Both Laziness and Busyness Make You Fat?

Well, it's a combination of laziness, busyness and technology. In your laziness you relegate all chores to technology in the guise of busyness. Instead of manually washing your clothes, for instance, you buy a washing machine and dump all your clothes there because you say you're too busy. But really, you're just lazy to do it manually so you bought the machine. And it's the most practical thing to do. I mean, the technology is there so why not use it? But this is exactly why people get fat.

Get it?

When I was in high school and college, not only did I do manual laundry (although washing machines were already in), I also used an old-fashioned, manual water pump for it. Since we had the water pump in the backyard, my dad said using it instead of turning on the faucet would save us lots of money on our water bill. Practical, too. So I did that for years. No wonder I didn't get fat even if I ate a lot. So I sometimes wonder what's really more practical--use technology and gain weight (and get sick later) or do it the old-school way?



Metabolism

Metabolism? Well, it helped some, but I also got easily overweight when I ate too much, especially when I was past the age 30. There was a time when I gained weight so that my face doubled in size (no, I think it tripled) and I weighed about 180 pounds. It was the time when I did nothing but man our small retail store where I ate most of the food items being sold--particularly the melon milk and Chocomalt.

Here's another example. You use the elevator or escalator even if you're just going up one level. You justify it by saying you're in a hurry and too busy (that's why you're in a hurry). Or, have you noticed how public jeep or tricycle passengers wanted to be dropped off exactly at the spot where they wanted to be dropped off? They protest when dropped off even inches away from it. Unbelievable. People don't want to walk even short distances, and often they blame it to their busyness or age. But actually, they're just plain lazy. Even your metabolism can't help with that mindset.

Weight Gain Culprit

I tell you, it's both laziness and a pretended busyness, with the help of technology, that have made a lot of people today obese. They too busy that they do not have time to do things manually anymore, or so they claim. But the fact is, they have become too lazy and available technology have helped them become so. You see the TV remote control? It has made more people worldwide overweight than ice cream and burgers. How do I know? I just know. I know a lot of things.

Our reliance on technology have made us lovers of dormancy, admit it or not. We hate moving around too much. We just want to stay where we are. That's what desktop PC, smartphones, washing machines and remote control have made of us. And that reduced mobilization has made us burn less calories as a lifestyle and made most of us lazy and fat.

Yet in fairness, that fat laziness makes us do a lot more with few efforts, especially today when autopilot online operation has become a fad. Or how we sell and market products online, how we talk to people "face to face" without leaving home or we create and publish books without using paper, dealing with printing companies and publishers. Just amazing. Imagine the huge shortcuts. And yet we still claim we're too busy. That's the irony of it. Technology that simplifies things ought to make us less busy. right. But it doesn't.

Why?

Because it tempts us to do more. More and more. We see how we can do a lot more in just so short a time, so we do more to produce more instead of use the free time to relax and do what matters more in life, like keeping healthy and fit--or better, giving more quality time to God and family. It's why God gave us the gift of technology--to spare us more time for him. But that seldom happens because we tend to abuse things and use them for the wrong reasons. It's the Fall, what happened in Eden centuries back.

Because of that Fall we even prefer help from what our hands have made instead of what God has provided us--our two feet and legs. So we opt for riding a vehicle even for ultra short distances instead of walking. Here in our village, I often see people riding their cars just going down to the grocery store a few street corners away. Why couldn't they just walk? I often jog leisurely to it. Again they say, they have no time to walk so they ride their cars.

My dad used to tell me how people walked long distances--5 kilometers or more--daily and treated that normal. They would walk from town to town regularly without effort so that obese people were a seldom sight in those days. Only few people had cars then (or carabaos or horses) so the rest either walked long distances or commuted. And because traffic wasn't what it is today, they weren't stressed out. Stress can make you fat. Ever wondered why you get tired of commuting daily and yet burn no calories and stay fat? It's overstress.

Overstress can either make you lose weight in an unhealthy way or make you gain it, also in an unhealthy way--aside from gain bad character traits and lose good ones. And the strange thing is, overstress has been on the rise as technology developed and introduced more means of doing things simpler and faster. That's what God wants for us. I mean, technology is a gift from him but we abuse it. Fallen man (often even born-again) can never handle anything right. We tend to abuse and misuse.

Thus, I make it a point not to depend on technology too much. If it's just a matter of a few hundred meters or a longer procedure, I'd often walk to it or do it manually. If it's just a floor or two up, I'd often use the stairs. If it's just a few clothes, I'd rather wash them manually--which I often opt for. Why do I do this? Because it produces patience. And patience or perseverance, says James the apostle, makes us complete (or perfect in other translations), lacking nothing.

And patience (especially doing things the longer way, or doing it manually) can make you lose weight. No kidding. I use technology just enough to make more time for God and family, but not too much as to tempt me to do and produce more mundane works. And if you need to often change channels on your TV, get up and do it yourself. Keep the remote in a closet somewhere far away.

You think it's just fatty food that makes you fat? No, it's technology, too.