Day 95 – The Joy Of Cooking

“The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing.”

~ John Powell

181.4 lbs

Today I tried to emulate the ‘ghoul’ scene from The Machinist, even though I’m around the weight Christian Bale was when he started his crash diet. Having lost about the same amount of weight as he did I feel we’re kind of in the same camp. That and I’m one odd person.

For those of you who haven’t seen the film, Christian plays a guy who keeps losing weight and can’t sleep. I can’t tell you why, as the mystery is part of what drives the plot, but I think you can see why I relate. Well, also because Christian starved himself for 100 days to get more and more gaunt as they filmed.

In the ‘ghoul’ scene he’s alone in his apartment and, curious about his bony appearance, sucks in his gut and poses like a ghoul.  I tried the same before my bathroom mirror. Because my stomach is so small now, I can get very concave when doing so; skin tucks under my lower ribcage at almost 90 degrees before curving down towards my navel again.

The weirdest thing (other than emulating a scene from a creepy movie, by myself, in front of the bathroom mirror) is that I could see my heartbeat. With my gut sucked in the flesh in the upper part of the hollow was actually being pushed by my pulsing heart, making it ripple.

How odd.

Anyhow, with 5 days left to go I’m thinking about the end of this 100 day starvation project all the time now. One thing I’m really looking forward to is cooking.

Some people think of it as a PITA, but I actually like cooking. Especially if I have guests and we all chip in. Not only does it lighten the load, but it has that community sense to it; talking and laughing as we all work on a common task, then getting to taste the fruits of our labour together when it’s done.

Even when alone, a hot meal made from fresh ingredients is usually tastier than most takeout – not to mention cheaper.

Notice the bit about fresh ingredients. When I say cooking I don’t mean ‘remove from wrapper and microwave on high for 3-5 minutes’ or ‘add contents of pouch to water and stir until boiling’. I mean actual preparing ingredients from fresh veggies, meat straight from the butcher’s or grocer’s, spices that will make my kitchen smell like that meal for about a day, and carefully combining them all to create something that is more than the sum of its parts.

Dieters often need to learn to exercise as well, and one of the most important exercises you can do, they used to say, was to push yourself away from the dinner table. But how often do most of us eat at an actual dinner table anymore? A lot less than we should.

My friend Diana went on a ‘social media’ diet for a little more than a week. An active twitter user (@AdamsConsulting) and avid blogger who writes for Bit Rebels, she needed a break to avoid complete social media burnout. She was on twitter, facebook, flikr, youtube, etc. every day and it was starting to get to her.

When she returned 8 days later, the first thing she said was “do not eat meals at your computer”.

Diana has always loved to cook. So much so she even published a cookbook last year. What changed? Being in front of a computer all day. “A few months ago, I stopped cooking altogether,” she confessed. “As a matter of fact, I stopped buying groceries. Instead, I started just buying quick already prepared, unhealthy meals to eat while sitting at my computer.”

“This was a bad habit that contributed to my burnout. Now I have gone back again to the joy of cooking, and I eat my meals at the table with my son like a real family. I’m not saying you have to cook like me, but just don’t eat your meals at your computer if you can help it. Just making this one modification has helped me tremendously.”

Even though I’m writing this on a computer and you’re reading it on a similar one, I totally agree with her. Computers have, in many cases, replaced TV as our modern day ‘idiot boxes’.  And as with TV, when you’re sitting there looking at this screen your metabolism is actually slowing to a rate lower than when you’re asleep.

I do appreciate you reading these articles. But when you’re done, go enjoy some summer sun. Then gather family and/or friends together and cook something delicious.