3 experiences/reflections

Recently I had 3 separate experiences with friends at work that made me reflect on my eating habits/weight gain.

The first was a long car ride (4-5 hours each way) with "Zed" to a workshop for work. I didn't realize the ride would be so long and didn't eat anything that morning as I thought I'd have time to eat something before we left. Unfortunately, we pretty much had to go at 9am. Of course within an hour on the road I'm ravenous. I'll spare the undignified details but eventually I'm snacking on a bag of trail mix that Zed prepared for himself for the long car ride. As I'm munching on some of the cashews, Zed starts talking about a marshmallow experiment done with 5 year-olds. He said that each child was given a marshmallow and told that they could eat that marshmallow or if they waited 15 minutes without eating it, they would get another marshmallow and end up with 2 marshmallows. The adult would then leave the room and return in 15 minutes and would either dole out another marshmallow or see a kid with no marshmallow. They followed up with these kids 20 years later and it turns out that majority of those kids of those kids who waited for the second marshmallow were college-educated, in well-paying jobs, etc. while the marshmallow eaters tended towards lower-paying jobs.

"So...I guess I'm a marshmallow eater?"

"Oh no, I wasn't saying anything about you. Just that it was an interesting experiment on putting off instant gratification for a bigger reward."

hmmpf.

On the way back while grabbing dinner in Bakersfield on the way back, he pondered aloud, "What are you going to do with the leftovers?"

"Leftovers?" What was he talking about? "I don't understand."

"Well, we still have a couple hours to go. Would the food survive the ride in the car for that long?"

Then I realized that he fully expected me to have leftovers because my portion was seemingly too huge for one person to eat in one sitting. For better or worse, my inner marshmallow eater was totally shamed into asking for the rest to be boxed up. "I'm sure it'll be fine for the car ride," I sighed.

Reflection on experience #1: I'm a marshmallow eater. Perhaps I should pause and reflect before instantly gratifying my desire to eat.

Experience #2--I was eating with some friends at a catered lunch of Chinese food at work. "En" was apparently known to be a slow eater. He corrected, "I savor and enjoy my food". As this was my first time eating with him, I couldn't help but watch him eat. As I shoveled spoonfuls of food in my face, I watched as En would scoop about 6 grains on the tines of his fork and chew it. Then he'd slice a green bean into 2 pieces and eat one of them. I was incredulous. I stared with the same jealous regard of an adult watching a baby's pure and simple enjoyment of being totally engrossed with a set of car keys.

Reflection on experience #2: Perhaps I could savor my food more.

Experience #3--"Shue" remarked that he saw my post about eating through my birthday and snorted, "no wonder you're struggling to run a mile." Oh snap. It was like asking him "does this shirt made me look fat?" and he replying, "oh no, your three chins make you look fat." hmmph.

Reflection on experience #3: My food intake is exceeding what I burn with any sort of exercise. And it is apparently very, very obvious.