True Confessions: Why I Ate in Front of The TV…Again

Usually, I write articles about how to move more, eat healthier and live a better life. But not tonight. Tonight’s feature delves into my deepest darkest secret. Oh, yes, I bet you can’t wait to read about it, right? Or do I flatter myself? Anyway, here goes…Tonight, last night and the night before that, I, I, I…(sorry, I’m starting to hyperventilate as well as stammer), um, ate dinner in front of the TV. Yes, I know, you can’t believe I would do such a thing. You know as well as I do that eating while reading or watching television while eating trains the brain to crave food whenever the black box remote is clicked on. Talk about diet nightmare. I know what you must be thinking… Susan, what’s happened to you?

Okay, here’s the deal. I have a severe case of Olympic fever. Olympic Swimming Trials started Sunday in Omaha, Nebraska. Swimming is my favorite sport. I’ve been swimming most of my life. I started swimming when I fell in the pool at age two in a diaper and my mom hauled me out and decided I’d better take swimming lessons. Once my excessive energy became a major annoyance to my parents, I found myself on the swim team. I loved it. My time in the pool was the best part of the day. Even now many decades later, it still is. Because of my deep love of the water and the sport of swimming, when Trials or the Olympics are in session, I transform into an obsessive freak. Yes, that’s right. I don’t care if I’m late to work. I don’t care if your email doesn’t get answered until next week. I don’t care if dinner isn’t fixed on time (my husband doesn’t necessarily share this sentiment). And if it’s dinner time and a swimming race is happening, I park myself in front of the TV and empty my plate. And maybe eat a snack in front of the tellie a little later. What’s a couple of pounds weight gain in the greater scheme of things when so much is happening in the swimming world that I don’t want to miss out on. I have to know who’s swimming in the semifinals or the finals tonight and who the top contenders are in each race. Why did Michael Phelps scratch the 200 free? Does that mean he’s not in shape enough to go to Rio? Why did Elizabeth Beisel scratch the 200 IM? Is she sick? Oh, crud, Ryan Lochte didn’t make the Olympic team in the 400 IM. Is his groin tear going to interfere with him qualifying in the 200 free? Wow, Phelps was awesome in the 200 fly prelims. Maybe he still has the stuff. And his little boy is so cute!!

Yes, you just experienced my brain during Olympic Trials. Hyperactive, distracted and overrun with swimming gobbledygook. Keeping all the facts straight can be quite difficult. Rowdy and Dan rattle off facts about swimmers faster than the competitors can get their hands on the wall. And at the end of the night I’m doing a review in my head. Who got the perfect Math SAT score, who swam at Stanford, who was going to represent the Philippines in the Olympics and then couldn’t at the last minute? But I’m getting off topic yet again. More than likely you don’t care about any of this swimmer trivia and would rather be reading an article written by a thoughtful, composed, intelligent writer instead of someone suffering from Olympic fever. Please don’t despair. This coming weekend the Trials will end and I will go back to eating dinner at the kitchen table with the TV safely off. Who knows, my husband and I might even talk about subjects outside the realm of competitive swimming.