About a week ago when my fiancé and I woke up in the morning, we noticed that something was a little off with our cat. Normally she is happy to see us but disinterested in anything else and, as cats are nocturnal, eventually finds her way to her bed and sleeps away most of the day. This morning however, her behavior was different: she meowed like she was being tortured, circled our feet endlessly, and sprang up like a rocket every time we moved in the direction of her food/litterbox area. Realizing she was unnaturally hungry, I fed her, and she devoured the kibbles in seconds. However, the next day the same thing took place, and then again the day after that. She started doing it at night too before her dinner feeding, usually starting around 4pm and continuing until 6 or so when we finally gave in.
I was perplexed. We’ve owned our cat since we adopted her from the SPCA almost a year ago now (wow!) and not once, not even in the first days we owned her did she ever behave this aggressively towards feeding time. So what had changed?
A couple days into this madness, my fiancé casually remarked to me: “maybe it’s because I’ve been feeding her so much food.”
“What?” I asked, confused and also instantly suspicious. “What do you mean?”
And then he went on to explain that he’d discovered old tins of wet cat food in some of our moving boxes, and so on top of giving her dry food at meal times he’d also been adding in half a can of wet food… a feast, essentially, to a small feline. And that this routine of gratuitous overfeeding had continued for days.
Maybe our cat thought she was going to be starved soon, and that this was her last meal. Or maybe she’s just an animal who couldn’t resist the buffet in front of her. Either way, my fiancé had essentially trained her to eat more than she was generally accustomed to, until soon that became her new normal and the little scoop I’d been giving her wasn’t enough… Understandably after devouring it she was still hungry.
It was upon realizing this that a simple thought occurred to me: everything is adaptable. We can change almost anything in our lives that we put our minds to… develop new routines, new habits, even entirely new ways of thinking simply by altering the standard. Thinking about this in my own life, I realized that it applies completely.
Almost daily, I eat some sort of green vegetable with every meal. But things weren’t always this way, or even remotely close to it… I thought I was eating healthy but in reality I wasn’t; cereal, processed white bread, heavy rices, apples, and junk essentially rounded out my diet. And I didn’t ever think that would change! Besides the basics such as carrots, peppers, and iceberg lettuce, vegetables were completely unpleasant to me and I had no interested in going near them. But out of a desire to have better control over my moods and stomach issues I decided to start adding them to my fridge, and little by little my vegetable collection grew, as did my cravings for them. My bravery developed too, and I began to start trying new things I previously wouldn’t have touched with a ten foot pole; I was pleasantly surprised by what I discovered. As the months have gone on this has expanded and expanded to the point that I can now honestly say that I ADORE vegetables; spinach, broccoli, kale, asparagus, and tomatoes (my once sworn enemy) are some of my favourites. And that change started to lead to other changes too; my rices are now whole grain, as is my bread, and seeds, fruits, and nuts carry me through the day.
Of course I’m not perfect, and I definitely indulge now and then, but as a general rule I avoid the rich, starchy, sugary, salty, fatty foods of my past, and my body and mind feel infinitely clearer for it. I now understand the connection between what we eat and how we function, which, surprisingly is not something I ever truly understood until a few months ago, and now when I eat a big bowl of green veggies I don’t feel like I’m depriving myself I feel like I’m rewarding myself with delicious nutrient goodness. What better gift is there than that?
SO THIS IS WHAT I LEARNED TODAY: That change ISN’T as scary as it seems. That no matter how intimidating or frightening or impossible or uncomfortable something seems, it’s just an adjustment that one day will seem completely normal. And that no matter how badly I don’t want to go on that run in the snow, or shower in cold water to make my hair shiny, or dump mushrooms into my pasta because the recipe calls for it, it’s worth doing anyways, just to keep life interesting. I learned that new experiences are how we keep from becoming stagnant. No positive big change is ever going to kill me (fingers crossed…) it just takes some getting used to. Anything is possible; any lifestyle can become “normal” to the people who live it long enough. There’s a first time for everything, and that means you have the power to make your life into whatever you want it to be; it just begins with taking that first step in the right direction.
A little lesson from life’s imperfections.
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