Friday, September 02, 2011

Eat less + Shop less = Sustained Happiness

Or so I think cause I have yet to find it.

When I say eat less, I don’t mean to restrict my calorie intake to 1500 calories a day or to vow to never indulge in desert again, all I mean is that I should stop eating when the walls of my stomach start to stretch on the same lines as they did four years ago when there was a 8 pound baby inside my body. Or perhaps I should not force a bowl of ice cream to find its own way inside my tummy after each square inch has already been occupied by the delicious multi course dinner. Or I should suggest myself using restraint while ordering a whole milk Grande latte right after a big meal just so that I can keep myself awake for the drive home.

There’s absolutely no problem in doing that cause my body or for that matter any human body is perfectly capable of dealing with abuse we entrench them with except that every trip to the closet to find something suitable to wear turns into a tear jerking epic. All the lip smacking, drool generating, sensory indulgent, high calorie meal journeys result in the slight bulge at the mid section and of course those slight bulges over time have a tendency to transform into a little extra which is addressed by several names: love handle, a tire or muffin top …etc (take your pick), which don’t like to be contained inside a belt with buttons or zippers and rebelliously stand out even in the perfect black dress that used to fit just fine.

My most favorite dress out of the ones that still fit me now joins the club with the rest of ‘when I am – pounds lighter’. I left the # of pounds blank because there are several categories of piles. For when I am 5 pounds less, I’ll wear this and when I am 10 pounds, I wear that and then if I ever manage to get back to where I was 2 years ago, I will wear all those. Yup, you got the picture; I can pretty much create a parallel closet full of these so called incentive clothes and these don’t include the ones that I have yet to buy and are neatly tucked away in a picture form in an inspiration folder.

It is so frustrating to look at a fashion magazine and find out all the latest trends that would look good on you if only you were one size smaller.

Never mind, so I switched my magazine subscription to home design, thank goodness my home doesn’t shrink and expand every holiday season and I can create the perfect décor that will fit all the time.

Really all the time, or till the next issue is delivered to my mail box; because the moment I lay my eyes on the new issue, my most updated décor from last month with not be hip anymore and I shouldn’t even bother opening that paint cans for the new powder room décor as it was based on the issue two months ago. I feel so outdated already.

You know what I am not even going to worry about these trends in home and fashion, I learnt that they are just hypes created to make people buy more stuff and keep the economy afloat, there is no point following any trends and making any fashion statements. I forbid them from my life and find rescue in the yoga magazine, this times it’s not a subscription, I was prudent I got it from the library because that’s what yoga is all about, focusing inwards and finding a balance within, physically and mentally. As I flipped through the first 10 or so pages of the yoga magazine, I realized that this magazine could teach the wandering Indian yogis a thing or two about the yoga life style. They would know based on their personality type, which yoga mat to buy and which yoga shorts would not ride up their thighs when they are doing an intensive ‘surya namskaar’ routine. Or what organic jewelry they can wear as they struggle to balance their bodies on their heads. To be fair, their articles are fine; it’s only their advertising that bothers me.

And that brings me to my inference from the journey with the media and the inspiration that comes and goes with it. I haven’t actively followed any news article in a long time and yes it has put me in many awkward situations in small conversations for not knowing exactly the number of people died in a certain natural calamity or something like that. I’ll write more about my reasons to not follow news but for now I’d say I don’t want to lose sleep over issues I have no control over, I’d rather do something to help than to follow news update.

And now I put most magazines into the same category, very few articles are unbiased and share a design philosophy, most follow trends and what this or that famous designer did. I’d rather meet the artists, talk to the designers, read design books than to blindly follow trends. I’d make my own mistakes and find my own balance and in turn the happiness rather than copy a perfect room (or dress) from someone else’s life into my own home.

So I guess if I do follow my own instinct rather than an inspiration from trendy magazine I’ll be calmer and happier in the long run…

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