The key may be that you don’t buy
10kg of each chosen fruit or veg that you fancy as you’ll undoubtedly get bored
of it and if you need to maintain a routine in its infancy then the key is
variety and engagement. If I buy small quantities of lots of different things
then it allows me control to vastly alter the availability each day and keep
the selection on offer fresh. The other option is of course to run the gauntlet
and buy the various items on a day to day basis but here’s the rub. If you do
this and you’ve had a crap day thus far you then face the temptations of the aforementioned terrors.
Now I’m not talking ghouls and
goblins, wraiths and demons, not at all. I’m talking about those golden arches,
that offer sanctity and relief for people across the globe. MacDonald’s is a
giant, not to be confused with the jolly green one of yore. It’s invasion and
conquest far outstrip the great feats of Napoleon, Genghis Khan and Darius the
First all put together. If I want to walk or drive from work to the nearest
supermarket which is a mere 5min walk from my offices I have to contest with
going past MacDonald’s, Nando’s, Pizza Hut and several others before I reach
Tesco. It would be far easier surrendering to the pizza buffet hour or grab a
Big Mac then pass the sights and smells these outlets offer and reach the
fortress of every little helps.
This isn’t a lecture of saving
money or eating healthy, more it has become an article on the invasion of
temptation that exists in our culture now. To quote Henry Wotton from Oscar
Wilde’s ‘A Picture of Dorian Gray’, “the only way to resist temptation is to
yield to it”, that is the message which seems to have conveyed to us all the
time. I remember standing in Saint Wenceslaus square in Prague over ten years
ago marvelling at the beauty that existed from the ‘Old World’ but also
surprised that in a 360 degree turn I could see five separate MacDonald’s
outlets glowing gold like a buried treasure suddenly unearthed.
We have allowed convenience to
become an excuse for laziness and a lack of care. If I really cared about
saving money, losing weight or maximising my lunch break I’d stick to the
routine. I read somewhere recently that the human race has slowly started to
lose the ability to self-regulate and control our own behaviours. It’s true
though.. think back to when you’re parents or grandparents would ‘do without’
this and that, it’s not just a story from the war or great depression, it was
them making the decision to stick to their guns. If they had let loose and
decided they would indulge ‘want’ they could have gone out and robbed a neighbour’s
house or tried swindling someone down the street. The vast majority didn’t
though, if they couldn’t have something they simply didn’t, but they survived
and carried on. A trip into any store would likely present you with situation
after situation of children screaming and crying because they want this or want that. You want to know a secret? If they don’t have that
chocolate or Xbox game, they will survive into tomorrow (unless the child is
diabetic and needs an emergency sugar boost of course!).
This article was initially
entitled ‘Lunchtime Terrors’ but whilst writing it I realised that it’s not
just a situation that exists between 12-2, it’s an everyday occurrence and way
of life. So next time you say to yourself ‘I need ….’, check yourself, and ask
yourself if you really do..
Thanks as always for reading and
if you could give my FB page a ‘Like’ I would be forever in your debt! J
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