Tuesday, March 21, 2006

This Modern Life

There's this commercial for some kind of fiber supplement that captures my predicament precisely. In it, a woman wakes up to her alarm and starts eating a carrot, then we see her gnawing on broccoli while driving the kids to school and eating a bran muffin while working out. The tagline of the commercial is something like, "if you get all of your daily fiber from what you eat, how do you have time for anything else."
And isn't this the modern dilemma? At least I feel overwhelmed by it sometimes, the number of things we're "supposed" (and many that we want) to do-- eat enough fiber, get enough iron, eat plenty of vegetables, exercise, give money to charity, work late, spend time with friends, see family.... the list goes on and on and it seems practically impossible to do all of it. Like the fiber example-- a typical orange, considered a pretty high fiber food, has 3g of fiber. And we're shooting for at least 25 a day! Which means just staying on top of your FIBER intake could be a freaking full time job. Meanwhile, there are restaurants we have to try while we're supposed to cook at home. Take advantage of every opportunity WHILE building good credit? Gym memberships that eat into the disposable income we could we using to feed the homeless.... ergh! Does anyone else get frustrated by this or am I just abnormally guilt-ridden?

2 comments:

kristina said...

or we could just make up our own nutritional values. i say 1 shot of vodka has 4 grams of fiber. pour in some OJ and you're well on your way. cheers!

Lauren said...

Wait, doesn't the fiber commercial offer an easy solution like a vitamin that gives you all your fiber needs in one dose? Isn't that what all these commercials try to do - simplify our problems with quick fixes? So instead of spending your days peeling oranges, you will have time to go to the gym AND feed the homeless, right?

Also, I have found that working for a nonprofit has enabled me to allocate paid work hours to doing good so that I am not constantly feeling so guilt-ridden after hours...