The Real Reason You are Fat Nobody that’s Going Nowhere (How’s THAT for a “clickbait” title, eh?)
Daily Meditation #137 — 7/9/2022
*Cue Kill Bill Sirens*
Unpopular, hurtful, cutting but truthful insights in today’s meditation.
The reason why people are overweight, stupid, make too little money, have underwhelming relationships, and are, on the whole, generally forgettable comes from one simple albeit unfollowed thing:
“Knowledge is power.”
Everyone insists they want to be powerful, but for most, when power is foisted upon them, they freeze up like Wile-E-Coyote just at the moment he realizes the road has run out.
When we know something, understand something, and it’s engrained into us, we are then faced with the unpleasant fact that, well, it’s un-unlearnable.
For instance.
I love peanut butter.
Adore it.
Especially the “natural” kind with the subtle grit, the lovely, oily mouthfeel, and the satisfying, unrefined “peanutty” taste.
When I ate keto many years ago, I frequently ate 2–3 full jars each week.
I couldn’t understand why my weight had started going up.
Then I realized that 2 tablespoons (roughly the size of your entire thumb from the web to tip) was 190 calories.
I ran the numbers.
It would take me 45 minutes of walking at 3mph to burn that off. That’s a lot of effort. (For my Euro friends, that’s 4.8kph)
After that, peanut butter was ruined for me.
I then had the power of knowledge that a full jar of my favorite treat would take 10.5ish hours of walking to burn off.
I have since memorized caloric approximations of nearly everything — not to ruin them, but to be armed against obesity.
— — — — —
We often shy away from things we should do because we know that if we do them, it will result in an awakening within us.
The awakening of the burden and responsibility of knowledge.
Counting calories and reading self-improvement are two such things.
When you’ve learned to count calories and become capable of “forecasting” your daily calories internally, you cannot put that genie back in the lamp.
No more being ignorant enough to eat a full pizza and sit on your ass, wondering “Why no six pack?”
When you’ve read a book talking about narcissist traits and insecurity and see the elements of narcissism and manipulation from insecurity in yourself, you can’t unlearn it.
No more being able to blame your exes, God, luck or anything.
The burden and responsibility of knowledge is not some ball and chain, but is rather the path to Eudaimonia that I talk about every single day.
When you are enlightened deeply in relationship wellness, physical wellness, financial wellness, and spirituality, then there is no going back.
Much like when we learn the ideas of sin, this enlightenment fills us with the downstream effect of the burden and responsibility of knowledge by then giving us the dilemma of choice.
When I knew how calorically dense peanut butter was, I was faced with the decision every time I’d grab the jar from the cabinet:
“To stick to my 2200 daily calorie limit, as I consider this peanut butter, I must either:
Eat less later if I eat this now, due to its density
Not eat this peanut butter, denying myself the pleasure
Or WILLINGLY go over 2200 by enjoying it and then eating the original amounts of calories.”
Those of us who have principles and balance know that if we go with the third option — “committing the sin” — our conscience will may us pay with the sensation of shame.
Such is the burden and responsibility of knowledge and dilemma of choice.
In summation — humans will likely always take the path of least resistance by choosing willful ignorance instead of empowering themselves with knowledge. They will try to cut corners (“10 day ab workout!” & “BLAST OFF 15 pounds with this juice diet!”) or cast blame to the world around them (“My ex was an abusive alcoholic and narcissist, so now I am addicted to pills”)…
Instead of acting truthfully and in a manner consistent with who they aspire to be.
Follow for daily philosophical meditations.
These are distillations from my coming book “YouDaimonia: the Ancient Philosophy of Human Flourishing.”
