A Tale of Two Eating Philosophies

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I've been thinking about this food dichotomy:

  1. Eat whatever you want and enjoy it; life is short.
  2. Eat healthy and take care of yourself; live longer.

In general, I tend to fall into the second camp. I want to live a long life, so I love to eat healthy and exercise.

But once in a while — like this weekend — I do enjoy going on a total food bender and indulging in some of my favorite vices.

I had a crazy Saturday. After about four hours of sleep, I drove out to West Hartford Center for a public yoga class with hundreds of other people in the middle of Lasalle Road. Then I had to cut my friend's dad's lawn before making it to Mill Pond Park at 11, where my students were putting on a karate demonstration at the Newington Extravaganza. I got home, showered, changed, and drove to North Branford for my friends' apartment-warming/graduation/birthday party, where I proceeded to eat everything in sight. Burgers, shish kebab, buffalo chicken egg rolls (oh my god), pasta salad, potato salad, cake, cookies, and more. Then I drove to Cheshire to pick up a friend of mine, and we drove to Bridgeport to see Primus at the Gathering of the Vibes festival. I got home around three in the morning and promptly passed out with my clothes still on.

It was great.

If I lived every day like that, I'd probably collapse from exhaustion pretty quickly. But it felt good to burn my candle all the way down for a change. It was a blast, actually.

I think it's the same with eating.

As I sat in a lawn chair at the party, drinking my first rootbeer in probably six years and laboriously trying to digest a double cheeseburger, I remembered that some people eat like this every day. I can't even imagine what that's like, and I have no desire to find out. When I splurge, I always look forward to eating healthy again and to getting back on the path.

So while I choose to eat healthy most of the time in the hopes of living a long and happy life, I have no regrets about eating myself silly this weekend. I was among friends, and we were celebrating. Not just a particular event, but life in general.

And it is short, no matter what we do.

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