Weight

because you're worth it
Originally uploaded by Esther_G.

I'm reading a book at the moment - not unusual for me I will admit. I rad a lot of books. Or rather I read three quarters of lots of books - either losing them or interest as the days pass and the pages turn. But the book that I'm reading at the moment is a 'look up and realize that you're still on the subway and somewhere in Queens' kind of a book.

It's by Daniel Gilbert (a refreshingly funny pyschologist) and is called "stumbling on happiness)

The font and fronnt quote immediately alerts you that this is a 'Freakonomics' style book - but I find it much more fascinating. Central to the argument at the moment is that we spend half of our time investing in the happiness of a future self who will look back in horror at all that we did (and all that we collected - 'where did this junk come from') and that happiness requires at least the illusion of control.

It's packed with great experiments and nice annecdotes and is quick to dispel advice such as 'live in the moment' as trite, impossible and the recipe for a living limbo that feels a lot like hell (you wanna live in the moment - have a lobotomy)

Anyway the control that I seek most often is over my weight. This is healthier than trying to exert control over somebody else's weight but not a whole family away from anorexia (I have a healthy perspective on my body - I know it's crap right now) but the choosing of a light dinner, my decision to quit drinking, not eat meat and spend at least 30 mins over lunch are all linked, all exercises in control and all investments in my future self.

I'll stop rambling now and have an ultra high fibre breakfast

PS - I LOVE THIS PICTURE, check out more of Esther's work over at flickr