The “last meal…”
How many last meals have you had?
The “last meal” is an interesting part of the diet culture, at least in the United States. We decide that since we are starting our diet tomorrow, we have “permission” to gorge ourselves on our sinful foods today.
What we are really saying is “since I am going to lose weight, I should gain a little more.” How logical is this, really? It extends to more than diet culture. The “last meal” can be an alcoholic’s last bender before rehab or a fiance sleeping with a prostitute before the wedding.
Why do we feel the need to be destructive one last time before we begin to pick up the pieces? It is like saying, “I am going to clean my house, after I smash all the kitchen plates and pull the stuffing from the couch.”
It is often the day after our last meal that we have to come to grips with the hangover, our spouse’s loss of trust, or gaining five pounds in order to lose two. Why be so destructive?
It has become so common as to lend creation to the archetype of the fat person eating pie, saying “the diet starts Monday.” We’ve all said it, but nobody around us believes it.
And yet, the last meal makes perfect sense at the time we are shoving fried chicken into our faces. “Tomorrow” becomes our mantra. The problem is that “tomorrow” never really comes.
So we begin again. We begin on the first of the year, on Monday, on Easter Sunday, on the first of whatever month comes next. It becomes so easy to move back so easy to move back over and over.
Why? Why do we do this to ourselves?
losing my inhibitions and finding myself 