MY Facebook memories now have “On this day 15 years ago.” This means I wasted 15 years of my life scrolling down my newsfeed.
How many games have I tried, no thanks to FB’s ads? Pet Society, FarmVille, Candy Crush, Oil Painting Color by Numbers, 4 Pics 1 Word, Royal Match, Sims, Wordscapes, and so on and so forth. Whew.
Most recently there’s Travel Town which I’ve been playing for several weeks now, even wasting money to buy more energy so I could continue playing forevermore.
But I can’t blame FB. No one is forcing me to stay there. Nor is anyone paying me to be there. I could deactivate or even delete my account anytime. Same goes for Travel Town.
At least I still have time to read. Walter Mischel’s “The Marshmallow Test” and Francis E. Umesiri’s “Fasting for Life” are among the latest in that department.
“The Marshmallow Test” is about self-control: how long can a child refrain from eating the marshmallow that he has been ordered not to eat.
“Fasting for Life” is also about self-control: how long can anyone refrain from eating anything.
But upon realizing that “Fasting” is not a low-carb book, I stopped reading it.
Those two were not bought at Big Bad Wolf Books, by the way. Therefore, I was allowed to remove their plastic covers and read some of their main texts before buying them. Despite the browsing, I still missed the part that hinted “Fasting” is not a low-carb book. Tsk tsk.
The low-carb diet makes intermittent fasting easier, and this is best described by A-ha’s “I’ll always be hunting high and low/Hungry for you.” For sugar, that is. It’s the glucose level’s highs and lows that cause sugar addiction.
No sugar intake means no cravings for more.
No book collection, no cravings to buy more items for that collection.
No FB account, no cravings to check it out every now and then.
Which reminds me of the Beatles’ “Now and Then” as featured in the movie “Argylle”: “Now and then/I miss you/Oh, now and then/I want you to be there for me/Always to return to me.” Heartily dedicated to sugar. Haha.
Which may now morph into Maroon 5’s “Sugar”: “Your sugar/Yes, please/Won’t you come and put it down on me?” Huh?
Sugar must be the root of all diseases. But that will never stop people from eating carbs.
To avoid feeling deprived, I still indulge in vanilla latte, Spanish latte, and cheesecake. But there’s a need to redefine deprivation: deprived of sugar or deprived of diseases. Esep-esep pud ‘pag may time.
When I was in my 20s, had I been told that I’d be avoiding carbs and eating only one meal a day in the future, my response would have been, Whose crazy idea is that? But that’s exactly what I’m doing now. Except for the “occasional” coffee and cheesecake.
If only I can do the same for mobile games, so that after swearing them off, I won’t give Travel Town a second look.
And also for FB. I’ve already lost count of the number of times I promised to check it out only when I’m posting my column there.
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