Gorillas.
They’re fascinating creatures.
Especially when they’re hidden in plain site.
Remember that +1 back in the day about The Invisible Gorilla?
As you may recall (and, apologies for the spoiler alert if you haven’t watched this video yet), you can bring people into a lab, have them watch people in white shirts pass a basketball to other people in white shirts while weaving in and out of people wearing black t-shirts and…
As they focus so intently on counting the number of passes of the basketball, HALF of the people studied will COMPLETELY MISS a GORILLA walk into the scene, pound his chest then walk off the stage.
It’s nuts.
How can you POSSIBLY miss that gorilla?!
Once you see the gorilla, of course, you can’t UNSEE it.
I use the metaphor of that Invisible Gorilla in the session on our Eating fundamental in our Mastery Series for our Heroic Coach program.
The title of the Idea in that session is: “The MAD and SAD Gorilla Eating a Hot Dog with Smuckers while drinking a soda at a Pan-CAN event.”
Quick context.
MAD + SAD are acronyms for the Modern American Diet + Standard American Diet that makes us, well, mad and sad.
The Gorilla is our friendly Invisible Gorilla.
The Smuckers represents the Junk Food Industry’s vicious (and, unfortunately, successful) attempts at misleading us via their lying labels a la Food Fix. (👈 As discussed in this +1 where we learn about how some executives at Smuckers thought it would be an awesome idea (🙌!) to split sugar up into three different types of sugar so they can still brazenly put “Strawberries” as the #1 ingredient.
(👆 For whatever reason THAT little manipulative ploy enrages me more than many of the other tactics the Junk Food Industry engages in. 😠 )
btw: If you want to see what their ingredient label actually looks like, check this out. I just printed it out and I’m pinning it to my new cork board wall as a reminder of the vice we need to counter with virtue.
The Hot Dog and Soda represents the HOT DOG AND SODA that the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network (Pan-CAN) served up via one of their sponsors at a fundraising walk I attended for my brother.
Pause and reflect on that for a moment.
One of the few things basically all nutritionists agree on is the fact that PROCESSED MEAT (like factory-farmed hot dogs) is really bad for you. In fact, even the American Cancer Society tells us “What’s Wrong With Hot Dogs…”
But, apparently Pan-CAN either didn’t get the memo or thought the extra money they could get from allowing a fast-food restaurant named Wienerschnitzel to sponsor their walk and serve their food (while giving my kids beach balls with their logo on it) was worth the trade.
Throw in the candy-for-cancer-cells- (aka sugar-) laden sodas and VOILA!
We’re pouring fuel on the pancreatic cancer fire.
In any case, THAT, my friends, is a VERY (!!!) LARGE GORILLA WALKING RIGHT ACROSS THE STAGE.
That NO ONE NOTICED.
Ahem.
I kinda go off on the whole situation in the Eating session.
Then I challenge our Coaches to SEE the gorilla EVERYWHERE it hides.
From the pizza party where we celebrate our kids by feasting on (/poisoning them with?) pizza and soda to donuts and soda at the office (and schools! 😲).
Which leads me to a post one of Coaches made on our Oasis that has been rattling around in my brain all day and actually got me up from my napitation to create this little +1.
Coach Candace posted this on our Oasis:
Yikes, a local grocery store’s flyer promoting the “essentials” for celebrating this Labor Day (USA holiday) vividly underscores the SAD (Standard American Diet): Beef patties & ground beef, hot dogs, baby back ribs, mac & cheese, ketchup and mustard, potato chips, coffee/half and half cream, fudge brownies or iced cinnamon rolls, and 2-liter soft drinks. Crazy.
Yep. That’s it.
Gorillas.
They’re in our midst.
Everywhere.
Let’s open our eyes and see them.
Then make the little choices that, when aggregated and compounded across tens of millions of us over an extended period of time, can change the world, one dollar spent and one bite at a time.
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