Not Sustainable

By 8pm, I was searching for a way out. FAST. 

Last Saturday, I found myself bumper to bumper in a sea of people all vying for a view of the Rockefeller Tree and the Sax Fifth Avenue light and music show. 

There’s nothing like New York during the holidays and because it was a balmy 55 degrees, everyone and their mother, brother and sister were out trying to absorb some of the city’s magic. 

Thankfully, our stroller was a small buffer between us and the next person, otherwise it was body to body weaving through a narrow passageway bordered by metal barricades until you got your chance to take your picture and move on. Normally, I would balk at such a massive crowd, but It was warm and the three kids with me and my mom were willing to slog it out to experience some special holiday cheer. 

After a while, though, we were all done and needed to. Get. Out. We could only withstand that scene for so long before needing to find a less crowded street so our stroller wouldn’t constantly be clipping the person’s heels in front of us and we weren’t getting bounced around like pin balls. 

This got me thinking that some things just aren’t sustainable. Playing people frogger on a Saturday night in New York City during the holidays? Not Sustainable. But for one night, I’m all in thanks to the Pedicab’s blaring Mariah Carey which kept us dancing along the way. 

Diet Culture tries to sell us on doing things that aren’t sustainable, too. The diet gurus argue that you have to fast for some blood tests or medical procedures so why not do this every day, all the time? The simple answer is because your body isn’t meant to fast daily. It isn’t meant to skimp by on too little calories. It isn’t meant to be restricted, punished or overridden. Eating less than what your body needs, isn’t sustainable. Period. Just because you’re willing to do something once in order to get what you need/want doesn’t mean that you should do it all the time. 

Diets aren’t sustainable in the same way pushing a stroller through 5th Avenue on a Saturday in December isn’t sustainable.

This holiday season, I encourage you to get off the busy banter on the diet highways. Find a side street to be able to listen to your body and breathe. 

You might just be able to notice and appreciate the magic of the season a little bit more.