This entry was inspired by an event that occurred at my household this past Saturday evening. Our doorbell rang at 930 PM, a very rare event indeed. By the time I was able to get to the door and open it, no one was there. However, right outside the door were three bags containing McDonalds burgers, fries, chicken nuggets and a fish filet sandwich. There was a “Door Dash” receipt on this with no name/address. Hmmm…was someone playing a joke on the “weight loss doctor”? Well, quickly surmising that I doubt that anyone would do this as a prank, I thought of my neighbors that had children still at home, I called the closest one and sure enough, the packages were meant for his home.
I did not realize that the food delivery services such as Door Dash and Uber Eats now deliver fast food much in the way they deliver restaurant food. I remember when drive throughs became popular at fast food places. I laughed at this, thinking about how easy it was for people to grab high caloric meals/snacks and not even have to walk out of their cars to obtain these foods. Now? You do not need to get out of your home, no less your car to satisfy a Big Mac attack. Welcome to the world of technology.
Let’s expand this concept to technology and the “Laziness Factor” (“LF”). Lots easier to place your kid in front of an Ipad then to go outside and play, right? So easy to order a pizza by texting Pizza Hut emojis of what you want on your pizza, correct? Don’t want to shop/prepare food? Just go online and order for delivery from the supermarket the “easy” stuff that you can pop in a microwave.
Sorry for the old guy, crotchety entry akin to the “think you have it tough? I used to walk to school 3 miles in the freezing temperatures and snow” laments of our parents/grandparents. However, our ever-increasing obesity rates seem to be in parallel with our ever-increasing use of technology. We are now at the point where we do not even need to expend one calorie going out for our derailing foods…one stroke on our IPhone or IPad will enable Door Dash to bring us thousands of calories.
Please take a step back and assess your use of technology and see if it is contributing to the LF that may or may not be a part of your life. If you honestly self-evaluate and do see that some/lots of LF is a part of your poor weight control, then take the steps needed to eliminate this. Technology is great in many ways. However, it is often used to the detriment of our pursuit of health and happiness.