It's so easy to be bad...

Just a quick note to reflect on how very easy it is in modern America to do the wrong thing.  And I'm not talking about police pepper-spraying students.  That's too big and scary for me to tackle right now.  So I'll stick to the mundane.

The Sonic Effect

Today, I was scrubbing the floor a-la Cinderella, and mentally making plans to take my dog to the dog park.  While also reflecting on how thirsty I was, this was my thought process:

Lazy Self:

Hmmm...this is hard work, this floor scrubbing.  I could sure use a giant iced tea right about now. Oh, idea!  If I drove to the dog park instead of walking, I could swing by Sonic during Happy Hour and get a huge iced tea.  That would be awesome.

Self who is trying to lose weight:

Um, Lazy Self, wtf?  One, you have tap water and sugar free iced tea mix right here in your house.  Two, the tap water and sugar free mix you will drink here has no calories and is already paid for. Three, if you drive to the dog park, you are not exercising your dog, which is the whole point of going to the park. Four, if you to drive to the dog park, you are not exercising YOURSELF, who needs it most of any of us involved in this conversation.   And five, if you get a big iced tea from Sonic, it comes in a giant Styrofoam cup, which will be here on earth for, oh, I don't know, 10 MILLION YEARS. 

Lazy Self, ducking head in shame:

Ok, ok, jeez, we'll walk. 

But the fact is, Lazy Self had the easier idea.  Seems like most of the bad choices are the easier ones. 

For example, when dining out, we all know the right thing to do is set aside half of a meal to pay attention to portion size.  Have you ever done that?  Whipped out your tupperware in the middle of a restaurant?  I didn't think so.  It's inconvenient, and basically says to the world "Hey!  I'm overweight and I'm trying not to be!  Isn't that great?  Go ahead, look at me with pity.  I love that." 

On the flip side, there are the annoyingly easy tips like "Drink skim milk. Switch to diet soda."  Great, thanks.  I've only been doing that for my entire overweight life. 

Ah well, if it were easy, we'd all be skinny, I guess. 

But the good news is that since Self who is trying to lose weight won this debate (today, at least), this was the result: