When you Eat, Move as Little as Possible

My first job out of college was selling mail opening and extracting machines.  Since it was not an item that the average person wanted I had a rather large territory, Delaware to North Carolina to cover, selling to major companies and banks.  This all meant I spent a lot of time in my car.  I think I knew every exit of I-95 and where all the pay phones were to give you a time period reference.

Spending so much time trying to get between one customer is Washington DC and another in Wilmington Delaware on the same day meant that I ended up eating a lot of meals in my car.  You really can’t call eating something from a drive through while going 65 miles per hour between two big trucks a meal.

Years later when I was a consultant for BT in the UK I was often on the train traveling from London to Bristol, or Manchester, Doncaster or Warrenton or any of the other lovely British cities I frequented, eating my breakfast in the restaurant car, which was still a car.  Although I was not doing the driving, I was usually working while I ate, especially if I was traveling alone.

All that mindless eating in cars was no way to be healthy.  First the food available to drivers should be limited to football playing fourteen-year-old boys who just can’t seem to consume enough calories no matter what.  The rest of us, and that really is most of the world, should just skip anything that is available to be passed out of a window.

The second thing is driving an actual car should take most of the brainpower we have.  Not that driving itself is so difficult, but watching for out for idiot drivers is a full time job.  If you are trying to dip some fries into a small container of ketchup while going 35 miles per hour in a 25 you quickly become one of those idiots you are supposed to be on the look out for.

The third thing about eating in your car is you are sure to spill something on yourself.  I know that the invention of straws has helped keep liquids in your cup or in your mouth, but I personally don’t drink hot drinks with straws, something about scalding the roof of my mouth I shy away from.  The telltale sign that someone was eating in their car is they have a stain on the upper thigh of their pants.  Women who have a stain on their breast area might not have spilled in the car, but it is a possibility.

Add all these things to the fact that eating as your secondary activity does not seem to register in your brain and thus your hunger department never gets the memo you have eaten, I made a rule for myself that I will not eat in the car.  I made this “rule” about nine years ago and for the most part have tried to follow it.  Granted I no longer have a traveling job and don’t commute anywhere, but I do feel like I became more conscious of my food when it really became a meal.

Now if I could just give up watching TV while I eat.  My worry is that if I stop in the middle of a show I really love I will just eat more quickly so I can find out who is not getting a rose.  None-the-less, I think sitting still is the best way to eat.