Empty Calories

Walking through Midtown New York avenues 7th, 6th, Madison, Park, Lexington & 3rd from 32nd to 39nth streets yesterday I was proud of myself. No, not for being in NYC all by myself but for the fact that I did not get pulled into consuming any empty calories.

By empty calories I mean the junk food but more importantly I mean the other junk I could have easily accumulated.

The burgers, hot dogs, bagels and pastries all looked very appetizing, but I was satisfied with the little snack and water I had with me...

Then there were Aeropostle, Abercrombie, H&M and other fashion stores calling out with rock bottom discounts which were hard to resist, but I moved on...

They were calling out "Any bag! Any bag! Any bag for ten dollars! Pick any bag any bag for ten dollars!!" I confess I stopped to look. The heaps of shiny bags did look very tempting and the price seemed too good to be true, but I just walked on...

Street vendors with 'I heart New York' T-shirts, world maps, children’s books, magazines - very appealing and really nice - would have made me shell out a few bucks any given day - but now I paused!

No, I am not becoming thrifty - it is just that I now understand these are all just plain empty calories - filling you up momentarily with no lasting goodness or nutritional value.

The homeless on the streets & in Penn Station made me wonder if they were once pounding on empty calories that actually made them homeless. May be it is too harsh to think of it that way, but there could be such stories I am sure.

To add on, words could be empty too! Especially when they don't mean what they say. It is true communication builds relationships but when it comes across empty they are just plain words and do more harm than good.

That said, I am determined to watch out my calories in food, things and also in words. Are you still with me?