10/11/10 Falling Into Idle Time

Well, Fall Break is in full swing for us and with it comes birthday parties, vacation, and idle time.  The least fun but easiest to accomplish is the idle time.  Oh dear what we do with those spare vacant moments of time!?  Hmmm.  Shall I exercise, find a cure for cancer, work on that Bible study or just sit here and eat left over birthday cake?  Choices, choices! Voilà!  I just ate an orange!  Oh the sense of accomplishment... even if I am still in my pajamas!

I've given myself quite the latitude in meal selections for myself and my family lately.  What am I doing?  No, chicken fingers with fries are not the new staple!  And I am supposedly a professed vegetarian sometime vegan?  Back on track we go kiddies!  Enough of the invisible calories and fat grams.  Enough idleness!  Time to wake-up!  So where does the time go during your breaks of life?  Is it unaccounted for?  Is it spent wisely?  I'm somewhere wading in the water of an uncertain current lately as if life were on hiatus.  I don't like the feeling of drifting though.  My house, my diet, and my family will easily reflect my "drifty-ness."  What would I prefer my surroundings reflect?  Perhaps they could reflect health, order, godliness and wholeness.

Okay so I just got up after that last sentence, walked over to the fridge, opened the door, looked in at the left over birthday cake and then shut it.  Phew!  That was close!  Let me go back to the thought of that orange I ate at the beginning of this article.  It was easy, light, refreshing and very orange.   There's no reason I can't make more "orange" choices throughout the day!  Don't oranges smell great too?  They continue their delightful aroma contribution after consumption by being put in the garbage disposal.  Ahhhh!

So, I wrote an article a little over a week ago about the slowing of our metabolisms after 40, but some how accidently metabolized that article shortly after writing it.  Couldn't retrieve it back no matter how hard I tried.  In essence I wrote that since our metabolism slows 5-7% every year after 40, it is of utmost importance that we choose what we consume and the activities we partake in carefully.  It's never been more important!  I'm 46, soon to be 47 so that means my metabolism is how much slower???? Oh, how sobering!  How much slower is your metabolism?

I just wish I didn't like food so much!  Last night we got a last minute invitation to join my sister-in-law and her husband at the International House Of Pancakes.  It was great to see them of course.  Anyway, although it was later in the evening, that didn't deter me from ordering a large ensemble of vegetarian crepes.  For good measure, I put the last two bites worth in a to-go-box.  Was it absolutely necessary to eat that much?  I dare say not!   I think it's safe to assume that I'm not the only one who overeats.  Why do we do that?  Why is food so important beyond it's simple sustenance capacities?  Oh the Psychology of it all!  We'll explore that another time!    

Well now it's time to get busy and move off of this chair and away from this computer.  Shall it be a walk to the fridge, a leap to the mailbox, laundry room or shower?  I think I will go about moving wisely and intentionally wherever I go.  If I do get that cake later, it will have to be with both eyes open and full intention or I might forget I even had it and go for another piece!  It could be worse, I could lament over it and still have another piece!  LOL!