Jump to navigation
Ten Things I Believe About Bad Economic & Dietary Consumption
R. Alex Whitlock
1. It's usually the recurring consumption that gets you. The high mortgage payments, the second helping at every meal, and so on. One Big Mac or large TV shouldn't hurt you too much if you're doing everything else right.
2. Restaurants are your enemy.
3. We lose track of how much we consume. It's a good idea to periodically keep track of where all of your money/calories are going.
4. If buying/eating something won't make you happier, then you shouldn't do it. Yet we still do all the time.
5. Poor consumption breeds poor consumption. Fast food begets more fast food and a surround sound system begs for more DVDs.
5. We set ourselves up to fail sometimes with unrealistic goals followed by splurging in between falling off the wagon and getting back on.
6. Economies of scale often hurt more than they help.
7. Super-duper entertainment systems are bad for both.
8. Righteousness is a lot easier when you have more money.
9. Going to the store hungry is a bad idea.
10. Budgeting/dieting problems are often indicative of larger emotional or spiritual issues.
Observations
Heck yes on #9.
#1 moderation, yes, definitely... I think the problem is that most people don't know how much is enough. Super Size, Jumbo Size, "Value sized", etc. It's just out of control. My brother went to a fast food joint and ordered a burger and coke "you want the meal with fries?" "no" "well, i'm going to ring it up that way anyway because it saves you 89 cents"
#2 i don't know that i agree that they are the enemy. One can eat just as poorly at home as out. With all the "ready to heat up meals" that are both bad for you and expensive, one can remain at home and glutton themselves into the poorhouse. Alternatively, there are actually reasonably priced healthy dishes one can get if they shop the right restaurants. Although yes, one can generally eat for cheap and healthy at home.
#3 i'm guilty of this one a lot (i guess that's how i went from a size 30 waist to 40)
#5a and just why is surround sound a bad idea? ;) don't tread on my movie collection ;)
#5b i usually don't meet people with unrealistic goals. just low willpower.
#10 oddly enough, my budgeting and dieting get BETTER when i'm having emotional problems. I become a hermit and eat less ;)
1) This deals mostly with what I meant by economies of scale (#6). You spend more money to save money on food you don't need.
2) Good point about instameals. Though at least with instameals, they have the nutritional contents unavoidably on the package.
3) I get hit the hardest here with soft drinks. One can, without thinking twice, consume over 1000 calories of coke a day.
5a) Hehe, it was just an example. Computers are actually another great example. You buy a computer so that you can turn around and buy games and upgrades.
5b) On the food side, I'm thinking in terms of crash diets and prohibitive ones (you absolutely cannot eat your favorite food EVEN ONCE OR YOU HAVE FAILED FAILED FAILED!!). People need to know their limitations and those limitations need to be worked in somehow. Pasta every other week or a little cheese on the salad. Otherwise you're spending the whole diet wondering when you can get off it or when you slip up once you use it as an excuse to fail a bit more before being "good" again.
On the money side, that's probably my area of greatest "will power", but even I gotta recognize that one must at least put a little away on entertainment - if only so you can make a plan - otherwise I can spend $40 per month on music so that I avoid paying $10 a month for an online music service. I know what I need and I put a little money aside for it. A more universal example: One can only eat so much raman, no matter how cheap it is.
10) I'm actually the same way. My best experiences with weight loss came after heartbreak and/or stress. Generally speaking, though, we're the exception.
Add an Observation
Comment spam is an ongoing problems that we're trying to address. Previously we required people to create accounts and log in. I am thankful to say that is no longer the case. We're giving Captcha another try and are playing around with a text-based Q&A variant of Captcha. So bear with us as we try to figure out how to best get a handle ont he problem. Please note that any comment on a post more than 30 days old will go into the moderation queue, where I will get to it when I can which could be once a week.
