The Bitter Choice

Someone asked me recently what the single biggest reason is for people being overweight and out of shape. I think they were hoping for a simple answer like "the industrial food system" or "sedentary lifestyles" but my real thoughts on this are a bit more complex.

The problem is not the unhealthy food, or the inactive lifestyle, it's that people choose the unhealthy food and inactive lifestyle. Day in and day out, millions if not billions of people simply make really crappy choices. And I certainly count myself in that number. Even when training and eating really well I still spend an embarrassing amount of energy every day fighting cravings and petty rationalizations for skipping exercise and pigging out.

So the real question is what is at the root of the poor choices? Everyone knows the facts, too much junk and too little exercise makes you fat and sick. But we plunge on anyway.

A lot has been written recently about emotional eating and food addiction. There's a lot to validity to those ideas, but I don't think that's why the majority of people are making crappy choices. In my mind the essential problem can be boiled down to the following principle. I call it the Peak Condition Conundrum.

"Being out of shape and overweight* is the result of a number of small pleasures throughout the day, pleasures that when added up, result in a massive displeasure; the displeasure of not liking or being comfortable in your own body.

*(You small percentage of ectomorphs out there can substitute "underweight" for "overweight")

Conversely, being in trim, good shape is the result of countless small pains throughout the day, pains that when added up result in a larger pleasure, the pleasure of looking and feeling great in your own body."

So, in short, when it comes to your body, small pleasures add up to large displeasure, while small pains add up to great satisfaction.

We need to be honest with ourselves. It is an honest pleasure to eat a piece of fudge. It is nothing but wonderful to lay in a warm bed and skip a workout. We shouldn't try to deny that. Saying no to a delectable dessert can truly be painful, and exercising is nothing short of volunteering for discomfort and misery.

It makes perfect sense that so many people would choose the path of small pleasures. But this road leads to some dark spaces. Poor body image, low self confidence, a diminished quality of life and indeed, a shorter life. But the path of small pains, sweat, and sacrifice is also a hellish ride, and only offers up its treasures to those who commit to it for the long term and do not waver.

All in all, it's an absurdly unfair situation. Either way, you're going to be in for some serious mental anguish. Suffering is the price of admission to the human experience.

The question that only you can answer is which pain will you choose? The thousand little cuts of saying no to the sloth, sugar, salt and fat that surrounds you, or the one large misery of an unhealthy body that doesn't do what you want it to do?

It's wrong to think that there's a "correct" answer, but it's also wrong to think that there isn't a choice at all. The choice is happening as we speak. Everyday you are making it in dozens of different ways, whether you realize it or not. The majority of the world is making it in one direction, we on the PCP are trying to make it in the other. So take comfort, either way you won't be alone!