Empty Calories

I really like to eat. I was hungry for ten years when I became a teenager. I decided in my mid twenties to modify what I ate. I started cutting out empty calories, food with no nutritional value except calories. Eliminating all those foods would be too hard, so I focused on what I called the big four, sodas, chips, french fries and donuts. It’s not that I never eat them, but my automatic response to them is no thank you.

I’ve learned to view worry and anxiety as empty calories as far as emotions are concerned. They have nothing worthwhile to offer me. I’ve identified two big categories of worry and anxiety. People and weather are my major temptations.

I’ll talk about the biggest one first, people. I was talking to a nuclear engineer who was in charge of a nuclear reactor on a submarine. I asked him what was the hardest thing about his job. He gave me a one word answer, people. People present a big challenge to almost everyone, including me. I’ve learned to decrease that challenge with a simple two word phrase, let them. Unless someone is treating me or someone I care about inappropriately, I let them be who they are, regardless of how much I may disagree with their choices.

I do the same thing with weather. I don’t  complain about the current conditions. I adapt to them. I’ve observed that many people spend a great deal of unproductive emotional energy being concerned with what other people are doing and the weather. It’s tempting because I’ve seen that they can be different. However, what I hold on to is that I have no control over either of them. They are going to be what they are at that point in time, regardless of my emotional state. Using up my emotions on them is like eating empty calories. Nothing productive comes from it. Also it leaves less room for what is healthy for me. Empty calories are junk food for me body, just as worry and anxiety are junk food for me soul. They all have lingering effects.

Of course the junk food I named in my big four is incredibly tempting. They taste good at the time. Bashing people and the weather also feels good at the moment, but it’s counter productive. What helps the most is deciding ahead of time, when it’s easier, to say no thank you. The more I say it, the easier it gets.  I also don’t beat myself up if I give in to temptation on a rare occasion. I just keep the portion small and get back to what I’ve decided is important. Nothing more complicated than perception.

May you have enough today, one moment at a time.