Been thinking...

I have had two things on my mind the last couple of days – Food and Life.

After the bitter disappointment last week over the job situation, I was talking to a friend about what was going on and how depressed I felt over things. Over the course of the conversation, it turned to life in general and she posed the question to me – Are you living life or are you just living? There is a huge difference. If you are just living then you are doing the minimum with the life you have been given. You are making it through without doing anything out of the ordinary. I have friends like this. They don't want attention called to them because it might mean they have to step out of their comfort zone and take a risk. Just living is safe, definitely. It is adventure free. It is walking the straight line.

However, if you are living life you aren’t on the straight line, you are veering to the left and the right, you are painting a canvas full of color, and you are out having an adventure. It doesn’t mean you are necessarily scandalous, you aren’t doing something illegal, and you aren’t doing harm to yourself or others. You are merely living the life that you have been given to the fullest. You treat yourself each day to the gift that life has given you and you live. It may mean that you will not have that nest egg in the bank for the proverbial "rainy day" but it means that you are living without regrets.

It is hard to step out of the comfort factor of just living, of course. It is what you are used to and it is known. Having to change the way you go about the day is scary. It is a challenge. It is an adventure that has no set path or outcome. It is blindly putting trust in yourself and forging your own destiny. This thought, without doubt, is the one that plagues me in life the most. I don't want to step out of my comfort zone. I like familiarity, I like knowing what each day is supposed to bring. BUT I also find that boring. I find my mind wandering off due to monotony. So I have to put the challenge out there to myself and step up to said challenge…LIVE LIFE. Being depressed over the job situation simply means that I need to reapply myself, retool what I am doing, and explore other options. Simply, I need to veer off the path and make a new path.


My other subject – Food. I don't know who all watched "Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution" last night on TV, but I couldn't sleep last night after watching it. (Right before bed, unfortunately.) Jamie Oliver came to what has been declared the "fattest city in the USA", Huntington, West Virginia in an attempt to help them change the way they are eating. He visited with a family that ate more fried food than a body should take in a week, the children each ate a Totino's party pizza for an after school snack, they went through multiple pounds of beef for one meal (for a 4 person family), and they didn’t eat vegetables or fruits because the husband didn’t care to have them. To show the family what they were doing, Jamie and the wife cooked a weeks worth of meals and piled them on the table. It was disgusting. I felt ill just looking at it.

I have struggled with weight all my life and one of the main reasons that I wanted to watch this show was because I was hoping it would open my eyes and help inspire me towards buckling down and losing weight in a healthy way. It was definitely an inspiration to me. (Of course, today I have been obsessed with thinking of what I am putting in my mouth before I do it, but that will balance out.) I just know for me, this is a big wake up call that I have wanted. I needed something to inspire me and just the thought of that food on the table is enough to make me look at a healthier way of eating.