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Fat:
The Tales We Tell Ourselves
By
Linda Lindsey
A big part of an unhealthy lifestyle is unhealthy thinking. There are
these little tales we like to tell ourselves that keep us blindly dependent
on food.
Tale #1: “I'll eat the last few cookies in
this package today so I won't be tempted to eat them tomorrow when
I start my diet.”
Do you ever find yourself ready to start a diet “tomorrow”
but instead of throwing out all your junk food, you decide to eat some
that night so you won't be tempted to eat it while you are “on
the diet?”
Calories are calories and it doesn’t matter whether you eat them
today or tomorrow! By throwing out the secret stash of cookies you are
carrying out a much better and more empowering act. Throwing out food
signals to your brain that you are getting serious about your health.
Don't just limit your home to this cleansing process, remove access
to all foods. What's in your glove compartment? What about the desk
drawers of your office? Replace these secret stashes with non-perishable
healthy snacks such as protein bars.
Tale #2: “But if I pay for it, I have to eat it...”
This tale is best told in restaurants where we are served three to four
times the recommended serving size. Too many times we partake in the
soup, salad, bread and appetizer and we are full before our dinner arrives;
but we make a valiant attempt to eat as much of our dinner as we can
hold. Why? Because we've paid for it!!
Do you feel as though you don't get your money's worth from
a restaurant unless you’ve cleaned your plate? How many leftovers
have you diligently packed up and brought home from a restaurant only
to throw them out two weeks later? It is seemingly unacceptable to leave
food on the table for the wait staff to throw out, but it IS acceptable
to use a non-biodegradable styrofoam container and store this food in
our refrigerator until the “It's Okay to Throw it Out”
stamp can be placed on the food.
If you apply this, “I have to eat it because I've paid for
it,” logic to restaurants, you must also apply it to the many science
experiments gone awry in your crisper. How many fruits and vegetables
have you purchased with the best intentions only to throw them out weeks
later after they've begun to take on a life of their own? We paid
for those vegetables, but we have no problem letting them rot in our
refrigerators. The logic doesn't make much sense now, does it?
Tale #3: “Five minutes of exercise won't do
me any good, so why should I bother?”
I've spent years reading books and magazine articles on fitness
and nutrition. I'm fascinated by the various fads and trends
that come and go. Every year there is a new diet or exercise trend;
some hold value and some are simply ridiculous, but occasionally I hear
something that perturbs me. There seem to be two different exercise
camps, those who believe that 6-8 minutes a day can bridge the gap to
health and those who tell you not to bother working out if you are only
going to work out for five minutes.
I believe that five minutes can make all the difference in your exercise
routine and I'm living proof. I can recall countless exercise sessions
where I bartered with myself, “Just exercise for five minutes and
then you can quit.” Time and time again I found that once I got
off the couch, put on my workout clothes and climbed on the treadmill,
I did not stop after five minutes, but continued for the full workout.
Sometimes all the motivation we need to exercise can be found
in simply beginning to exercise. There were also days that I quit after
only five minutes, but I did so with no regret.
Our heart is the most important muscle in our entire body and it needs
exercise just like the rest of us. Instead of complaining about how
much you don't want to exercise, try being grateful that your body
will still move in the ways you need it to! When I weighed over
300 pounds I could not walk around the block... (and it was a small
block!) I could only muster five minutes of energy at one time
before I was completely out of breath and sweating. I did what
I could and I built upon my successes. Five minutes can make all
the difference in a workout!
Tale #4: “I should eat this because there are starving children...
somewhere”
By average, we are the most wasteful country in the free world. According
to recent studies, the United States is the most wasteful country on
the planet creating 210 million tons of municipal waste every year.
I doubt a half eaten hamburger and two bites of cheesecake are
going to change this.
Our cars come with owners' manuals that tell us when to change the
oil, have the engine serviced and even when to rotate the tires. Develop
an owner's manual for your body.
Linda
Lindsey is a compelling speaker and author of an e-book entitled, “Face
the F.A.T.: Finding the Strength Within Yourself to Change Your Life.”
Email her at: Linda@facethefat.com
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