Your body is housing you through this lifetime. It is like a car, treat it well, and it will look after you. You can't ignore this and then complain when it starts to fail on you later on in life. It makes much more sense when it comes to health to chose the tortoise mentality and think long term, rather than the hare mentality of abuse now and think about it, and often pay the penalty, later. Here are five easy ways to help you to get to your optimum size and to help you become more conscious of what you are putting in your body and how you are treating it.
1. Put a mirror on your fridge. This means that you catch a glimpse of yourself each time you open the fridge and it helps you become aware of how many times you actually open it unconsciously, as a habit, when you're not even hungry, but perhaps as a reaction to stress or other such emotions. The mirror helps you to almost do a double take and gives you a second to break the habit. A seconds gap in between the cause i.e. what has made you upset and the response i.e. to open the fridge to comfort eat, can help you to make a new decision. The mirror gives you a glimpse of how you look and can serve to remind you that when you reach in to the fridge that it will be better to take out a healthy choice.
2. Think ahead. Before you put food in to your mouth, imagine how it will feel in your body for the next few hours as it digests. So, for example, if you have vegetables, some protein or complex carbs, you will no doubt have a lot of energy and it will feed your body with fuel. If you have a packet of chips, cookies, or load yourself up with bread, you will find that you will feel rather heavy and tired for hours after. Remember, that food is fuel. You are eating to live, not living to eat. This means becoming conscious of how you're body feels in the long term, while it is digesting, not the one-second taste in your mouth.
3. Pace Yourself. Exercise, but don't over do it. If you go on an exercise binge, you are so less likely to continue with it if it is not in your nature. Now, I am not talking to those of you who exercise really regularly because you genuinely love it. I am talking to those of you who find it hard to do any exercise. Better to do it every other day and stop when you are really enjoying it. It means that your last memory of whatever you did two days before will be a happy one, rather than that you stayed a little too long on the treadmill or swam ten too many lengths and got bored with it.
4. Drink lots of water and learn to love it. Over half of our body weight is water and we lose a huge amount throughout the day, which means you have to keep replenishing the nutrients in your body. It is going to help with so many things, including your digestion. I know some of you don't like to drink because you are concerned about going to the restroom too often. Good, is all I have to say to that, just keep flushing out your system, and if you want to add something to your water, add a hint of herbal tea.
5. Maintain a balance. Write a list of all the junk food that you eat and in an ideal world could actually do with out. Let's say, for example, that it's chocolate, chips, and bread. Then take one of those out at a time. For example, if you start with bread and find some non-wheat alternatives, you will find that you will not have a sense of lack as you've replaced it with something else, close to it. Then, once you have done that for two weeks or a month, whatever period seems realistic to you, take out the chips and do that for a month. Replace them with something else that is healthy and perhaps has the same crunchy element to it. In this way, you are taking away one addiction at a time and are changing your lifestyle over time, without being in a rush to do it all at once. The key is to be patient and persistent.
That's it for this week. I hope those tips have helped and if you want to contact me I would love to hear from you at sophie@howhappyis.com.