IA State Fair and The Disease of More
By: Michael Beiter
A client went to the state fair with friends and saw Alanis Morissette.
“I think I improved in how I went about things this year. Rather than everyone going off and buying their food and eating it all, as a group, we decided on what we wanted to try and essentially sampled everything. Fried Oreos, check, pickle dogs, check, funnel cakes, check. The difference was splitting instead of gorging.” He said.
As they hung out in the Bud Tent, he empathized with the wife of his friend, who logs everything she eats and decides she couldn’t have an item because there was no nutrition information in My Fitness Pal. My guy wondered how to handle such a situation and decided he would have the snack and ask me what to do when he saw me next.
I answered:
“Food logging is not 100% accurate; it never will be; there is too much leniency in portion sizes and measurements. But, it is infinitely more accurate than no logging, which leaves you guessing how much you’ve had. Thinking of things on a spectrum rather than dichotomously would be best. An imperfect food log that might be 50% off is still enough information to help you decide the next time you eat. That is the benefit of logging everything: it informs future decisions in a way your feelings can’t. So if you run into a situation where you’re unsure of the accuracy, find something close and go with it.
Additionally, let’s not make this rocket science. There’s no log in the database for a pickled dog? So what is it? A pickle, hot dog, and bun with batter? Enter all that in and make your entry.”
This fellow is eleven months of work in and thirty pounds down. Every time we meet, I must at least touch on the concept of the ‘disease of more.’
I flipped my computer around and showed him his weight loss chart and said, “If I showed you this chart when we first met and said this is where you’d be in 11 months, you’d take it all day, yet here you are, with plenty of progress to show and you’re still unsatisfied.”
We live in a world that teaches constant striving. Striving requires the precondition that you are not good enough and need more to be happy, fulfilled, or whatever; this is the disease of more. Mark Manson, author of ‘The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck’, quotes Alan Watts by saying that accepting where you are and what you’ve got is a critical element of enjoying life.
I’m with Manson and Watts in believing the disease of more prevents many of us from truly enjoying ourselves. Plus, state fairs, beer tents, and rainy concerts can all be enjoyed without guilt as long as there is a system for informing you of what you eat.
