Cutting the Fat

Here I am once again awake at nearly three am, as is the custom/habit/compulsion so intricately tied to my very existence. Great strides have been made over the recent months on refining myself as an individual. As the very famous and somewhat overused William Blake quote goes “the road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom.” In my younger days, I took this to mean that I had to embrace life, chasing down every vice and adventure and owning it with a tenacity that few possess. And for a while I did this marvelously. I possessed a certain A-D-D mentality that allowed me to study, work, write, fuck, party, and generally run on half the amount of food and sleep that most doctors feel is vital to basic sustenance.

Sadly when you spread yourself that thin, you don’t notice the minutiae chipping away at your soul. I grew more and more tired, more despondent, and this just drove me to test my limits further. I was building a legend for God’s sake. I didn’t have time for the bullshit around me. I was the PR agent for my own entity, this fictitious character that I had conjured up through a myriad of amazing yet totally coincidental feats.

Simply put, I fancied myself a genius, living larger than life, untouchable by the world around. And perhaps I am not so far off base, although I find my confidence to be increasingly fleeting.

Which brings me to my title. Cutting the fat, not eliminating it entirely, just restructuring ones metaphysical diet. I am a firm believer that substitutes rarely worth a second glance, and usually tend to be just as detrimental to ones health given enough time. For examples, see fake butter, fake sugar, abstinence and overzealous religious beliefs (especially religious beliefs that stem out of childhood abuse, prison stints or rehab).

I am a firm believer in will power, or mind over matter if you will. And yes I do find some solace in that god awful term “moderation.” Small steps such as balancing your checking account, paying off a credit card, and completing some inane task you have put off for months really do a lot to help improve your mood. The trick is keeping it manageable.

For instance if you were to start “eating right” cutting out fats, sugars, alcohol and the like entirely, started regimenting every aspect of your life, it’ll almost inevitably consume you. And perhaps you might live a little longer, but you really need to seriously consider the quality of those extended years.

So that said, my advise for this upcoming new year, and its inevitable deluge of impossible resolutions is to simply cut the fat. Keep it simple, and try to enjoy yourself while taking steps to some bigger goal. And if you can do this flawlessly, please email me and tell me how!

The future of my blog

So hopefully over the next few days I will be seperating out my blog to make it easier for people to find what they want to read.  Right now I am planning three different sections: food, travel, and the general rant.  So stay tuned and keep checking back for updates!!  :-)

Return to my homepage