Day 67 - Peeved & Doomed

Not long ago I had lunch with a friend who was in a good mood when we sat down but quickly became irritated and foul. I took notice at how such a little thing got under his skin so quick, and in such a way that it ruined his meal if not for the balance of his day.

What set him off? The restaurant menu. He had a taste for a specific dish that wasn't on their menu. It was a simple if not common dish, grilled chicken with a sweet mango style salsa. There were other chicken dishes on the menu, some good ones too in my eyes. But he wasn't in the mood for substitution. Even when the waitress suggested another salsa they had on hand to go with a grilled chicken breast he would not budge on his dissatisfaction to their not having what he wanted. Yikes!

He ended up ordering a double bacon cheese burger. I've known him for a while so I had no reservations in asking him what on earth he was doing. He had just given the waitress a hard time over a menu whose content she had nothing to do with, and rebuffed her attempts to accommodate callously. So why the burger which couldn't be further away from his desire than Winnipeg is to Miami? His reply... "If I can't have what I want then I may as well just have what I shouldn't have!"

With great reservation I chose not to engage the debate that really should have taken place. This was my lunch time too and I didn't want to spend it in any more stress than he had already served up . So I let it go and we proceeded to get through lunch chit chatting about hockey, politics and other topics we usually enjoy. Oh, well I must say I did get one minor jab in. He ordered first, and after all he put this dear waitress through to then order a burger, well I took her up on her modified chicken with alternative salsa recommendation.

So where am I going with this? Peeves, do we use them as reasons to do damage?

We all have Pet Peeves, and I am sure at times we all have let them ruin our day. We are human, it happens, it will happen again. But, we ought to take stock here about what our reactions to them impact. If I had been in his shoes and had chosen as he did I would have ruined a day or two of healthy eating and exercise. When we the obese who are working hard to get healthy find ourselves in frustrated situations we must be conscious that the old obese mindset inside of us usually did react to frustration with such spiteful indulgence. This behavior of bad choice only fed our addictions and added to our size.

Hey, I am no psych major, what I say here seems to be common sense born from observation and experience. While knowledge and common sense are great, they are only beneficial if applied to good sense and action. So my friends, get frustrated, get angry if you must, it is Ok. But what is not Ok is choosing to act in a manner that will do harm, set you back, or awaken the old obese mindset within. We're better than that, we deserve to be better to ourselves, and we should never pass up on good salsa when offered it.


Responsibility 199 - Gotta Do It!!