When I was young my parents used to remind me that there were children starving in other countries whenever I didn’t want to finish the food on my plate. Let me tell you that my not eating every last morsel on my plate was a rare occurrence. In fact, often my sister and I would eat the leftovers after dinner so that we wouldn’t have to pull out a Tupperware bowl and put the food into it. Eating the food was somehow easier. I knew better than to test the logic, but always wondered how my eating the last piece of bread on my plate would benefit the starving kids in other countries. Why didn’t they just pack up all of the food that I didn’t feel like eating and send it off to those kids? Sometimes, things just don’t sit right in your head.
After today’s workout I went down to the cafeteria to pick up lunch. At the register were Belgium chocolates with a sign saying “Feed the Hungry”. Although I was hungry, I’m pretty sure that they were not talking about me. I sat there in line resisting the urge to buy the Raspberry filled Dark Chocolate bar. It’s hard not to feel ambushed from all directions. First the grocery store checkout counters and now at work. I took my lunch up to my desk to eat. An hour later, I was heading down the stairs again to “Feed the Hungry”. I know that it won’t help me, and don’t really know how it will help the hungry, but I’ll do my part.
I sat at my desk eating the chocolate bar and wondering if it was really worth all of the calories. It wasn’t as good as I had imagined, but I ate it all anyways. In doing so, I’ll remember my parents’ reminders and also un-did the benefits of my 45-minute spin on the bike.