My boyfriend had a bad day yesterday. His wallet and iPhone were stolen at the gym while he was playing basketball with a friend. Of course, food is comfort, so when he got home I took him to Denny's. I had Chicken Parmesan. What the fuck? That's a huge meal, with a megaton of carbs. Little to no nutritional value. God damn it.
Today, my boyfriend was craving taco salad, so I looked up a healthy recipe on SparkRecipes to indulge him. We went to the store (after stopping by Burlington Coat Factory to buy him a new wallet) and I ended up indulging myself. I bought tortillas and tortilla chips (but really, the tortilla chips are for a chips and salsa snack, which in moderation is perfectly fine and healthy!). I tried to buy a 20 count box of Safeway chocolate chip cookies, but my boyfriend persuaded me to put them back. It was so hard! I literally felt as if my life was getting sapped out of me with every step closer to the shelf.
On a related note, SparkPeople is a godsend. I've been a member for a couple of years, and before that, I was a member of BabyFit, their site dedicated to expectant mothers. I purchased their book, The Spark, and it was fantastic. I know that these bad weeks I might have are okay, that I shouldn't give up, that I need to make healthy living a habit and giving up just allows the negative habits to persevere.
However, I have to bitch about something. Chris Downie, the creator of SparkPeople, is a mega douche. A lot of his book is about his life, as if he could possibly relate to me, the reader. I have nothing in common with him. Multiple times through the book, Downie is all like,
I may have had it easy in college, and be rich and healthy and have a house overlooking the ocean, but I'm just like you, you fat lower class loser. Really. I'm just like you. I had a hard time with shyness, so naturally I can relate to traumatic experiences like obesity and poverty.
Maybe I'm being harsh. No. Fuck that. I know most of the members of SparkPeople or readers of The Spark are probably middle class professionals, but I still feel like it was a little bit rich (hurr) of Downie to posture as if he could possibly relate to me. I was almost offended by it. This guy has no idea what it's like to be depressed, suicidal, to come from an abusive family, to have had an abusive partner. Instead, his idea of relating to our struggles is:
I used to be shy, and while I was naturally thin, I just wasn't healthy.
All I'm saying is I wish he hadn't riddled his book with the typical "inspirational speaker" bullshit and just gotten down to the meat of his message.
