The Season of Excess

I've gone off before on how blessed we are, how much stuff (and food) we have, yada, yada, yada....

It bothers me -- this excess.  It bothers me that we rush through life and miss some of the important parts because we're dealing with other parts that are not important...just urgent.

Potato chips are like that -- not important.  How many times have you given in to the temptation to eat chips only to be delights...I mean DELIGHTED!!!--  by your calorie investment?  Once....maybe?

But the craving for chips is urgent -- we see them (or a commercial about them) and we want them.  Or we just see them sitting on the end of the deli counter and we pick them up -- because Lord knows a 6 inch sub isn't enough food to keep us fueled for the next 4 hours (let alone the "foot long" that is the better deal...at least money wise).

Most brownies (in my experience) are like that too.  The craving is loud, urgent, repetitive.  But most of them don't deliver on taste (or maybe the first 3 bites do but we eat the rest because it's there...calling urgently for us to diligently finish it).

The chips and the brownies (and even the extra 6 inches of our foot long sub) take us away from what's really important -- our health, our contentment with our bodies, our piece of mind.

All those extras....those "treats" that in reality we have every day....are too much.  They are physically too much when are blood sugar goes up beyond our body's ability to regulate it (pre-diabetes/diabetes).  When our pants are too tight.  When our stomach feels uncomfortably full.  When we just want to lay down and take a nap (3pm during a work day, anyone?  Who hasn't felt that before?)

And everything I've just talked about happens most days of the year -- we haven't even touched on the potlucks, parties, treat days, thanks you's, and everything else that goes along with the 6 week (only roughly 12% of our year) Holiday Season we've just entered into.

So the question becomes -- what are you going to do different this year?  It's time to make your commitment -- to yourself, to your family, to making the world a better place by appreciating and observing the Important and putting the urgent in its place.  This doesn't have to be a season of excess for you -- it can be a peaceful season of observing and engaging the Important.