Monkey See, Monkey Do

So it's been about a week or so, and how have I faired with my monkey traps?

So-so.

But more importantly, dieting has been hard, not because I crave enormous amounts of junk food, but because it requires that I have a holistic approach to eating. Eating in the United States has cultural significance in that it typically brings the family togehter. As my schedule has progressively become hectic, it becomes harder and harder to maintain a cooking regimen that will in, in turn, provide me with tasty left-overs for lunch. So I have to find substitutions, usually in the form of not-nearly-as-good-for-me-but-not-entirely-made-of-sugar snack foods that I keep onsite for contingencies.

So the short of it is, consistency in behavior yields expected results. Who'd a thunk? But there's also external factors in play. People are not the sum of their own decisions, they are also subtly influenced by outside behaviors, even if those behaviors are lacking in value, character, or are often passed on as entertainment.

I bring this up because I just recently heard the news that our failing banks are much more inclined to foreclose on homes with questionable mortgages, rather than negotiate with the homeowners. This brings the following three points:

• it's more profitable to foreclose, because;
• the loss doesn't have to be booked immediately, rather, it can wait up to a year and;
• selling at auction results in large lumps of money and making it someone else's problem.
• Someone else's problem usually means the original owner takes the hit, and;
• the new buyer now has the hassle of dealing with the property

But maybe I'm looking at this the wrong way.

Maybe these homeowners are in their own monkey traps, and we're watching the trap spring into action, just played back in slow motion. Maybe the got into the house, knowing full well that the sweet lure of ever-increasing home values is a lucrative thing, that they themselves would "make it someone else's problem" after flipping the house, and that foreclosure can't possibly happen to them...or maybe they just tried to grasp what they thought was the brass ring, the way to the good life, simply because the lure was too good.

Either way, if these are monkey traps, it then begs the question, "who set the bait?" Certainly not the soon-to-be former homeowners.

I feel for these people. I really do. Being without a home is devistating.

Upward Spiral

Do you ever notice that people talk about recurring bad habits as a "downward spiral"? A situation where there are self-reinforcing behaviors that form a vicious cycle?

What if there was an "upward spiral"?

I'm beginning to think that making a happier life consists of someone solving a "monkey trap". Monkey traps are simple; a coconut or gourd is hollowed out, and a treat that the monkey likes is placed inside. The monkey, smelling and eventually seeing the treat, attempts to place their hand in the gourd to retrieve it, only to find that their hand can't come out because the fist won't fit through the hole. The coconut/gourd is also tied to a stout object, like a tree - which means, they're effectively trapped. The indigenous population uses this trick so that they can just walk up to the monkey and capture it.

If only the monkey would let go. Instead, being greedy, it's trapped in its own vicious cycle, and simply howls with fear as it can't overcome the urge to just let it go and escape.

It seems to me that bad habits are really just self-reinforcing behaviors that we don't want to give up. And if we do give them up, we suddenly find ourselves free, and that the effort required was nowhere near what we thought it was.

So I'm going to try something different. I'm dieting right now for a variety of reasons, although I'm trying this as a holistic approach to my health - eating foods not just to maintain a better body weight, but to also get proper nutrition in the right amounts. For the last few months, I've tried to swear off of soda, with limited success, although I usually have gone without for long periods of time. The secret to the success of this method is to understand the Monkey Trap, and realize that every time I think I need a soda, it's just another Monkey Trap waiting for me. I now drink coffee (yes, I know all about the "evils" of coffee, but we'll cover that later) and it has been a good substitute in moderation. Since then, I've actually decreased the amount of coffee I drink and now only have it when I think I really need a caffeine boost.

So understanding the Monkey Trap has helped me along with soda, and I think it's now time to take it up a notch. Now it's time to give up "eating out" for lunch, which usually consists of the cheapest, nastiest food (it's cheap because it is nasty) and rather than spend a few bucks each day on that, I'm packing leftovers. This will have several benefits, the least of which is to increase the nutritional quality of what I'm eating while simultaneously.

Will I escape the Monkey Trap? I think we'll find out in a few weeks. Stay tuned.