johnmdemarco posted on January 18, 2012 06:32
The first “mistake” was eating 20 Chicken McNuggets by myself. The second was gulping down an entire pizza just three hours later.
Such are the nutritional hazards found on road trips. I had to drive three hours from one city to another after a long day at work, and didn’t feel like stopping for “quality,” healthy food. McDonalds was right there, its golden arches beckoning to me like sea sirens tempting Odysseus on his way home from Troy. It’s just 20 nuggets, I reasoned.
And then I was in the hotel, winding down for the evening, getting sleepy…and felt my tummy rumble. Suddenly I became obsessed with the idea pizza. I called Dominos, and 40 minutes later I was furiously chomping down a pie loaded with sausage, green peppers and black olives. I actually started to doze off during the sixth and final piece, and dreamt of scary monsters and three-headed dogs the entire evening (not really).
Why would a man in his early 40s do this to himself? I am no longer the 16-year-old who ate a Whopper or Big Mac with French fries every day for lunch. I simply cannot take my health—or my metabolism—for granted anymore.
I did it because it was expedient, convenient, tasty, comforting, etc., you name it. And guess what? Sometimes you just have to indulge, because life is short.
But every time I eat poorly like that, I become re-energized to do better. Health has become a core value, and once something is at your core it becomes magnetized and always draws you back to center.
Core values are different from dogma, rules, fundamentals, and so forth. They tap more into passion and authenticity than trying to live by someone else’s playbook. Our society certainly does not advocate them—unless you count the core value of consumerism—but rather seeks to whittle them away, to laugh off their relevance. We’ve lost much of the mythology and mystery that enhance core values, having reduced so many archetypal yearnings to concrete platitudes and membership requirements.
So what are your core values, and are your life and work aligned with them? Anything else is self-denial, and as healthy as the grease soaking a bag of fast food. Chew on that…