There are many things, people, circumstances and events that make us feel “happy”. For me, not one of those is having my favorite satellite radio station convert to all Holiday music for months before the holidays. Hey, I am not Scrooge or anything and I do enjoy the holiday season and some of the music but I am not happy listening to Bing Crosby singing White Christmas a thousand times before Christmas. However, I did hear a holiday song from Kristin Chenoweth (see below) that provided an inspiration for this blog entry.
Ms. Chenoweth recorded a song called “Happiness Is…” and the song was actually similar to a Muppets song that was popular years ago describing happiness. This version focused on all of the “happiness” that revolves around the Christmas holidays. When listening to the song, pretty much every scenario described that equated to happiness was being around the special people in our lives that bring us much joy. Except for a cup of hot chocolate, the lyrics really did not include any “happiness” being derived from food.
Human nature is such that we all attempt to involve ourselves with situations/things that make us feel happy. When our favorite football team wins on Sunday we feel happy (unless we bet against them on Fandool). When we are invested in the stock market and the markets go up, we feel happy. When our children/grandchildren succeed in school, we feel happy. When we gather with our loved ones on holidays we feel happy.
Let’s turn to food and drinks that derail our weight control efforts: When we are around a bunch of other people at a fun event and pretty much everyone else is eating/drinking high-caloric food sources, we will be sort of “happy” joining them in these behaviors. How about when we are alone? The social aspect of eating and drinking lots is not present. Does it make us “happy” to hit the freezer or pantry for derailing snacks?
Make a list of the people, situations, occurrences and things in life that make you “happy”. I hope one of those items is your health. With good health, you are able to partake of the “happiness list” for much more time and in much better fashion than if you are suffering from health issues. Please try to NOT equate those derailing foods/drinks with “happiness”. In the aggregate, they will diminish your happiness on many levels.
Enjoy a song that will make you yearn for the simpler days when we did not know the word “Covid”.