attractiveness or fitting into the elevators, and has begun to be about breaking habits and making choices that improve my experience of life. The initial motivations or possible motivations feel stupid to me, but breaking habits and choosing experiences that I will enjoy more seem practically noble motivations to me. If that somehow leads to some other effects, that's all well and good, and if it doesn't, that's okay too.
EDIT: And,
gamera_spinning reminds me that it is Lent, which means that suddenly, everybody has fish on the menu. I love fish, and consequently, I love Lent. (I fail at Catholicism.)