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Anyone who has checked out Gainesville with Google Earth will have the impression that parts of the city are hidden deep in a forest like some Mayan temple, so numerous are the trees. In fact, save for Paines Prairie, there are few places where one can gaze upon a sweeping vista. 39th Avenue, however, runs east and west in a relatively straight line, breaking the curtain of trees, so you can see a few miles. On the way home from school tonight I got to see a distant thunderstorm, far enough away that no sound was audible, but the bright flashes turned the sky purple and yellow. It was impressive. Alas, no rain has fallen at Cardinal Corner for several boiling hot days.

I just finished reading “Is Willpower Obsolete” in the New York Times.  It points out that almost half of dieters quit, which is almost no wonder, since they typically lose only 5% of their body weight within a year.

More interesting than those statistics, however, are the reader comments.  Two I find especially compelling:

“[I]t is a variant of addiction, where the overeater has developed a compulsive, comforting ritual that is a dysfunctional adaptation to life’s stresses and upswings, has little to do with appetite or hunger.”

“The people I know who are seriously overweight consider food more important than it is; it’s their hobby, their form of recreation, the subject that their minds gravitate toward when they’re idle.”

I am lucky to not be obese, considering how much sugar I consume.  And I am also lucky to be able to shed pounds quickly by adjusting my diet.  Eliminating foods I snack on, like animal crackers and ice cream, and switching to zero-calorie Coke, produces noticeable weight loss.  But as the above comments suggest, maintaining a healthy weight isn’t simply a matter of changing the specific foods one consumes, but changing behavior.  My eating behavior is presently problematic, and I think it is largely a result of access.

In days of old, food was much less available to me.  Put simply, I was too poor to stock my cupboards as full as I can today.  Consequently, I did not engage in the sort of activity I now do, like snacking on something sweet just because I am not doing anything else.  I have noticed that when I am at work, and food is not available to me, I manage to make it through just fine.  But when I am at home for a similar span of time, I eat. 

Additionally, I now eat out often.  I am not complaining; quite the contrary.  But eating out invariably means that I eat more than I should, and walking away from the table with food still on my plate is difficult, particularly when an entree costs upwards of ten dollars. 

Where does this leave me?  I have to go back to calorie-free Coke, which I only recently abandoned after a visit to Orlando, where Miriam’s parents keep the fridge stocked with delicious full-sugar soda for me.  I need to not buy animal crackers and vanilla wafers.  I love them, but I don’t need them, and when I have them, I eat much more than I should.  I need to force myself to make it to the next scheduled meal, rather than just eating at the first sign of hunger.  I must accept that there is nothing wrong with feeling a little hungry.

That said, I am hungry right now.