A Body at Rest · 4 August 2013
As I think about inertia, I must have missed the most obvious corollary. A body at rest tends to stay (or get) flabby (or more likely, flabbier).
As much as I have enjoyed writing and trying to be serious about health, I just cannot pass up the opportunity to be just a little whimsical or even downright silly. Besides, sometimes I need to ignore good advice given to me and just write something absurd. (A friend told me to keep my MediocreMan voice out of my health writing, which I have mostly done.) Then again, flab is not really absurd and is certainly nothing to laugh about. (At least not hard enough to get that belly full of jelly wriggling.)
Whether we sit around because we are working or because we are just lazing around the house, sitting does accomplish something. It makes us fat. Unless of course, we are only eating enough calories to replace the ones that are being used – the ones needed to survive. But the truth of the matter is that most of the people who are eating just enough calories to live and replace the ones they expend are the ones who are exercising and, heaven forbid, sweating. They only sit around to get rested for the next round.
For most of the rest of us, when we sit around, we are snacking.
In light of that observation, there ought to be an addition to the inertia corollary. To wit, a body at rest tends to get flabby (or flabbier) because it tends to be snacking.
Most of us snack when our bodies are at rest. A cookie here, a handful of chips there. A donut in one hand, a coke in the other. A little pie with our ice cream. We tend to want to stuff our faces when we are sitting. When our bodies are at rest.
I suppose if we were the blaming types (and most of us are), we could blame much of this behavior on movie theaters.
When we used to go to the theaters, we would have popcorn, candy, soda pop, and all sorts of treats. We would stuff our faces as we watched the hero save the day. Going to the movie theater was not an everyday occurrence. But today, watching a movie can be.
Today, we can watch the hero save the day while we have dinner. Then, we can watch a different hero save a different day while we have dessert. And if we want to have that movie theater experience even in our own homes, we can watch a third hero save yet another day while we have our popcorn, candy, and soda pop. We can be at rest and get flabbier by the movie. And by the minute.
I have already written plenty about my own sugar addiction and all the other unfunny stuff about eating and health. I have kept a pretty tight rein on my own desires to be at least a little facetious about a serious subject. But I had to write at least one tongue in cheek piece. Even though it makes sense. In the final analysis, a body at rest really does tend to get flabby.
© 2013 Michael T. Miyoshi
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