I ran an entire package of Fig Newtons through my washer machine last month.<\/p>\n
It was not, as Martha Stewart would say, a good thing.<\/p>\n
I didn\u2019t do it on purpose, but the reason why I laundered a box of cookies illustrates a problem that is bigger than a gunked-up washer.<\/p>\n
I put those cookies in my gym bag to hide them from myself, so I wouldn\u2019t compulsively keep eating them.<\/p>\n
From the gym bag, it was a quick drop into the washer machine. I was oblivious enough not to notice them, and in a matter of minutes, about 3,000 calories\u2019 worth of cookies (or are they cake?) disintegrated in the spin cycle.<\/p>\n
Food-covered laundry aside, I\u2019ve got a problem many of you may understand. I overeat. As a result of overeating, I now weigh too much.<\/p>\n
In fact, I\u2019ve gained enough weight that I\u2019m now on a diet so I can avoid having surgery for a potential health problem.<\/p>\n
I used to be a skinny long-distance runner \u2013 how on earth did it come to this?<\/p>\n
A quick look at the facts tells me I\u2019m not alone.<\/p>\n
According to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, 68 percent of American adults are overweight or obese (having a body mass index greater than or equal to 25.) An estimated 33.8 percent of Americans are obese (that means having a BMI of 30 and above.)<\/p>\n
This is bad stuff, and we\u2019ve all heard it before: being overweight puts us on course for everything from cancer and diabetes to heart attacks and strokes.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ll speak for myself here: no matter how much finger-wagging I read from the experts, I am still fat. And frankly the preaching gets on my nerves.<\/p>\n
I know why I am overweight. I\u2019ve fallen under the spell of fast food and a stress-filled life. I eat when I\u2019m anxious, and I eat when I am tired.<\/p>\n
At times, my job seems unrelenting, and single parenting is no walk in the park. Those are elements of my anxious, tired life. Probably they are elements in your life, too, if you are reading this. We are built for \u201cfight or flight,\u201d but yet our world is full of things (this computer, for starters) that push every button in our caveman brains.<\/p>\n
Sometimes I wish the experts would come down off their mountaintop and write for me. Or pick up my daughter from school when she misses the bus. Or do my dishes.<\/p>\n
But I know that no matter how irritating the advice can be, and how sorry I may feel for myself (it\u2019s not that often, really) deep down inside I have the power to choose the right way to live.<\/p>\n
I can\u2019t give up my jobs as an editor or a parent, but I can choose how I want to feel about them.<\/p>\n
If I don\u2019t feel right about elements of either job, I have the right, as an adult living in the biggest democracy on earth, to occasionally shut the door on them, and give my tweaked-out brain a break.<\/p>\n
Sometimes it is okay to be selfish. Sometimes the only way to save your life is to be selfish.<\/p>\n
In fact, I am about to close this computer down, so that I can put my gym gear on and do something for myself in a few minutes. I could actually sit here at my desk, grinding away into the night, and still not be done.<\/p>\n
But I\u2019m saying \u201cnot right now.\u201d I\u2019m going to breathe hard. I\u2019m going to use my arms and legs for something besides typing and pushing file drawers shut.<\/p>\n
I need to be a good employee and mom. But even more so, I need to be a healthy employee and mom.<\/p>\n
So – best wishes and see you on this page next week.<\/p>\n
And don\u2019t even TALK to me about Fig Newtons!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I ran an entire package of Fig Newtons through my washer machine last month.
\nIt was not, as Martha Stewart would say, a good thing.
\nI didn\u2019t do it on purpose, but the reason why I laundered a box of cookies illustrates a problem that is bigger than a gunked-up washer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":217,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-11961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11961"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/217"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11961"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11961\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11961"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=11961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}