I Think Facebook is Making Me Fat...

Yep, that's right. I think facebook is making me fat...but wait there's more...

I read an article this morning on Elephant Journal written by Dr. Sara Gottfried. That's where I get my daily dose of fairly new age, alternative, sometimes out there, sometimes even Buddhist (I do think we can learn from other faiths, so shoot me), but many times full of common sense blogs and articles.

She said that Facebook is tearing her hormones all to pieces, so she took a digital Shabbat. Ok, it's not just facebook that was keeping Dr. Gottfried all out of whack, it was being online period...hooked up...connected digitally. She said that it was raising her cortisol (kinda bad hormone) levels because plugging in kept her stressed. At first, I thought, "What?! That's stupid!" But I kept reading, and some of the things she was talking about sounded remotely familiar. Then she told us that from sundown Friday through to sundown Saturday, she unplugged.

Now, I'm not a doctor, nor did I play one on TV, and I didn't even sleep at a Holiday Inn Express last night...

...but I think I can see what she's saying.

I've started noticing things. My pants fit a little tighter now than they used to. Maybe I'm just eating too much, but I don't think so. I was training for a hike this summer but then the storms and the flood hit and I got distracted. I feel the stress hovering somewhere around my adam's apple. I just feel "blah" most of the time. Tired. Disinterested. Whatever. Evidently, stress raises cortisol levels, which is bad. But too much stress burns out the endocrine glands and then cortisol levels drop and you feel even worse. I did not know that.

Now, in a little while my wife is going to read this and I'll hear her say something like, "See? I told you, didn't I?" You would not believe the stress facebook has caused me over the last 9 months or so, it's been insane, and ridiculous. She has accused me of being too accessible, and has been trying to get me to unplug for a couple years. So, I'm going to.

Dr. Gottfried unplugged for 25 hours, so I think I'm going to as well. It's 8:00 in the AM right now. I'm almost through writing, then I'll post this, shut the laptop down, and not get back online until tomorrow morning. Or, at least, I'll try.

It's going to be hard, N'kay? I do everything online. I balance my checkbook online. I get my daily devos online. I keep up with friends online. I check the weather online. I minister online. I do all of my sermon research online. But evidently, it's killing me, slowly...and not softly with a song like Roberta Flack sings about.

But I'm going to try. So, whatever comments, criticism, or questions this darn blog inspires, I'll read them tomorrow. Now, where did I park that darn motorcycle?

Peace out, literally,
Jamie