Grady Lyda
There was a time when I was fat, but I didn't know it. To me, weight loss was a foreign concept that was only for "all those other people." I was blissfully unaware that I had a (gasp!) "weight problem" because I’d been a physically fit, tall and lovely teen in high school, and my self-image was still stuck in the good old days.
As the years went by, I fell into an increasingly lethargic lifestyle, and the pounds were surely creeping up on me though I blindly believed I was as attractive as I’d ever been. Okay, maybe my new clothes needed a bit more room to be comfortable, but I figured that was natural as we get older. No big deal.
Facing the Truth: When does it finally hit you?
One day, before a routine trip to the vet, I needed to find out the weight of my cat, Roxie. I dusted off my invisible old scale, hung on to Roxie, and we weighed ourselves. It was unbelievable, but apparently my cat was more than 80 pounds!
Then I did the math and it immediately sunk in -- all that extra tonnage was ME! Now it was all too obvious: If I didn't change my lifestyle, I would become a big fat slob very soon. So I went on the alert for any sensible - and easy - ways I could find that would reverse my impending obesity.
Dealing with the Problem at the Source: My mouth has been getting me into trouble for years!
Where do we pick up these rules of life? "Brush your hair 100 times each day." - "Chew every mouthful one hundred times." - "Don't run with scissors." Oh yeah, now I remember where I heard that stuff...
Actually, the chewing thing makes sense, but I can’t imagine anybody would be OCD enuff to count to exactly one hundred. Some "authorities" say 32 chews is adequate (but who knows how they come up with these numbers?).
Anyway, my first strategy was to slow down my eating, taking lots of time between bites, which was a major leap for me since I was in the habit of wolfing down huge servings in record time. No more gulping half-chewed chunks to make room for the next shovel full.
Liquefying every mouthful is very important because saliva is the first step in digesting your food. It produces an enzyme (amylase) that breaks down pesky starches and delivers them to your bloodstream directly through the inner flesh of the mouth. Saliva also kills bacteria and can prevent illness by sanitizing your food before any germs can cause trouble.
Plus, well-chewed food efficiently oxygenates your brain, and that's considered a good way to stave off mental laziness that develops as we age. And while you are chewing, your stomach receives messages about all the goodies that are on the way. Without a sufficient heads-up, your belly can’t produce enuff acid in adequate quantities to deal with what’s coming, and this is the main reason people get upset stomachs. Sloooow down and you’ll feel better.
The Magic of Twenty: The best advice I’ve ever heard!
Getting used to slowing down was helpful, but what really changed my whole out-of-control fatness spiral was one simple fact that was to alter my life and was the key to my success at staying slim and trim. This is it: "Your brain takes 20 minutes to recognize that it is full!"
Do you appreciate the earth-shaking implications of this biological truism? That means, if you shift yourself into slo-mo and take a full twenty minutes to just eat a carrot or a slice of toast or a simple salad, your body will say, “Okay, I’m done. Let’s move on.”
No kidding, it really works, and this little secret has shrunk my stomach back to my minimum youthful size, and I am a constant annoyance to anybody who invites me out for lunch. So be it. I’d rather be a freakishly slow nibbler than an obsessive stressed-out calorie counter.
I still like chomping down on a big dinner (relax, I'm not starving myself), but I’m no longer overeating all day long like I used to. Life is too short. Just slow down and enjoy the taste.
Source: www.articlecity.com
Author: Grady Lyda
No comments:
Post a Comment