I received a text from my girlfriend Alex on Friday.
It said “We have a visitor”.
I already knew that Alex was having friends round that evening to sample the Macc night life for the first time, so was unsure what to expect when I got home.
BTW she rolled in at 3.30am babbling incoherently – the most drunk I have ever seen her. But that’s a different story 😉
The visitor was Rosie Rabbit, the pet Rabbit at the pre-school Isabel (Alex’s daughter) goes to in Manchester (she’ll probably transfer down to a Macc pre-school / nursery in September).
The children take it in turns to look after Rosie for the weekend.
Here’s Izzie and Rosie last night – Â posing for the camera for some photos for ‘Rosie’s diary’.
Having Rosie for the weekend was fun, but she was hard to get hold of.
As she struggled from my grip for what seemed like the thousandth time on Saturday I uttered the line “It’s hard to get much purchase on a rabbit” which has been repeated over and over back to me since.
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Anyway – there is a point to his article.
Rosie has been gaining weight recently.
The pre-school assistants at Izzie’s nursery informed Alex on Friday afternoon that this was down to the families she stayed with ‘treating’ her too much.
They explained that a lot of the foods families were giving here weren’t things that rabbits had evolved to eat and were bad for both her health and her waist line.
They asked Alex to keep her to the rabbit food provided.
And they expressed that it was sad that people thought they were being kind to Rosie, but were actually killing her.
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This got me thinking – this situation is much like one the major causes of the western world’s health and obesity problems – the mentality of the ‘treat’.
People we speak to often ‘treat’ themselves (or friend, family members, children, etc) with things that are bad for them and are, essentially killing them.
They do this with ‘foods’ that we haven’t evolved on and, whilst edible, aren’t what we are ‘designed’ to be fueled by.
I used to do this – like most I was bought up with the concept of ice-cream, sweets, etc being a treat.
I’ve had to retrain my brain over the years to not think this way.
And, I’ve worked hard with my kids to keep this thought process from being instilled in them (despite pretty much everyone else trying to do the opposite – TV ads, school, well meaning friends and family members).
So, if your view of these foods as a ‘treat’ has bought you unhappiness with you body and / or health, then have a go at re-framing what you see as a treat.
You don’t even need to stop consuming those things (the boys and I still have ice cream on warm day) – just stop seeing them as a treat.
You can treat yourself with something that’s good for you – a bit of fresh air, seeing friends, calling someone your haven’t spoke to in a while, a spa day, kick on some Kenny G and take a bath.
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And I didn’t quite ‘get’ why people were ‘treating’ Rosie at all.
What had she she done to deserve it?
She was very cute I admit, but she did very little over the weekend to impress me enough to think I should get her a ‘treat’.
It’s the same with most people’s ‘treat’.
If it’s something you have most day for no special reason, then it’s not really a treat – it’s just part of your diet.
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I’m sure you get what I’m driving at now – give it a go.
I’m not saying even try and stop having the cake, biscuits, ice cream, etc.
But just have a go at re-framing what you consider a ‘treat’ and see how that changes things.
Much love,
Jon “Didn’t treat the rabbit” Hall
