At the beginning of the year, when normal people begin making their yearly attempts to stick to a resolution to eat healthy and exercise, many geeks by contrast are enticed by the notion of unhealthy food and couch potato diets. I’ve noticed that the geek-folk who don’t eat too healthy or exercise have a variety of reasons for being susceptible to this – some cite the futility and disillusionment of sticking to New Year’s resolutions soon-to-be-broken, others talk about being the (mostly) innocent victims of targeted marketing, and yet others simply like the taste of bacon slapped on multiple patties and lathered with mayo and special sauce.
For someone like me, though, the bombardment of junk food in the form of White Castle, Triple Baconators, and Buffalo Wings is actually a catalyst for me to eat a bit better. Why is this? Well, part of it is understanding the very idea that geekery in general is predisposed towards sit-still, take-little-physical-action tasks, whether that is the very strenuous clicking of your index finger on a mouse for hours or the equally grueling act of leaning back in a recliner with a controller in your hands. When I think of the marketed unhealthy cholesterol making me further unable to move very well while doing either of these things, it gives me pause.
Another reason anything that has greater than a quarter pound of patty drives me towards the salad bar early in the year is the simple variety of food I have at my disposal besides a sack of 30 from White Castle. Alternate foodstuff like a nice baked chicken and potatoes, a chicken tortilla soup with a caesar side salad, and a panini on rye bread is different – it’s not the usual palate of deep fried, pre-cooked short term thrills. I like a little variety in my diet, and even though I’m not a total calorie counter, the difference of having something that doesn’t take 30 seconds to cook and serve makes meal time a little bit less blah.
More than likely, however, the reverse psychology I experience over the marketing of fast food items early in the year is the result of seeing consequences. If any of you have ever seen the documentary Super Size Me, then you know what I am talking about when I refer to consequences. When you’ve seen what a literal diet of McDonald’s can do to you over the course of weeks, it sort of puts you off from the Homer Simpson-like drooling that takes place over the latest bacon-inspired concoction. It’s partly because of this that I see the ads for junk food items as not a bad, seductive temptation, but a positive reinforcement of the possibilities of my cuisine. Don’t get me wrong – I love me a good Angus burger and fries, and I do occasionally worship the great Bacon deity – but it’s by no means a standard that a relatively immobile geek like me can live by.
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