Old School

 I spent last night reading. And thinking. At one point the Mr., seeing me staring off into space asked me what I was doing. I am thinking. Deeply. I said. About plastic. 

I had just spent an hour watching some You tube videos and reading some the five thousand following comments. And what I had heard and read gave me pause. The subject was endocrine interrupters. BPA and Pthalimides and how they relate to weight gain and cancer. And how BPA free has lulled us into a sense of false security about the plastics we are drinking and eating out of. That the things replacing the BPA are just as bad. The problem is heat and plastic together. Cold and plastic doesn't seem to be a problem. It's heating food in the microwave in plastic. Anything hot in plastic  causes you to ingest those plastic chemicals into your body, according to the guru on You tube. And the thing that causes the most damage is plastic water bottles that sit out in the heat in trucks and warehouses for long periods of time before you buy them and drink them. Of course I have heard that for years, but until this evening I never really considered it seriously. I mean, BPA free, right? But I looked around with fresh eyes at my room, at the coffee bar next to my chair, with half a dozen water bottles waiting to go through my plastic Keurig, with the plastic K cups. I thought about my recent weight loss woes. I can't seem to get it off, no matter what I do. Calorie restriction, low carb, Keto. Nothing seems to work anymore. Sitting bedside with the Mr. in and out of hospitals for the past year has not helped, either. Exercise has not been a part of my life. Even so. Sometimes I only eat one meal a day and still I gain. I lost fifty pounds about four years ago by calorie restriction. It worked perfectly until it didn't. One day I woke up and the scale was the same as the day before. And although I continued calorie counting for the next two years  the scale never moved in a downward direction again. Slowly it has crept back on and now I am just a few pounds shy of where I started. It is discouraging. I have run the whole cycle of loathing myself, being angry at myself, crying about it, despairing about it, and now am wondering if it's the plastic I am consuming. Or at least if I cut back on the plastic I am using if it would help. I mean, let's face it, it's would be impossible in the modern world to eliminate plastic from our lives. It's everywhere. It's not just in our dishes, it's in our cars, our phones, our computers, our food from the grocery store is packaged in it. Our meat comes in Saran with styrofoam on the bottom. That really can't be good. Canned goods have plastic liners. Tin soda cans have plastic liners. Baby bottles...that one really gives me pause. We heat up those plastic baby bottles, or warm the formula before it goes in the bottle. How about pacifiers. And plastic teething rings, all contributing to child hood obesity. The list goes on and on. I personally buy and go through a case of Ozarka a week. I don't drink water from the tap anymore because it's just so disgusting. We use it for cooking, and drinking, but what we use if for the most is our coffee. I looked at my Keurig and considered alternatives. I could go back to the old glass coffee pot and ditch the water bottles entirely. But the old school coffee pot is such a pain. Filters and measuring coffee is such a thing of the past. I don't even know if I have either of those on hand. And the basket that the hot water flows through is plastic. So how would that help? Then I remembered my Grandma's Corning ware percolator. Really old school. Hmmm...maybe an experiment? If I abandon the water bottles and the Keurig for a while, would I lose a little weight? Ditch the plastic in favor of porcelain and stainless steel? 

So this morning I went downstairs and dug through the cabinet. Yes, there it was, way in the back of the cabinet I almost never use. I pushed a bunch of cake pans I also never use out of the way and brought it into the light of day. Would all the parts be there? Why yes they were. Would I remember how to use this old thing, a relic from the sixties or early seventies? I noted that it had a plastic handle and the collar that goes over the top of the percolator is plastic. There is just no way to get away from it, but I was still going to give it a try. I had to dig through the pantry to find some coffee, and luckily I had, at some point in the not to distant past, bought a brand new container. I was thankful I didn't need any filters because the only ones I could find were stuffed on the shelf above the washer, awaiting a date with a bottle of Windex for glass cleaning. 

I measured out the coffee, having to do the math in my head. It's been a very long time since I made real coffee.  I put the percolator in and plugged it in. I was rewarded with the hiss of steam as she began to percolate. I stood there in my bare feet, in the cold kitchen and thought about one of the seven virtues, one I had forgotten about when it comes to coffee, and that is patience. We live in an instant world these days. Instant downloads, instant food, instant everything and that includes coffee. This was taking a few minutes. while I was waiting I thought about the genius that invented this thing. Coffee maker and dispenser all in one pretty porcelain container. Very compact. The sound of it bubbling was so pleasant. I wondered whether I was just over reacting to the hype about plastic. Maybe so. Maybe not. Time will tell, I guess. 

The little orange indicator light blinked on, telling me the coffee was ready and when I poured the first cup, I had to smile, first pleased that the old apparatus still works after all these years, and second because it was so good. I have never really liked the taste of Keurig coffee. I always called it plastic coffee because to me that's what it tasted like. This was so much better. So I carried the whole thing upstairs and plugged it in where the Keurig usually stands. Keurig is off in the corner now, at least for awhile. I had three cups this morning. Old school might not be so bad even if I have to wait a few minutes for it. 

I don't know if this will, in the end, help me shed even one pound. I guess that remains to be seen. However, I guess it's not a bad thing to take stock of how I am living now and then even if plastic is not contributing to my weighty issues. Water bottles are costing an arm and a leg. So are K cups. I wonder to myself how I got sucked into this instant, plastic, very expensive, convenient and disposable lifestyle. And can I get out of it? I am desperate to feel better. Maybe, just maybe, this will help, even if just a little bit. Can't hurt to try, even though I am a tiny bit skeptical. We shall see.