It's weird being an age where birthday #s don't matter anymore. So I'm 23; I stopped caring (and remembering for that matter) my age after 21. There are no more milestones until 65, unless you count the fact that at 25 my auto insurance company will stop treating me like a hooligan (hopefully). It's also weird talking about "getting older" when I'm ...(what's my age again?)... 23. But I've noticed things that are different.
I was a chubby kid from age 14 through age 19. The weight I had was all over and at least evenly distributed, meaning my face was fat, my gut was fat, my ass was fat my thighs were fat, etc. Now when I put on weight again, it's all back in the form of a beer gut and man boobs. My fat pants are fatter than they ever were even when I weigh less than I did as a teenager. Damn genetics and age.
Another weird thing is that I can't eat like I used to. When I say "like I used to" I mean up until today, literally, which was my epiphany that I can no longer use my body as a human garbage disposal like I did through High School and College. I used to never understand all the Heartburn commercials and "acid indigestion" problems and wondered why it was such a big deal. Now I am being painfully informed by a digestive system in revolt. My body is trying to punish my brain for being an idiot.
My brain (and most of our brains) learn to like foods which are bad for us because they're tasty and we're young enough to not consider the consequences and also not to really have any consequences except the occasional extended bathroom visit which doesn't seem too bad considering the amount of food we've eaten. I've also learned to enjoy all kinds of healthy foods and have no problem with things like salads, soups, homecooked meals, and the like.
The key difference is it's easier to eat "bad" then it is to eat "good". Bad food is the easiest thing to get your hands on because it's "fast food" it's "Microwavable" it's sold at gas stations and convenience stores across the country. I can get a bean burrito in the middle of Canada in the winter at a gas station and have a microwave to heat it in but I'll be damned if I can find carrots at a gas station next door do a freakin' carrot patch the day after harvest! So my lazy, instant gratification brain, trained by TV, the internet, and my own sheer laziness, reaches for the easiest food within my reach.
The problem is, my body no longer tolerates the abuse of random large intakes of greasy, fried, sugar-loaded, or otherwise fatty or nutritionless meals that my brain has been conditioned to acquire. I didn't realize my disjointed sleep, lack of energy, general anxiety, mood swings, headaches, indigestion, heartburn, and overall discomfort could be attributed to something I've been doing for basically a decade, but it seems as if my body has given me an ultimatum; stop putting garbage in or you'll start getting garbage out.
It's time to accept that I need to be proactive about what I eat because it's not just a weight thing anymore. It's not a fitness thing anymore. It's not even a physical well being thing anymore, even though my bodily discomfort is what lead to this revalation. It's a mental thing; I will lose my mind if I keep feeling like shit and I will keep feeling like shit if I keep eating shit. Enough already. Pass the salad, I'm hungry.
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