Moderation

Gluttony is one of the seven deadly sins. Ask 100 people what gluttony means, and likely most of them will talk about food, and it's over consumption and indulgence. Eat, overeat, become consumed with food, often unhealthy and addictive. Use food to make you feel better, temporarily, to satisfy a need, a craving, or to help deal with sadness or stress.

For me, there's a couple of other aspects I think about. Surely, one is food and nutrition. And the other is what I like to call 'stuff'.

Regarding food, I think we all have our gluttonous moments. We all have our favorite foods, things that bring us back to our childhood, things that make us happy, things that satisfy us like no other. I understand that, I really do. I used to polish off a large pepperoni pizza when I was in my 20s, just to get over a loss or failure. I didn't care how many calories, how bad it was for my body, or anything long term. I just cared about smashing that pizza, and drowning my sorrows into it. And hey, it worked for me, so I continued to do so for many years. It wasn't until much later, when the pounds started to accumulate, that I thought I'd find a better alternative.

Even today, even as a Vegan, I still have my moments. I'll fill up my plate with a grip of salad, fresh veggies, and a couple of pieces of fruit. Eat til I can't eat any more, then just sit back and try to catch my breath. The difference is that I'm full very quickly, because of all of the fiber and nutrition. Now, I'll be honest, I do the same thing with pasta, cooked veggies, breads, grains, etc. and I probably can get 4x the calories and not feel as full, but the gluttony is definitely still there. I have a voracious appetite after working out, so sometimes, I just need to get my calories, and I'm not as conscious as I should be. But unlike days past, my body recovers very well from eating a Vegan meal, much faster and cleaner than before. I'm not diverting energy to digesting meats and dairy products, like I used to.

Okay, so enough with food. What about 'stuff?' What is 'stuff?' Stuff is what we collect, what we buy, what we surround ourselves with. Could be computers, tv, clothes, cars, toys...whatever we're into. And we accumulate 'stuff' about as voraciously we do a pepperoni pizza. We shop like mad, we shop online, we buy new stuff every day, search for new stuff, tell our friends about new stuff, spend time researching new stuff, throw away our perfectly good old stuff, and replace it with new stuff. Man, talk about gluttony. I have so many clothes that I literally go through my closet once every six months and chop it in half, and send my old stuff to charity or otherwise. I don't even miss anything I donate. And yet, in six months, more stuff. I'm a gadget and technology enthusiast like a lot of people, and I'll tell you, I have generations of stuff lying everywhere. Probably half of my garage is filled with remnants of Black Friday's past, perfectly fine, but not as up-to-date as I need. I think we're all guilty, in some way, of being gluttonous with our things, our personal belongings. We spend so much time and money on needless things, instead of savoring and being happy with what we have.

Ah, moderation. I love that word. It's a virtue, isn't it? Be moderate in what you eat and what you have. Be mindful about being as efficient as possible, and not wasting anything. Take an inventory of what you eat, and what you have, and your habits dealing with both. See if you can make improvements, optimize, and clean up. See if you can use those resources on other, more productive endeavors. Hopefully, you'll find benefit in more meaningful ways, and be healthier and happier in the process.