Normal Is What You’re Used To

 

If we eat burgers, fries, onion rings, and soda every day at a fast food place, then that’s our “normal.” If we eat second and third helpings at dinner, not feeling satisfied until we are uncomfortably full, that is our normal. If we eat a large bowl of ice cream with three cookies to get us in the mood for bedtime, that’s our normal.  If we spend $10 at an all-you-can-eat buffet and make ourselves miserably stuffed in order to fulfill our mission of “getting our money’s worth,” that is our normal.

These foods, and the quantities thereof, appeal to us on a certain level because we have incorporated them into our routine. Routine gives us comfort, security, and a sense of stability. These are desired attributes even when the consequences of our habits are detrimental. For example, many of us, if we implemented the habits listed above, would probably be overweight in the sense that we would have to wear pants with elastic bands, we would be out of breath when walking a short distance, we would sweat profusely, a result from high blood pressure, our facial features would be obscured by fleshly jowls. But however undesirable these characteristics, we would perhaps over time accept them as “normal” because they would constitute the only reality we know.

That’s one of the dangers of “normal”: It blinds you to alternative possibilities.

While I see my 3,000 Calories a Day program as no panacea, it has opened up new possibilities to me: I can look leaner without being on a miserable diet. I am not dependent on some of the unrestrained eating habits I described above. I can actually enjoy healthy eating habits.

Just as importantly, the healthy habits, like eating large amounts of vegetables and “Super Foods” each day, have become part of a desirable dependence. And eating fast food and consuming food until I am bloated and bathed in sweat from overtaxing my digestion are habits that I find positively repulsive.

One lesson I’ve learned on my 3,000 Calories a Day Quest is that I can choose the habits that will eventually program my behavior. Therefore, I am not helpless. I can assert my will and intelligence to forge a life path that I’ve deemed more suitable for my wellbeing than another.

Having failed at diets in the past and having seen others fail at so many diets, I was susceptible to feelings of helplessness. Because it is moderate and therefore “doable,” 3,000 Calories a Day makes me feel confident that I don’t have to be that bloated Ugly American Tourist, which proved to be a reflection of myself so many years ago. 

Comments

[Ed]

Jeff, I think you are being unfair in who and what you attack... obesity is an easy target because it has obvious, visible signs. But normal-looking people can be much more vile, be they pedophiles, serial killers, drug abusers, wife beaters, Republicans, and other dregs of society who escape your scrutiny and opprobrium just because they look "normal." Don't forget what Hanna Arendt said about "the banality of evil." Many fat people were pretty decent people, ie, Winston Churchill, Jackie Gleason, and Haystack Calhoun, to mention a few. Give the fatties a break!

[jeffrey McMahon]

Bad eating habits don't make an evil person, to be sure. And to examine wanton eating habits doesn't put those eaters in a class worse than the people you mention.

I don't even know if I've targeted fat people, per se. What I wish to emphasize, and perhaps I haven't been clear, are the qualities of learned helplessness and bad habits that are more general than just eating. Of course, the focus has been in the context of a one-year experiment--3,000 Calories a Day.

[Mike W]

Ed, I think you are being unfair in who and what you attack...
Republicans are an easy target because they've been working furiously these past eight years to destroy any remaining shed of hope for this nation's future. But Democrats can be just as vile, bought off by Wall Street firms, voting for bail-outs that effectively transfer enormous wealth from the productive to the parasitic, supporting catastrophic wars against whoever's next on AIPAC's hitlist, and generally behaving like de facto Republicans with the added vice of being reflexively against any human activity which is evenly remotely entrepreneurial or free. As a former Republican myself (now in recovery), I can tell you that many Republicans were pretty decent people, i.e., Dwight Eisenhower, Spiro T. Agnew, Karl Rove, and Rush Limbaugh.

Well, OK, Eisenhower.

[Ed]

Hey, Mike, I'm the professional humor writer here! Stay out of my rice bowl! (Ha ha!)

[Mike W]

Yeah, I usually try to avoid the cheap shot and stick to the radio stuff, but get weak sometimes...

[jeffrey McMahon]

My misanthropy transcends partisan criticism.