And here we go...

So... My wife has recently jumped in to the world of blogging and has suggested that I do the same. And I have to say, this seems like a marvellous medium in which to openly and extravagantly be oneself. I don't have to politely wait for someone else to finish their side of the conversation, I can set the topic to whatever I want to talk about, and it doesn't matter who's listening or whether they care. It's like an open invitation to pedagogery. It is wonderfully, decadently, and expectantly selfish.

But that would be pointless.

We live in a wonderful world, a world that is worth exploring and experiencing. And those experiences are worth sharing, for we all behold the world differently and we grow from understanding each other and our different perspectives. So I think this blog will be more about sharing my experience of this journey we are all on, and less about grandstanding my particular point of view. Read it if you like, or not, as you wish. Respond with your own experiences and share your own perspective on life and the world.

Or not. Whatever.

Today's experience is about power. I fight a constant, generally losing battle against my waistline, and I have done since I was about ten. I can think of two times in my life where I wasn't overweight; my brief stint in the military at age eighteen, and when I was banned from eating fat for fear of rupturing my gall bladder (that little experience caused me to lose sixteen kilos in eight weeks). But as of this morning I weight more than I have ever done in my entire life. Why is that?

I have considered this often, and there have been many reasons. Comfort eating to deal with stress and depression. Convenience eating because I just don't have time to eat properly. Compliance eating because everyone else is doing it (this applies most often to drinking as well). And perhaps the biggest reason of all: Custom (or conventional) eating, because that's what I've always done. And every single one of these reasons highlights the fact that I am surrendering control of my eating to external forces, when in reality the responsibility and control has always rested with me.

What has this got to do with power? I use that word because "empowered" is consistently over-applied and has lost a lot of its impact and meaning. I think instead that everyone has power over themselves, they don't need to have it granted to them by some external agency, theory or guru. We need only control the power we already possess. It is lunchtime. I am hungry. I can go and buy a big mac with chips (convenient, compliant, comforting and customary) or I can go and buy sushi, which is tastier, better for me, and about the same price. Time to exercise some control.