Of Poisonings

Been a minute since I wrote and I have missed this so much, it’s just been so busy which should be no excuse LOL! Back to the topic at hand, couple of months ago, I was chatting with a guy who said they have never eaten fast food in their life. Not because they had no access to it but because it has never been appealing to them. Did your jaw drop? Mine did. Who has never had fried chicken with fries from a fast food place near them? Who has never grabbed a shawarma or burger because after a long day at work because it just seemed like the fastest way to get something in your stomach before bed? I was truly shocked but it made me genuinely curious as to why and he asked me a simple question that I found truly profound; “Why would I deliberately poison my body by putting something in it that does me zero good?”

Now I love me some fried chicken and fries is my Achilles heel! LOL! Even with my workout regiment, fries is that temptation that never goes away! But that question really made me pause, indeed, why? We ended up in almost a two hour discussion on this topic because I had to defend my love for occasional fried chicken, wings and fries not to mention pizza! It was a fun discussion but it’s been on my mind since then.

Why do we continuously choose to poison our bodies in the name of (most of the time), fun and convenience? Habits like unhealthy eating habits, drug and alcohol use, smoking, having unprotected sex, a sedentary lifestyle are just a few of the ways we constantly poison our physical bodies, willingly. Because at the end of the day, the effects of all these things are well documented and the list is too long to list here. Yet, does it make us stop binge drinking every weekend? Nope. Does it make us quit smoking? Nope. Does it make us want to walk a little more? Nope. Stop binge eating? Nope. Yet in a decade or so, when our bodies begin to fall apart, we are surprised. Surprised that our livers and kidneys don’t work so well, surprised that our coughs sound like our lungs are jumping from our chests, surprised at our runaway weight and dull skin. Now before you roll your eyes at me for preaching, remember every time you do whatever it is that is your vice, in whatever name you do it under, you are still making a choice. A. Deliberate. Choice.

My mother used to say, in Swahili, “mwili hauna gereji” literally translating to “the body has no garage.” Unlike a car, the body has no garage and no spare parts, it’s important to take care of the body we have. Yet many of us live like we have 9 lives like a cat and a body with multiple replaceable spare parts. And get shocked when we realize, albeit almost always too late, that we do not. As a result we spend years after 40 trying to fix health issues we have entertained for the 2 decades before that hoping for some sort of magical backtracking of time

And so, back to the original question “Why?”

Is it because we are willing to pay the price, WHATEVER it may be, for our vices?

Or is it that we do not care about the consequences of our choices? After all, it is what it is?

Or is it that we think that stuff happens to others, it can’t happen to me?

Or is it if we do not do these things we will be ‘missing out’ on something?

Or maybe it’s we don’t really want a long life anyway?

Maybe a bit of all the above?

I’m definitely working on my why………..but I know this much, I want better for myself and now that I know better, I will do better (in the words of the amazing Maya Angelou). PS, better is often difficult, inconveniencing and misunderstood by others but ummmm…… who lives in your body?

How about you? Do you want to examine why you poison your body? And what, if anything, you want to do about it?