The Healthy Trend

Today's Topic: The Trend of Eating Healthy

Okay so I guess I've realized that I am being sort of a pessimist with some of my blogs now but this will be the last argumentative one for awhile, I promise. I'm sorry folks, but I have to do this and make the case for being healthy being nothing but a trend in the modern day world that North Americans live in. It's really starting to bother me that everywhere I go people are telling me to eat nothing but fruit and lettuce (I may be exaggerating a bit). I know I have readers from different countries so to those of you reading this from the other side of the world, I hope I can share some insight on why everyone feels like they have to go to the gym on this continent.

People, let's face it...thin is in. And it's everywhere. Everyone tells you to eat right. Everyone is telling you to exercise. Yes, people are stressing about salad. It's almost become a major food faux pas to being eating "garbage" not even all the time, but AT ALL. Please, don't get me wrong, there is absolutely nothing wrong with a healthy lifestyle. To each their own, I understand that. I just want to point out a few flaws in this healthy eating society.

There is one thing that I am certain generations of people are going to look back on us and laugh about it. The treadmill. Seriously? You are wasting electricity by running on an object for minutes or even hours at a time, in a building, in front of a window or television. So you walk or run for what the machine tells you is "kilometres." There's only one problem, they aren't actually kilometres because YOU DIDN'T GO ANYWHERE. What did you just accomplish? You were stationary that whole time, and you had to pay to do it! But boy, was it a good workout. This is something I like to call human stupidity. Try and tell me this makes sense to you and it's not just a trend.

I feel like a huge fatty at the grocery store. I do my very best to eat balanced meals by taking my trip around the food guide for most meals (especially supper which is my favourite meal of the day besides big breakfasts on weekends). This is why I feel like a blimp when I take my food to a checkout in a busy grocery store. The girl in front of me has everything blue menu, low in fat, and some of the foods she has in her cart, I have never even seen them on the store shelves. I'm sorry but I know that some of that food just doesn't taste good but people torcher themselves by buying it and eating it because they feel like they "need to be" healthy. So after she's done, the first item I put on is my guilty chocolate pleasure of Swiss Chocolate Rolls. Sometimes it's Haagen Dazs. I am automatically way less of a healthier eater then the girl who was just in front of me. Do you ever find yourself doing that at a grocery store...looking in other people's carts to see what they have? And then you feel slightly better about your groceries if you find that person with all the Hungry Man frozen dinners in their cart? I'm big time guilty of this.

Is it just me or does society have it COMPLETELY ass backwards. Why does healthy food cost more money? People already feel bad enough because they don't eat healthy enough and then when it comes time to pay the grocery tab, you break their hearts even more by emptying there wallets. If people were that concerned about eating healthy, wouldn't it make sense to make better food cheaper? Just saying.

But, there is still one place who doesn't care about your health. Meet The Heart Attack Grill in Chandler, Arizona. Let me give you the restaurant experience. First of all, when you walk in the door, if you're over 350 lbs, you eat for free. You'll then be greeted by a very questionably dressed waitress who's posing as a nurse, takes your order and attaches a medical hospital style bracelet of your order onto your wrist. From this point on, you know you're doomed. Don't bother asking for a diet coke, the word "diet" is not spoken of in a restaurant like this. Grab your plate and load up at The Fry Bar, an all you can eat flat liner fry experience that are cooked in 100% pure lard. If you order the mighty burgers, don't go much bigger then a single or double bypass burger or you'll have nightmares about what you just ate. If you dare to order the quadruple bypass burger (seen here) get ready to ingest, wait for it, 8,000 calories. Holy Christmas. And I felt guilty about eating Haagen Dazs. Their motto serves them well with a "meal to die for" attitude. You have to give the guy who owns this restaurant credit though. In a society that counts the calories in a head of lettuce, he is a marketing genius.

I had a friend (your welcome in advance for the shout out) who wrote her thesis on how bigger people used to be the symbol for power and wealth, which I found to be completely fascinating. It used to be that the bigger person you were, the more money you had, the more powerful you were, the richer your foods were, the happier you were. So, what happened? Did one day a bunch of pissed off skinny people throw a riot somewhere demanding more people be like them? It's very interesting how some things come in full circle. Was it just ignorance? We didn't know what we were eating was supposedly "bad" for us? Somewhere the clouds came in, it got foggy and when it cleared up, there was the carrots and apples.

I think you yourself have to decide where to draw the line and I think it's like that for a lot of people. I don't have a craving for a quadruple bypass burger cooked in lard or the heart stopping double down from KFC. I do enjoy a good burger and fries from now and then and why not? I used to live with a personal trainer who told me that our bodies have a natural sort of way of telling us that we need those fatty acids in our body. So really it's our mind telling us that we crave these foods. Thank you brain for telling me that a McChicken from McDonalds still tastes delicious.

I am probably in no position to give advice, but I'm going to anyway because this is my blog and I stand behind my words. Eat what you want, when you want to. Do not let the person dressed in a muscle shirt or Lu Lu lemon outfit make your food buying decisions for you. Be happy with what you eat and make yourself comfortable. If you want a fresh crunchy salad, go for it. If you also want the chocolate bar, that's okay too. Too many people get caught up in what the person behind the mirror is going to think of them. You're only on this planet for a short time so eat what makes you happy. Take chances with food and don't always count the calories if you don't want to. On the other hand, if you want to make a change, then that's okay to. Just love the foods you have because no one should put their bodies through misery eating foods they don't like.

Don't get caught up in body image and eating healthy. I promise you, it's only a phase and a modern day trend. I still believe that one day, wealth and happiness will once again be the symbol for the biggest people around. And then I WILL SAY, I told you so.