Dear
readers, I have once again ventured out amongst humanity in an 8 day vacation,
with 4 days spent in the Disneyworld parks and 4 other days on a Disney
cruise. This has once again given me an
opportunity to observe humanity en masse, in many senses of that word, and
report back my findings. Without further
ado
-Once again,
I am aghast at the obesity epidemic hitting this country. In fact, as a sad observation, with the
cultural melting pot that is Disney, I learned to make the observation that, if
someone was obese, they were American and, if someone wasn’t, they didn’t speak
English. This was helpful whenever I
needed to ask someone to move out of my way, especially how, most often, the
reason someone needed to move was because they were obese.
-The above
is especially unfortunate as it relates to children. These kids don’t stand a chance. Their parents are doing them a disservice by
starting them off so far behind the physical 8 ball, and if you want to know
what the worse culprit is, it’s drinkable calories. My kid eats a ton of junk and stays in good
shape because it’s simply difficult to EAT a lot of calories, but you can suck
down tons of juice/sodas/slushies/whatever and not even notice it. That was why I was fat as a kid; Koolaid, but
even then I was “90s kid” fat. These
kids are a whole different issue.
This was pretty much me from ages 4-14
-As I get
older, my indulgence in foot seems more variety oriented than quantity. I’d be at the buffet, get a big plateful of a
bunch of different food, eat it all and then contemplate getting more. Realizing that I’d simply be getting more of
what I already had rather than anything different, I saw no reason to make the
second trip. I had already “done
it”. It’s a weird psychological shift
for me.
-On that
note, I’m also a very simply creature. I
had a meal plan that allowed me to eat at the hotel every night, on their menu
was a double bacon angus cheeseburger, and I had it every night after getting
back from the parks. And I looked
forward to it every night.
-You can get
in a solid workout with zero equipment.
Everyone complaining that they can’t is simply uncreative.
-I stole a
page from Josh Bryant when the cruise dumbbells only went up to 50lbs and sat
on a flat bench and pressed overhead, then went as high an incline as possible,
then slowly worked all the way down to flat bench pressing. Mechanical advantage dropsets. Once again, people complaining about the
dumbbells “not being heavy enough” simply aren’t creative enough.
Look at this guy maximizing 135lbs
-I ended up
losing 4lbs by the end of the vacation.
Part of this was walking 12 hours a day for the first 4 days, and part
of it was, despite the food I had access to being very decadent, it simply
wasn’t ALWAYS there. I think food
availability is one of our more critical nutritional issues compared to food
quality.
-I engaged
in “intermittent fasting”, aka, skipping breakfast, for the first 4 days. Of course people like it; it’s easier.
-It’s
amazing how being around a bunch of out of shape people does nothing for your
own body dysmorphia. I still went
through bouts of feeling too small or too fat over the course of 8 days, and of
course that was primarily a result of different lighting/mirrors/photos/etc. Nothing really changes over 8 days but our
minds.
-The common
stereotype is that women are insecure about their bodies and men don’t care,
but I saw TONS of women just letting it all hang out in super small bikinis and
tons of dudes who refused to be at the pool without a shirt on. I do imagine we are seeing something of a
cultural shift.
-It amazes
me how many adults eat like children. I
was overjoyed at the amount of fresh veggies made available to me while
cruising, and saw many plates that were the typical “brown and gray” of nothing
but meat and potatoes. And yeah, I get
it “I’m on vacation”, but part of that experience is your ability to be able to
eat all those things that are a pain in the ass to cook and clean. And really, how many of these people are
actually eating differently than they do at home anyway?
"Hey man, the brownie adds color"
-Gaston
wears a stuffed suit with fake muscles.
Come on now! However, he also has
the longest line for character visits, and it’s usually all women.
-I saw a LOT
of obese people wearing Disney princess outfits or marvel superhero attire. The crowning achievement was a dude in a
motorized scooter with a batman shirt, a Deadpool tattoo, and a DBZ
backpack. I don’t get it. I have a Punisher tattoo and wear a LOT of
Punisher shirts. I want to BE the
Punisher. I train hard in these hopes. I can’t tell who is more deluded.
--Also, that
guy in the motorized scooter was walking around later that day. Don’t get me started on that.
-If you want
to get super cut for a photoshoot or something, just walk around Disneyworld
for 12 hours in 100 degree heat with a million percent humidity.
-Rogue
should pay some people to NOT wear their shirts.
Hell, these guys aren't even WEARING the shirt
Hell, these guys aren't even WEARING the shirt
-My go to
snack at parks/fairs is always the giant turkey leg. Low carb, high protein right? However, it always seems to be me and some
100lb girls that really enjoy this treat.
-I still can’t
get the damn sword out of the stone.
-I like
having a kid, because now I can buy all the toy swords and Viking stuff from
Epcot under the guise that it’s “for them”.
-I’m
starting to think I just don’t get joy out of food any more. There is rarely something out there that is
so delicious that I feel compelled to eat it knowing full well it’s not very
beneficial to eat. Meanwhile, I observe
people that shovel copious amounts of garbage in their face in. Really, how much happiness can a second
serving get you that the first didn’t?
"really, how much happiness can a second serving get you that the first didn't?"
ReplyDeleteMarginally less, but still more. Portion sizes is oddly a go-to example when discussing the effects of marginal value in economics classes. I think it's excaberated by the idea that food is supposed to be enjoyable and also that, in the case of buffets, people want to maximize the value of their sunk cost not realizing that the cost is sunk and you aren't getting it back.
I know I have struggled with this, a lot. The need to feel full all the time. Been getting around it by eating a lot more vegetables and trying to eat more for performance and recovery than pleasure. I've found that connection was a lot easier to make for me after signing up for a powerlifting meet because getting a big total and growing into my weight class properly is what would make me happy. So I can trade marginal value in food for marginal value in sport.