Friday May 29

I worked in books today. I didn't really notice this before, but there are 3.....3(!) sections where diet books can be found. We have a whole separate section for them, one that takes up a whole huge shelf, part of the cookbook section is devoted to diet books and our fitness section has diet books as well. Some of the diets are flat out absurd too.... there was a book about a rice diet.... a fucking rice diet! You know who goes on a rice diet? Poor people in Cambodia! But I guess they ARE thin.

Freaking A PEOPLE!

This is all a very simple energy equation, if you eat a bunch of food and sit on your ass all day, you will be fat. Trust me on this one, I do it myself. Part of the problem is that people don't really realize how much they eat every single day and calories are hiding everywhere.

But another issue here is one that has been of interest to me. Why do people want to lose weight in the first place? Some probably do it for health, but by and large, I suspect it is a simple case of vanity. These people are miserable with their lives and if they were skinny, they would simply find something else to focus on, wrinkles, social status, teeth, hair, whatever... weight is just a smokescreen for the real problem, self-worth. 

What's weird about this is all through school we get hammered into our brains about how valuable we are. We get a trophy for simply showing up. All of this, of course, is to improve the kid's self-esteem, but what does this really accomplish? Mindless ego inflating without the accomplishment to back it up.

Flash forward 15 years.... reality strikes... our entire lives we've had no incentive to accomplish anything and we end up as a bunch of sad sacs living our lives vicariously through the people we see on the magazines, trying desperately to find some meaning in our lives. If I only lost 10 pounds things would be perfect, if I only had more money things would be perfect....

Sure they would..... sure they would.