WORDS: Maria Berrios-Carter
Why have we become so obsessed with the liberation of food? As far as I know there’s only one movement for food and it doesn’t need our PR. Yet we’re on this continual hunt for nutritional nirvana. Like a golden carrot dangling above us, we walk down shopping aisles in search of fat-free, gluten-free, wheat-free, sugar-free, dairy-free, sodium-free, guilt-free redemption … for what? So we can enter the kingdom of glowing, good, health in the hope of avoiding making eye contact with death?
It’s like our collective common sense left for a picnic, with a great bottle of Pinotage, drank the whole lot and decided to sleep it off under the tree of knowledge.
If common sense were with us it would tell us to listen to our gut and ask ourselves why we are so consumed by what we eat. Don’t get me wrong, eating well, and listening to what our bodies need is important to our general wellbeing but like anything in life, balance keeps us from falling into the rabbit hole of obsession. So here is what I propose. Let’s start making more fat time. Or ®bantime, to copy a phrase.
Finally, XXXL is the new S.
So what exactly is fat time?
Time is simply the framework in which we house our life experiences in.
Think of time as a piece of toast. It’s what you put on the toast that determines its ultimate flavour and experience for you. A plain slice of toast will not really stand out. But crispy hot toast with melting butter, homemade strawberry jam, and fresh cream, might take up more space in your memory tray.
Learn to love the baby fat
We start laying down fat time from the day we are born and with every new experience life brings our way. Our first love; learning to ride a bike, performing on stage, our first pet, first heartbreak or last day at school. These firsts are dripping in fat, making them easy to recall because of their rich sensory layers.
And if you are ever in doubt about how to make fat time, go to your nearest park and observe children. The one under the pine tree, lying flat on his back, starring up at the clouds making shooting sounds. The one knee-deep in the river, trying to catch tadpoles with a broken net and the one sitting on the jungle gym, eating a double scoop of chocolate ice cream – completely oblivious to the way it runs down his chin, between his fingers and on to his pants, simply tasting, every lick delicious. These kids don’t need to know what time it is, because they are in it.
Remember we were born to do this. Fat time is innate in every one of us, but as we get older and more set in our daily routines we narrow the possibilities of feeding ourselves with more newness until some of us are left starving.
How do we prevent this from happening?
Learn to do less – really, really, well.
Fat time isn’t about the accumulation of more but less. So forget about multi-tasking, and cramming your day with activities. What we need to get better at, is giving ourselves permission to get lost in a moment.
Be single-minded in what you are doing, so that your whole being is immersed in that activity. Leave no room for spillage, wastage or added additives from distractions. Picture a famous sports person in action, say Usain Bolt. Think he’s running through his shopping list while breaking world records?
Be mindful of skinny time
Stay away from skinny time – that is, spending too much time on screens. Few of us will think back wishing if only I had spent more time on Facebook, tweeting, or updating posts….
Online time is thin on sensory experiences, the spice and flavour of time, and that’s what we’re after here. Real experiences dripping in sensory additives. New smells, new tastes, touch, conquering fears….
A life that is lived extra light, will go by in a flash with no fatty moments to relish over and chew on, or to put it another way … if your Facebook friend falls in a forest while on Facebook would anyone hear him or her?
Check in for trapped cynicism
Fat time can become blocked by cynicism. This tends to happen when we haven’t done anything new for a while. Stuck in a rut we become restricted, jaded, and defer to cynicism to protect ourselves from the truth. Which is – we are bored and not really living the life we want to.
The less fat in your life the emptier you’ll feel, just like plain butter on toast.
Fat can be shared
The wonderful thing about fat time is that it can be shared. It’s contagious, inspirational and allows us the freedom to embark on creating our own. Think of people like Richard Branson, Lewis Pugh, or Malala Yousafzai.
You can store fat for lean times
Sometimes time stops. When we hurt, we don’t keep time. We lie next to it. Holding on to the minute and second-hand tightly, because moving on is too painful; we sit alongside our clocks, our watches, our digital disconnect and wait. Until we are ready to let go of each hand and once again hear the steady beat of other times; fatter times, and smile at the stored memories which keep us warm when times are tough.
See, I think we have got this food thing all butter side down. Perhaps we could spend less time on what we are eating and more on how we are living.
There’s a line in Alice in Wonderland that sums this idea perfectly.
Alice: How long is forever?
White Rabbit: Sometimes, just one second.
Here’s to making our seconds last a lifetime. Starting today.
WS
