Money made me fat. I’ll explain.
It took me about three times in two years to quit smoking Camel Lights, but fourteen years later I am smoke free, proud of it, and know that I will never smoke again. It was not easy at first but it was not that hard either. The result of my effort is that I gained a lot of weight after quitting and have steadily weighed more ever since. That and age have not done justice to my midsection at all. When I smoked it was easy to not eat as much because it replaced the addiction that I had with food. In retrospect, quitting smoking was challenging but totally doable because I can survive without it. But eating is trickier, because we have to eat.
When I think back on my addiction to cigarettes, or nicotine, or whatever else they put in those damn things I realize that I have had an addiction to food for the better part of my entire life. This is not uncommon for people who are severely overweight. It began when I was five years old (I remember vividly the exact moment) and continues as I write this. Besides food, I am also addicted to caffeine in the form of diet sodas. I have not had a day without a diet soda in probably 5-7 years. Some drink coffee when they start their day... I drink diet soda. Like many of you, I have tried many different programs to remedy my food addictions and weight issues: living with my dad the disciplinarian, Dr. Gault's God's Diet, (I have strong faith in God but I don't even come close to the conservative right. Gault was my mom's doctor and she wrote the book), Atkins, and Body-for-Life to mention a few. Though I do not follow a 12-Step program, I am familiar with it because my mom was in AA for many years and I did a 2-week stint with Overeaters Anonymous a few years ago. I have learned that people who are disposed to addictions but stop often transfer their addictions to other things- drugs, smoking, relationships, caffeine, sex, etc.
Not surprisingly, people can have multiple addictions. It seems that as humans we have a tendency toward addictions. I do not think it was always this way. I think it was brought on by industrialization and money. If I may relate a conversation my brother and I had at Thanksgiving: we live at a time in history where we are fed so easily because of the technology of industrialization. We have the ability to deliver processed foods to people so quickly and conveniently, and in the process we have compromised the quality of the food we consume. We load foods with things that are the cheapest to produce (flours and sugars) and which will keep them on the shelf for maximum life and “taste better” (preservatives and chemicals). Scientists (read: money hungry corporations and their investors) can make shit taste like filet mignon if they want to. And all of this leads to maximum dollars! Society is fed a constant stream of messages that promote a variety of addictions. Buy this, smoke this, eat this, drink this, watch this, read this. We are inundated with advertisements and messages of consumption well in excess of dozens if not 100’s of messages a day. All because we are addicted to money. I love money as much as the next person but I think you understand the vicious cycle that industrialization has created. And it permeates every nook and cranny of our consciousness, to the point that we don’t recognize or understand it. Medicine, the media, sports, education, government, are all on some level affected by the addiction we have to money. Money has made us fat.
The word addiction connotes negativity, but I wonder if addictions can be positive or can be transferred to something positive? I mean, what if rather than binging on cookies I pick up my guitar until the cravings pass and become a better musician? Or rather than eating snacks I read a book that deepens my understanding of the world? What if instead of stopping for a “snack” #3 supersized at the drive through at McDonalds I pontificate in a blog entry and work through a difficult food decision? Instead of vegging on the couch, I can take a walk with my wife and discuss the day. Perhaps "bad" addictions are transformed into "good" addictions and become hobbies or endeavors or diversions from unhealthy activity in our lives.
Seems fairly simple for those who are addicted to working out or eating healthy food, but for the rest of us it’s like… duh. But hey, one man’s duh is another man’s epiphany.
Hmmmm. Can one be addicted to not being addicted to something? I’d like to be addicted to not being addicted to overeating.
There seems to be a bit of a fine line here. Some people might not think these activities are necessarily addictions, but People might consider some of these activities harmless endeavors or hobbies or goals. But if you take the time to really look at Maybe addictions can be positive if the result is a benefit to the person.
I think I might transform my food addiction into something positive.
Talk with you soon!
T-Minus 5 days
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