Eat Freaks

Based on my daily schedule, my calorie intact is probably way below average. I've heard that 2500 calories a day is required to maintain weight. A few hundred more calories and you gain weight. A few hundred less and you lose weight. I've been the same one hundred forty-ish pounds since the beginning of college. George has been keeping a food diary recently and she gets real detailed. Six fries, a bite of salad. One binge burger.

My food diary for today would look like:

Half a Starbucks frappuccino. Eight Nutter Butters. Blueberry bagel. Thirty gummy bears. One mini-pack of Nerds. Three cups of coffee. One-fourth of a giant slice of chocolate cake. Half a tuna melt. A third each of pork chops and chicken fried steak. One-fourth of an egg. Some potato salad. A bite of coleslaw.

Everything from the three cups of coffee on was from dinner, my meal of the day. I don't eat breakfast or lunch really. I just snack away until evening time. I'm starting to suspect that my complete inability to function during the day might be tied to my lack of calories/fuel. Then again, eating tends to make me sleepy. Or maybe it's being up before two in the afternoon that makes me a zombie.

Part of growing up and maturing is recognizing what your body needs and responds to. My whole eating philosophy has generally been eat when there's food around, don't eat when it's not. I don't get hungry as much as my mouth craves certain flavors. Given the choice, I'd take a nutrition pill daily instead of taking the time out for sustenance eating. Then actual eating could be reserved for great food, leisurely dining, or special occasions. The only eating rule I've devised for myself in recent years is the 80% rule. Don't eat to your max. Eat to eighty percent and quit, thus making you not feel like an overstuffed slug.

I'm curious at what point my body will reject this "regimen" and I'll start getting unhealthy, gain weight, or whatever physical hardships most adults start having to face as they approach middle age. Stopping to think about it, I'm like the only person I know who doesn't engage in any physical activities whatsoever. Most of my peers go to the gym, yoga, lift weights, rock climb, run, or do something that keeps them in shape. At best I play basketball once a week or so. I maintain that I can still run and exert myself semi-decently, but that's pretty untested. And oh, did I mention I'm a smoker?

I wonder if I'm deluding myself into thinking that my body just takes all this shit and somehow churns on without any major problems. I like to joke that I'm like a machine that requires little to no maintenance. I rarely get sick, I generally have good energy reserves, and I'm not a slave to my hunger. But what if underneath all that my heart is getting clogged up? Or my lungs are atrophying? Or my metabolism is slowing down? It's hard to tell if I should just keep rolling like this or attempt to make some changes.

Your body's your temple right? In that case, my temple is devoid of worshippers and filled with refuse.