First World Problems

I have paused my career in weight loss counseling and now mainly work in the hospital with pediatric oncology patients. This has allowed me to really reflect on the struggle the majority of Americans have with diet, exercise, and weight loss. This struggle people have, is known as first world problems.

Urban Dictionary defines first world problems as, “Problems from living in a wealthy, industrialized nation that third worlders would probably roll their eyes at.” It also says, “Compared to third world problems our problems don't mean shit.”

People obsess about food. What should I eat? How much should I eat? When should I eat? What time should I stop eating? How many meals a day should I eat? What is the best food I can eat? What supplement do I need? How many grams of sugar should I eat? Then you have the post meal reaction... Oh my goodness, I ate that, I shouldn’t have eaten that. I can’t believe I ate that. Why did I eat that? And the vicious cycle of their first world problem continues... daily...

I have spoken to many people who have experienced this, and my advice to them is...

Stop obsessing. Expending so much time and energy thinking about food only gravitates you towards food... and overeating. There are a million things going on in the world... weight loss and diet is not worth thinking about day in and day out.

Weight loss is not complicated. Eating healthy literally means, eat food, mostly plants, not too much. BAM. There you go. And then the excuses start rolling in.

“No matter what I do, I can’t lose weight.” It get’s old quick, because when it comes down to it, if you followed those simple instructions, you would achieve your goal.

So the obsession with food and it’s nonsensical and unnecessary complexities continues.

Notice the table below, I've talked about it before. The gist of this hierarchy of needs is that you must achieve one level, before fully moving onto the next “level of needs.”

As you can see, food is on the bottom as a physiological need. Next we have safety needs, the need for love and belonging, the need for self esteem and confidence, and finally the need of self actualization. So if your basic physiological needs (for example, food) are not being met, it is incredibly difficult to have the motivation (or time/awareness) to move further on to other needs, such as self esteem or problem solving.

I do not know if you are aware of this, but we are in the top 1% of the world. Our society should be at least on the level of love and belonging if not near the level of self-actualization and trying to solve the world’s problems; not stuck worrying about our basic needs.

Neanderthals were forced to worry about food because it was hard to come by. Today, food will always find you; your only job is to make an educated choice on what food you allow to enter your body. By worrying about such a basic need, you are stunting your growth as a human being and inhibiting your self-actualization, your creativity, and your motivation to succeed in helping yourself and others.

So yes, people struggle with weight loss daily, because they do not choose to eat healthy food or exercise... First world problem.

My friend loves quoting this Proverbs to me, “As a dog returns to his vomit, so a fool repeats his foolishness.” Well, people love basking in their vomit, no matter what their proverbial vomit may be.

If I was an Atheist

What would change about your life if you were an atheist? It seems that most people’s inclination is to be more wild and promiscuous, which I find funny, but I will save this topic for a later discussion. The biggest thing that would change in my life would be my sense of purpose. If there was no God, I would stop caring about the well-being of humans. Humans have fully functional, reasonable, rational brains that can choose to do whatever they want. Humans determine the outcome of their lives, and continually make bad choices, making themselves and those around them suffer. It’s annoying. If there was no God, there’d be no reason for me to care about these people, so I wouldn't.

If I was an atheist, I’d join PETA and most likely dedicate my life to freeing animals or have the job described in this podcast. I’ve always had a soft spot for animals. Animals are loving and caring beings, yes beings. I’m not about to go through how animals are slaughtered and mistreated, we already know all about that. Go youtube that if you want a reason to feel crappy today.

Anyway, animals are too often underestimated or ignored. Cows, as well as other farm animals have been studied for emotional cues. In these studies, the scientists were able to measure their brainwaves and vitals. Scientists have concluded that cows are capable of feeling fear, anxiety, hold grudges, enjoy sex, and maintain friendships with other cows as well as humans. Some studies even suggest that animals have a sense of self.

Animals also laugh. In a rat study, scientists were able to make rats laugh by tickling them. The rats not only laughed, but also returned to be tickled again, suggesting that humans aren't the only mammals with emotional lives and that animals can also experience social-joy.

Radio lab, my second favorite podcast (my first favorite obviously being LLUC/Randy Roberts), has a fantastic segment on animal minds. In this segment, they discuss the possibility of communication between animals and different species. In this specific episode, they tell a story about a trapped whale who gets rescued, and potentially shows gratitude to her rescuers. This was so touching to me, because my biggest pet peeve is when I allow someone to cut in front of me on the freeway, and they don't show gratitude by giving me the courtesy wave.

If you do choose to eat meat, fine, do whatever you want. My libertarian will always advocate for personal freedom. However, I'd urge you to consider Michael Pollen's take on eating meat. If you're going to eat meat, you need to experience killing an animal and butchering it, so that you can fully understand and appreciate the process. If you had to kill a cow and butcher it every time you wanted to eat one, it seems like you'd do that a lot less often. Killing things is personal, buying lunch meat in the grocery store, is not.

I have no doubt that God exists, meaning I will always find helping humans more important than helping animals. However, animals are still one of God’s creations, and they should be treated with love and kindness.

So the next time you eat meat, I’d like you to consider that you’re eating a being that had a best friend, laughed, enjoyed having sex, and felt fear as it saw it’s family being killed and felt anxiety as it was about to be killed, so that you could eat it. That’s all. enjoy your day.

Level 5 Vegan

“Are you vegan?”

I hate being asked this question. It always has some inference attached to it; Well, you should be vegan, you’re a dietitian. Or, Pssh. Vegans have NO idea what they're missing out on.

I was once asked about my veganism, and I paused, as I always do when I’m asked this question. How do I explain that I’m not vegan, but that I avoid most animal products? My friend quickly jumped in and said, “Carolyn isn’t anything. She basically eats whatever she wants when she feels like it.” I started laughing. It was perfect. This describes me perfectly.

There are so many labels for people and their food choices.

Vegans: No animal products with animal rights beliefs

Total Vegetarians: No animal products, with no extreme ideals towards animal rights; may eat honey

Raw Vegans: No animal products, eat plants, plants can only be cooked to a certain temperature. Not recommended if you want to live.

Vegetarians: Usually means lacto-ovo-vegetarian

Lacto-ovo-vegetarians: Eats animal byproducts: dairy, eggs, honey

Lacto-vegetarians: Does not eat eggs

Ovo-vegetarians: Does not eat dairy

Pescatarian: Eats mostly plants, but eats fish and any seafood

Flexitarian: Almost vegetarian, but eats meat on occasion.

If you fall under one of these categories, that’s great. I don’t. I follow a plant based diet. I eat fruit, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, and beans every day. Some days I eat yogurt, some days I eat eggs, some days I eat fish, some days I eat ice cream, and on the rarest of occasions I’ll eat some chicken. I follow my own dietary guidelines because I know what’s best for me. Yes, I’ll almost always choose the healthier option, but the healthiest choice is not always vegetarian—or vegan.

I will mention that I think that a vegan diet can provide optimal health if planned properly. I will also mention that I think the majority—but not all—vegans are uptight and unreasonable. Following rules, created by mankind, with no leniency, isn’t the lifestyle for me. Today, I was a “total vegetarian.” I had no animal byproducts. Tomorrow, who knows.

This video pretty much sums it up...