"Stuff I Like" Sunday: Rationalizing

I know, it's a bit of a weird topic for "Stuff I Like" Sunday, but yesterday in the shower it dawned on me that I must really like rationalizing. Because I do it a lot. And I'm pretty effin' good at it.

 

This epiphany came to light when I was trying to decide whether or not to shave my legs. Lord knows I need to. Remember when they looked like this? Well, they have been de-fuzzed between then and now, but they've kind of gotten to that point* again.

 

(*By "that point" I mean a mass of hair that would make an orangutan jealous.)

 

Anyway, I briefly considered taking care of my massive leg-hair situation, but then my mind started - you guessed it - rationalizing why I should skip the shave. Here are a few bullet points:

• Less shaving → less wear on the blade → can use each blade longer → money saved → cha-ching!
• Less shaving → less time in the shower → less water use → earth saved
• Less shaving → no unnecessary stripping of natural oils that coat the leg → less dry skin

Okay, so I was kind of grasping at straws on that last one. But you see? Brilliance. People should be paying me not to shave, what with all the conservation of the planet's precious resources I'm doing. Really, I could go on and on - about how less razor blade use means fewer blades manufactured which means less energy use and less material in landfills ...

Seriously, we'd be here all day.

Rationalizing is definitely something I tend to do a lot of - but come to think of it, it may not be something I like so much. In fact I'm pretty sure that it led to about 120 unnecessary pounds of baby weight across my three pregnancies. Because rationalizing can lead to ice cream: "I must be craving ice cream because the baby is in need of calcium. I should listen to my body, you know. And I should probably eat this entire pint because a lot of calcium is better than a little. Especially for my baby's developing bones."

Now that I'm giving this more consideration, I guess rationalization is a "frenemy" of sorts. (If you're unfamiliar with the term, a frenemy is an enemy disguised as a friend. Clever, eh?) Rationalizing your way out of going to the gym, or the dentist, or the gynecologist, is great in the present - but does you absolutely no good, and is in some cases actually harmful, in the long run. 

So this particular blog post is officially changing from "Stuff I Like" to "Stuff I Might Think I Like But I, Like, Totally Don't After All."

I've got to get off this computer - a poopy diaper calls. And there's no rationalizing my way out of that one.
Happy Sunday, all! :)