Mindful eating

We should always be aware and conscious of the food we are eating.
A lot of time and effort has been spent in the preparation and presentation of that dinner plate.
Someone had to plant the vegetables/feed the livestock, someone else had to harvest and package the foods to get them to the supermarket. Yet another someone had to get the stuff onto the supermarket shelves. (My apologies to all the people I left out - I'm sure there are a minimum of eight progressive steps between planting and plate.)

What I'm getting at is that the food you eat (and the people involved in getting it to you) deserves a measure of respect.
Give you're full attention to the plate in front of you.
Let your eyes feast on the colours.
Let your nose savour the aromas.
Take small mouthfuls, and masticate well - we all eat too fast.
Actually taste the food.
It takes about twenty minutes for your stomach to tell your brain it is full.

Even if you are only having a ham sandwich, make an occasion of it.

So, move away from your desk.
No reading.
No TV.
No laptop.
No cell phones.

Most of us living in houses have a dining room. Even in a flat, there is usually a 'breakfast bar'.
When did you last use yours?

Weight control for self preservation

 

The main focus of most weight-loss advertising is on physical appearance, and though we all want to look good – in and out of our clothes – the main benefits of weight loss are actually to do with health.

 

• Losing 10% of your excess body weight reduces blood pressure, cholesterol and blood triglyceride levels; all of these are associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease.
• Losing excess weight reduces blood glucose levels and halves the probability of you developing type-2 diabetes.
• Losing weight reduces the strain on weight-bearing joints (hips, knees, lower spine) and reduces the risk of developing osteoarthritis.
• Being overweight is a risk factor for developing cancer of the uterus, breast, gall bladder, colon and prostate.
• Losing excess weight can help to alleviate sleep apnea.
• Carrying excess weight puts strain on all your internal organs, not just your heart.
• Being overweight can cause complications during surgery.
• Being overweight means that you are less likely to take exercise, which in itself is a health risk.
• Reducing and then controlling your body weight increases self-esteem.
• Maintaining a healthy weight improves your quality of life as well as your longevity.

Adapting to a healthy lifestyle is the only way to achieve a healthy body weight.

Staying young

 

Maintaining health and vitality as the years go by involves:

Choosing food wisely – Eat three meals a day, plus snacks if you need them. Make sure to include a varied selection of foods from each food group. Choose 6-8 portions of grains, 5-8 portions of fruit and veg (preferably fresh), 2-3 portions of protein (fish or chicken; cut down on red meats), 2-3 portions of dairy and a little mono- and/or poly-unsaturated fats.

Getting some exercise – If you’re a regular reader, you’ll know that I’m not that ‘in’ to exercise! In contrast, my husband goes to a gym about 4 times a week on average, and it shows. People never believe his age. Not only does he look good, the exercise keeps him supple and healthy, with a reduced risk of heart disease and diabetes. Exercise releases endorphins (the ‘happiness’ hormone) into the blood stream, which is good for stress relief too.

Getting enough sleep – Everyone needs between seven and eight hours sleep in every twenty four. If you have trouble sleeping, set up a bedtime ritual to inform your brain that it’s bedtime. Try deep breathing, or tensing and releasing muscle groups. Keep electronics out of the bedroom as much as possible and, definitely, leave your cell phone well away from the bed.

Keeping an active and open mind – Do crossword puzzles or Sudoku. Read magazines, journals and books. Consciously and attentively listen to the radio and try to summarize what you have heard. Listen to what is said to you and learn from what you hear. In fact, try to learn something new every day.

Sharing – Isn’t this what we encourage our children to do? Share your time, energy, knowledge, experience and expertise with those around you.

Lose weight the easy way…

I am continually amazed that  this kind of advertising is still successful: Lose 5 kilos in just a week!: Lose weight the easy way!: etc, etc… in all the years of trying many different diets, all I lost was my faith in diets (and the advertising industry). Take it from me, there is no easy way to lose weight.

Many fad diets do, indeed, work… if you very strictly adhere to the specified foods, pills and potions they call for. But this involves such a major change in eating habits that you won’t stay on such a diet for very long before becoming bored, disillusioned and irritable, or feeling deprived and hungry – often long before you have lost any significant amount of weight. The restricted foods and portion sizes are so radically different from what might be considered ‘normal eating’ that you can’t wait to ‘finish’ the diet! And once off the diet, of course, you quickly return to your old style of eating – which is what made you overweight in the first place.

‘Going on a diet’ always presupposes that, at some stage, you will come ‘off’ the diet. If you are serious about losing weight, and keeping it off for good, don’t go on a diet; rather consider your overall health and make some lifestyle changes. This means changing the way you eat, certainly, but, as I’ve said before, you can make small changes, gradually.

Starting today, make sure you eat regularly, starting with breakfast. If you are really in a rush in the morning, with no time to eat, take a couple of pieces of fruit to work with you; a hardboiled egg, some cheese and crackers or a small tub of yoghurt. Whatever you choose, eat it before 10:00am.

Lunch can be difficult when you’re working away from home. Pack your own healthy lunch at least twice a week, rather than sending out for fatty, salty take-aways. This is not only beneficial to your weight and general health, but it costs far less too.

Dinners are easy… use the recipes I post here. They are all low fat, low salt, high fibre, healthy recipes using fairly standard ingredients. They are simple to prepare and most of them don’t take more than half an hour to make. My daily recipe posts are meals that I have prepared myself with the intention of staying healthy and maintaining my weight loss.

It took me a year to lose 18kg – quite a bit slower than I would have liked - but I have not regained any weight in the last twelve monrhs. And the way I eat now has become such a habit that I’m sure the weight I’ve lost is gone forever.

A thought provoking question

Do you sometimes berate yourself? Call yourself fat / ugly / a pig / useless? This serves no useful purpose. It certainly won't boost your self confidence!

A friend of mine sent me an e-mail the other day. It was a list of thought provoking questions. The question that caught my attention was:

“If you had a friend who spoke to you the way you sometimes speak to yourself, how long would you stay friends?”

We all of us have our failings and weaknesses, especially when it comes to changing our eating habits and leading a healthier lifestyle. It can be difficult to keep on making those incremental changes and sticking with them, though it’s not impossible. We all have slip-ups and indulge in unwise food choices or overly large portions occasionally; but when we do, we can and should forgive ourselves.

Be kind to yourself. Don’t let mistakes disempower you, learn from them and move on.

You can find more questions at http://thoughtquestions.com/

A reader has pointed out that I have misquoted the original question. It should read:
"If you had a friend who spoke to you the way you sometimes speak to yourself, how long would you allow that person to be your friend?"
My apologies for misquoting.  17/09/10 5:55PM

Eating Together

 

Here is a guest post from my daughter, Helen. She lives in England with her husband and their two beautiful, bright little girls aged two and a half and four and a half. She knows all the ins and outs of raising a healthy, happy family in this fast-paced modern world. I hope she will guest again soon. Thanks, Helen.

 

We all have images that we can remember about the kind of food we ate as children, where we used to sit and who sat with us.

 

I am very lucky to have memories of eating together as a family, around a dining table with freshly prepared, home-cooked food – and not just on special occasions, but everyday. When I talk to other people about their childhood memories of food and mealtimes, there is a mixed bag – some are as fortunate as I was and have the same recollections, while others, whom I would consider less fortunate, remember eating on their own, or in front of the TV with a TV-dinner or a take-away.

 

Without exception, it is the children who ate pre-prepared meals without the social aspect of dining together, who have grown up into adults who can’t cook, who eat on the run and are generally less concerned about what they put into their bodies.

 

Families these days live very separate lives – parents are working and children have very busy lives of their own – often involving the fetching and carrying services of one or both parents – so preparing a meal and eating together can seem a difficult thing to fit in. But here is a challenge to change just one thing:

• If you rarely eat together, plan one day a week where you can all sit down together – and do it
• If you rarely cook a meal, plan one meal that you prepare from scratch, choose a simple recipe and give it a go
• If you find yourself preparing several different meals because of fussy children (or spouses), prepare one meal that everyone will eat (like spaghetti bolognaise, macaroni cheese), get the kids involved too  – making a salad to go along side or garlic bread, and then eat it together
• Keep the television off and encourage your children to talk about their day

 By setting the scene and getting your children involved in the preparation and cooking of meals, as well as the social aspect of dining together, you are not only giving them a healthy start, you are giving them a life skill that they will appreciate for years to come – even if they don’t like to be told to keep their elbows off the table now!

Priorities

“The most important things in life aren’t things.” Anthony J. D’Angelo

This quote reminds me of the story of the philosophy professor.

When the students arrived for their lecture, the professor had on his desk a large glass jar and three shoe boxes. The jar was empty. One box contained a dozen or so large rocks, the next was full of small pebbles and the last contained sand. Do you know the story?

The professor greeted the class, and then gently placed the rocks in the glass jar until he couldn’t fit any more in. He asked the students if the jar was full, and they agreed that it was.

Next, he picked up the box of pebbles and began to tip them into the jar. With a little judicious shaking, the pebbles fell between the rocks and filled in the spaces. Again, he asked the students if the jar was full. They laughed, and said yes, this time the jar was really full.

Then the professor gently poured in the sand, which filled the remaining gaps in the jar.

Let’s take the glass jar as representative of life, the rocks as the truly important things (family, health, relationships), the pebbles as other important stuff (school, work) and the sand can represent small stuff and material possessions.

If we put the sand in the jar first, there will not be enough room for all the rocks and pebbles. The same can be said of life. If we spend all our time and energy on amassing material possessions, we won’t have the time and energy for the really important stuff.

We need to be cognizant of what in life is vital for our happiness and well-being, and make sure that we invest time and energy in that – follow a healthy lifestyle, play with our children, write to a loved-one far away. There will always be time to clean the house or go shopping for shoes, so tend to the rocks first.

We are NOT all the same.

I don’t like sweeping generalizations much. We are continually told that people are all the same, but then we are also told that each person is unique. So which is it? I think the truth lies in what criteria are in place at the time.

Hypothesis 1: We are all the same.
Yes, physiologically. Maybe. We all have bones and muscles; eyes, ears and teeth; arms, legs, hands and feet; hair and skin. Even that is a broad generalization – many people don’t have all those things. We can’t even say that we all have the same wants and needs - beyond food, shelter, health and world peace. And again, our needs and wants for food, shelter and health (yes, and world peace) are different from person to person, and different within each person at different times! The only criteria to satisfy the condition ‘we are all the same’ would seem to be…

I really don’t know. Everything I can think of leads to a quantifiable variable. Can you think of anything that makes every single person on our planet the same?

Hypothesis 2: Each person is unique.
I have to go with this one. It just makes sense to me; I don’t think I have to argue its logic or credibility. Do you agree?

So if each of us is unique, then it follows that we each have our own philosophy; our own path to choose and follow. Our own goals. We may share goals, such as weight loss or following a healthier lifestyle but we will each go about attaining those goals in our own way. And we each deserve respect for having set a goal, and continuing encouragement for striving towards it – by whatever means.

What I’m trying to say is that my way of doing things is not necessarily your way. I can show you my way to weight loss, but it may not suit your tastes or current lifestyle.

Let’s not criticize ourselves, or each other, for our different approaches to life and problem solving. Many years and experiences have made us the unique individuals we are. None of us is perfect.

Have a great weekend.

Time to move

I've never been a great fan of exercise - I'm still not - but I do try to walk at least twice a week. No weight loss program can rely on healthy eating alone, although I still maintain eating is the biggest part, sadly you have to introduce some form of exercise. To lose weight, kilojoules in must be less than kilojoules out.
But I just can't get excited about doing the whole gym thing.

I did it once.

I wriggled, gyrated and squirmed.
I stuck my legs out at awkward angles.
I waved my arms around.
I stretched up.
I bent down.
I wriggled, gyrated and squirmed some more.

But by the time I was finally in my leotard, the class was over.

Joking aside, any exercise is healthier than none. So when you start an exercise program, begin gently. Don't over-exert yourself. Even gentle stretching is good.

Diet - a multibillion dollar industry - and still growing

There are hundreds of diet plans available, through clubs, books, clinics, pharmacies, the internet - even on your cereal box! There are hundreds of medications available - and these pills and potions usually come with a diet sheet, too. All of these companies advertise that their plan/pill/potion is the plan/pill/potion that really works! And most of them do, indeed, help you lose weight... Here comes the 'but'... BUT at what cost?

Will you really drop a dress size in a week?
As a rational, reasonable, intelligent being you can't believe this one!

Will you be satisfied with the food you're allowed to eat?
It doesn't matter how many delicious options there are on the permitted list, the mere fact that there are 'forbidden' foods leaves you with a sense of deprivation and dissatisfaction.

Will you keep your temper?
Restricted and reduced nutrition lead to irritability and an inability to cope with stress.

Will you keep your sense of humour?
Feelings of deprivation, dissatisfaction, irritability and stress contribute to depression - definitely not humourous.

Will you be able to keep up the regimen?
Well, as long as the weight is coming off, you will probably be motivated to continue. But once you hit a plateau - generally in the third or fourth week - the whole idea is probably going to go out the window. And you'll get despondent.

Can you afford the continuing financial cost?
Pills and potions are expensive - they have to be. No return customers for these products, because once you've tried them you probably won't buy them again.

Will you keep your health?
This is the most important question. Many pills, shakes and meal replacements are full of synthetic additives, e-numbers, caffeine and artificial sweeteners. Some of them even contain toxic drugs. The side effects can be numerous: insomnia, nausea, altered blood pressure, blurred vision, diarrhoea, to name but a few. Is that healthy?

Will you keep the weight off afterwards?
This one leads into tomorrow's post...

3 months in...

It's three months since I started this blog. I used to call it 'this blogger's cook book', but it has grown to be so much more (at least to me), so I've changed my header. Don't worry, the address is unchanged. And you'll still get a new recipe every day, and - for the moment at least - I will still post the link to the .pdf menu, shopping list and recipes every Thursday. Anyone using that link and printing out my recipes?

I see new readers arriving from all over the world, and I see people returning again and again. I hope some of you are trying out the recipes and taking on board some of my tips on improving your eating habits and lifestyle. Thanks for stopping by, and be sure to come back. If you don't like today's recipe, there will be a new one tomorrow.

You are welcome to ask questions or air your thoughts in a comment, and, provided the questions are relevant to the topics I usually talk about, I will answer you as promptly as I can.

Let's start some conversations.