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:::And this is why people believe in them::: My horoscope in the local paper today: Levity builds all day long. Handle what is serious or what cannot be put off any longer. Give up a need for control, and defer to others. An associate might be testy. A meeting could be transformed into a fun get-together. Relax, don't worry so much. Tonight: Paint the town red.
Is that right up my alley or what with the 'breathe, relax, be peaceful path? Art party tonight - the painting we are doing involves mountains. I'm predicting mine will resemble volcanos when I 'paint 'em red'.
I really loved your comments and sharing on my journal yesterday. It was nice to learn I'm not the only person who got so swept up the marketing and merchandising insanity that it spilled over into the rest of my life.
A somewhat related conversation in a forum included 'hoarding and consumption' and the person posting commented 'when we were kids, we had to eat whatever was put in front of us. As a adult I guess I went crazy buying everything else.'
Poor kid. We were always given TWO choices: take it or leave it. LOL. So yeah, I can definitely identify. About the same time I began earning a decent wage to have enough disposable income to purchase the 'beyond necessity' things, TV channels exploded from 8 to 800 and most of them were advertising food, grocery stores or restaurants, at least 10 minutes out of every 30 minute sitcom. Taco bell was open all night, Whataburger was open late, and Oreo's were double stuffed.
I appreciated the suggestion of 'grow your own spinach' and yes, considered it for a few minutes but then caught myself with a 'uh uh'. Not that it wouldn't make for a great thing to do but I would need to level my entire back yard to produce the quantity of spinach I eat on a weekly basis.
I agree, the market probably doesn't stock it because they likely don't have a wide customer base of idiots like me willing to pay $7 a tub for it - and I typically consume about 4 tubs a week. Last night I did the math on that and went a little nutso thinking about the $1500 a year for... a vegetable. Sure, it's good and good for me but time to explore something else green and already available in the produce section that will bring me a nutritional equivalent.
Just like the weight, these 'things' creeped up on me. Sure I love Whole Foods but I really think these specialty stores with 10,000 different ways to package and market foods kept me so distracted ... well, a million metaphors come to mind. A dripping faucet. A flickering light. Finally: flood and fire. I was actually on the verge of convincing myself that two hour round trip to go shop at WF's was 'worth it because I was worth it'.
Yeah, I'm worth it... sure. BUT... what exactly AM I worth and HOW is that to be valued with FOOD?
I think this is a huge problem for me. Years of Loreal commercials telling me 'I'm worth it' has led to me assigning a false sense of 'value-ization'. It's time to analyze the ROI (return on investment).
The spinach wasn't the first 'aha' moment; I'd had one a month or so ago with a certain yogurt. I won't mention it here to avoid a slander suit but when it FINALLY caught my attention that 6oz container was ringing up at $2.60 at the checkout, it was time to wake up. So WHAT if it tasted 'cleaner' and had less sugar than any other brand... did I really NEED it?
No, I don't. And yes, I'm definitely enjoying the food I eat but I am taking a good hard look at it now. I feel like Madison Avenue has sold me enough packaged insanity for a while. Yes, I agree it sucks that processed food is less expensive than fresh but I do like the way I feel and my body responds by eating fresh. However, the hype, the BS, the brainwashing, it needs to stop. For me anyway.
So if you wondered about the 'photo posting' binge yesterday I didn't realize it was so easy to upload a photo if it was in a group or challenge. While I too will echo the sentiment that FS is free and am grateful for that, I find it odd that posting a photo to a journal isn't that easy. Eh, maybe on the next upgrade. Live and learn.
Have a wonderful day, my friends.
Bella
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