The post I’ve done before on HABITS gives you a lot of tips and here I’ll give you a few more. Just remember, it took time to make your habits and it will take time to break the unhealthy ones and replace them with healthy ones but, taken one day at a time, anything is possible!
Today let’s talk about things we’ve been taught since childhood and might still be believing and acting on today.
One of the things I was told when I was little (and, I guess, even now) is “eat this, it’ll make you feel better”. Did you ever hear that one? Of course you did! If we were sick, if we fell down, if we went to the doctor’s and got a shot….”eat this, it will make you feel better”. The bad thing is even if “it” makes you feel better when you’re feeling down – it’s a real downer later when you figure out you just had 500 calories of junk food. For some reason healthy food just never worked in the “feel better” times. Now, do you really feel better? And since we were giving sweets to make us feel better doesn’t it make sense that now, when we’re down, we tend to go to them?
It’s our stress eating – that mad, glad, sad, been had times. We eat to feel betterand we do feel better WHILE WE’RE EATING, afterwards we feel guilty and then, what do we do, we punish ourselves for overeating by ….overeating more! Make a new habit. When you’re under stress….exercise, get those endorphins working and you really will feel better!
Another habit I made long ago, because Mom taught me to “eat everything on your plate” was eating everything on my plate! Mom lied!!! Those kids in Russia wouldn’t be better off if I ate everything. Come on now! Are you still telling that stuff to your kids? Is a restaurant that serves a 300 pounds person and a 120 pound person the same amount really meaning that’s how much we should eat. Are we really letting someone else decide how much we need to eat? Not me! I either bring home half or split a meal with my husband. Works for me!
The last thing I’ll talk about today is Mom said, “don’t eat that, it will spoil your appetite” which is the opposite of what I want you to do. Before you get home from work, before you go to a party, before you go out to dinner…SPOIL YOUR APPETITE! Don’t arrive anywhere hungry! A piece of fruit and a little nuts, string cheese and fruit, 1/2 of a protein bar, just something to take the edge off so the brain actually has time to think before you eat or order. Believe me – it works. Even if you just have a big glass of water right before you order or eat, that will help!
Any other habits you might have that I haven’t covered – just leave a comment.
Good article Salle. It’s all so true. I love having a piece of fruit before a party or going out to dinner. I only wish my husband would split a meal with me.It would be so much easier to eat less. LInda
Comment by Linda Auer — January 19, 2009 @ 12:43 am