Given all the media that it's gotten the last week or two I was wanting to see this film, as was Marilynn. When I mentioned seeing this to her today, she was all for it, so we got in the car, drove downtown and put down our sixteen dollars to see the movie... well, eleven after five dollars to park.

I expected it to be preachy, and it was. However, preachy is what's called for. The problem is an epidemic, and one that's easy to fall into. I know, because I'm one of the people that have fallen into it. Marilynn and I are trying to combat it, though, being among the carb-counting masses.

It's definitely a wake-up call. What struck me the most is that many of the problems that affected Morgan are the same ones that I have! Things such as depression and moodiness, high blood pressure, becoming tired easily, poor endurance, high cholesterol, pains, hot flashes at times, odd sensations in my body, heart palpitations at odd times... add to that things like allergies, mild asthma and skin rashes that can probably be at least partially attributed to my weight, and you get the picture. I have to do something about this mass I'm carrying around.

Sure, there's personal responsibility. I often find myself being slug-like not wanting to eat this or that, not wanting to make a good choice, wanting food that will comfort me and make me feel better. True, no one puts their hand down my throat to make me eat that stuff.

However, that may be because my body has adapted to these poor food choices, or the addictive qualities of those foods. It could also be that they're cheap and easy. It may be because tastes have been formed through my life for these foods. It's all of the above, though.

(Also, have you never noticed how prepared foods always have all the things you're not supposed to have? Sodium, fat, processed sugars, preservatives, flavorings... I noticed this looking at the nutritional information foods I could eat on our current diet. We can eat meats stuffed with hormones at corporate farms. Once you get sick of meat, and on the Atkins diet, you will get sick of meat, you start getting creative with flavoring the meat with all manner of seasoning packets, and trust me, you don't want to read a lot of those packets. Once you graduate from induction you can start eating one of the wide variety of low-carb snacks and treats that are becoming widely available for premium prices, which are almost all highly-processed and engineered concoctions not found in nature. You can have some veggies at least, but not too much 'cause carbs are evil! Ditto for fruits, nuts, etc. It all strikes me as a little preposterous. You lose weight, but only because your body thinks it's starving to death and starts eating itself, rather than actually using that stored energy.)

Additionally, as Marilynn points out, I don't exercise. I don't like it, as many people don't, but I often see exercise as a period where my mind is inactive. I hate for my mind to be inactive. It seems like such a waste to me. I guess I need to find a way to incorporate it somehow, but at the same time, I can't feel the time is a waste or a dead period of my day or I will not do it. (Plus, I hate the heat here. Exercising outdoors in southeast Texas? Ha! It's hot, and this ain't your average little "oh it's 83 degrees out, I'll just die" kind of hot, it's find people dead on the street hot here.)

We discussed our diet after the movie while coming home. I am still anti-Atkins, even though we've been doing it for quite a while. Sure, the numbers on my blood tests are improved, as are hers, but I can't honestly say I feel all that much better. I feel like crap, actually. And exactly how do you get out of this diet once you reach your target weight? When you die of a coronary? (Did I mention my father was on the Atkins diet when he had his heart attack last year?)

I don't think she'll move on these diets. She told me, outright, "I release you from the diet." Damn it, I don't want to be released, I just want to be healthy! Unfortunately, there's no way that either of us can do a diet without the support of the other, I am afraid, and also we need to be on the same diet for cooking and cost purposes.

We've discussed the South Beach Diet as an alternative, but I am starting to think that perhaps we should just dump the low-carb diets, period. I'd like to try more vegetarian and natural foods - basically, go for nutrient density and leave energy-dense foods behind. That will never fly - my monkey is a carnivore, and she'll tell you that in a heartbeat.

Thus, my weight loss conundrum continues.

Humorous note from the movie - one of the hospitals in the system that I work for was shown in the movie, from the filmmaker's trip to Houston. In fact, it's one of the two I live closest to. I'm sure they're lovin' that. Heh.

Just as an aside - I mentioned that we went downtown to the Angelika to see the movie. They tell you to park in the underground Theater District parking. If you ever do that... be sure you walk from your car to your destination and don't let the security guys give you a lift on their cart to wherever you're going. You'll never be able to find your car again. Ever seen that episode of Seinfeld where they can't find the car in the garage? We must have been at least a block and a half from where the car was! Grr!

restlessmind