Please don’t wait for more wisdom, a rude wake up call, or a sharp decline in health to develop joyfully sustainable habits. Enjoy the numerous benefits of a longevity, health, and pleasure-oriented lifestyle now.
Shaping personal, business, family, and social patterns at an early age gives you more time to practice and hone to optimal satisfaction. Give yourself the freedom to do what you want to do (barring harm to self and others and preferably having high standards for how you choose to treat others) but do it well. Prepare, educate yourself, find training, take advice, and learn from the mistakes of yourself and others.
The choices you make to avoid disease and disability may not be easy but they are simple: healthy and moderate diet, exercise, and stress reduction. To accomplish this you must make peace with what you eat. Find out if you are on the right path in quiz below.
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IS FOOD YOUR FRIEND?
Answer “yes” or “no” to each of the ten statements below to determine whether or not you have a satisfying/sustainable relationship with food.
1. I know I can’t dry my eyes with a doughnut – that food is not a solution for feeling sad.
2. I never dread dinners out or parties because I eat based on internal urges not external lures.
3. I stopped the diet yo-yo & weighing in daily. How I feel and clothing fit guide me.
4. I am a champion chewer who savors every bite.
5. I canceled my membership in the clean plate club. (Your body isn’t a garbage can. Throwing away food isn’t waste. It’s a health investment.)
6. I have many healthy choices available as options when I am hungry.
7. I always stop eating the moment I am no longer hungry.
8. I drink 8 8oz. glasses of fluids as a daily health habit I never miss - water preferred.
9. I know biting into more food won’t eradicate unexpressed anger.
10. I accept the challenge of a lifetime of conscious eating and food enjoyment.
If you have answered, “yes” to all statements, you have an exceptionally healthy relationship with food. Congratulations! If you have more than 2 “no” answers, then list three steps you can take to change. After all, it’s quite literally your life.
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Identify and start changing what bothers you most and your feelings about yourself change too. It is not just what you eat but how, when and why that are important to your health and happiness. Eating is not a cure for loneliness, personal dissatisfaction, or lack of purpose. Over eating can produce unwanted weight but so do procrastination, aggravation, resentment, depression, and boredom.
Some life tips to chew on:
You don’t have to eat the fortune cookie to get your fortune.
Nothing tastes better than fit feels.
Be polite to yourself - don’t exit a mirror without something nice to say.
A truly great diet is a negativity diet.
Being more food aware and positive toward your body can be more important than being more disciplined.
If you don’t take care of your body, where will you live?
Weight training, weight-bearing aerobics, stretching, and a high nutritive/low toxicity life not only promote disease free living but battle personal gravity as well. You look more attractive and you feel more attractive. You can enjoy sex and feel sexy no matter what shape your body. But feeling good and feeling you look good is a passion inducer, an attitude lift, plus gives you more agility for moving around in the love nest.