When you lose weight,
you want to keep those pounds off for good. Dieting and exercising
are a good way to start, but to create lasting change in your
body you must also change your mind. Your current state of health
and body weight are the result of many factors including heredity,
habits and environment. Emotional upsets and life changes also
affect your body.
Your thoughts and emotions influence
your metabolic rate. Take a moment to think about the habitual
way you eat a meal. If you are feeding kids who are all on a
different schedule, all with different nutritional tastes, it's
likely that you are racing through your meals. Adults often
emulate the patterns their parents created. Think about mealtime
when you were a kid. Were meals relaxed, where each person took
a moment to reflect on the day, or share a story? Or were mealtimes
hurried, with a stressful atmosphere? Were you comfortable lingering
at the table, or were you rushing to get away? Was the television
on, offering its poor substitute for meaningful conversation?
It's important to recognize that no
matter what type of childhood you had, whether it was idyllic
or anxious or somewhere in between, as an adult it is up to
you to create the type of pattern that supports a healthy, fit
lifestyle. You can't change the past, but you can change the
patterns that affect your life as it is now.
Instead of racing through your next
meal, take your time. Encourage a relaxed environment at the
dinner table. Turn the television off and put on some quiet
music. Light a pretty candle and bring in flowers for your table.
When you eat slowly and think about each biteful, food becomes
a joy, not a job.
Your emotions affect your metabolic
rate. Eating slowly and enjoying your food sensually will help
you stay healthy, create lasting patterns of fitness for your
children, and you may even lose weight naturally. Every day
we face a choice, no matter how hard the sky seems to be falling
down around us. Create a meal for your family to enjoy, and
you will be nurturing yourselves on every level of your body,
mind and soul. |
