Healthy Eating

Photo Credit: Body Incredible dot com

I have a lot to say on this topic, but what I want to convey today is, listening to your body. Our body speaks to us if only we would take the time to listen.

 I started realizing this during my early twenties while tail gating at a Bears game. At this point I had changed my eating habits and knew certain foods needed to be eaten in moderation. Like potato chips, don't take the whole bag just a hand full if you crave them. I grabbed my handful of chips and began to indulge when a little while later I noticed the rings on my fingers were tighter than usual. It was that day I found out that salt made me retain water and chips became a very infrequent guest in my mouth.

After that I started paying more attention to how my body looked and felt after eating. I discovered that no matter how much I love pork, it does not love me, my lower abs bulge and I feel weighed down, like there's a rock in my stomach. I found this to be also true with beef, so I switched to ground turkey. I love cheese, but found that cheese causes me to be constipated however, I have also learned vegetables aid in avoiding the problem.

Another area were we can listen to our bodies is when it tells us we do not need to eat. Food is fuel for our bodies, but as a society we tend to eat because it tastes good. We need to listen to our bodies and eat when our body tells us to and stop when it tells us to.

Some individuals may have health conditions which may require them to eat more. My friend's son has a condition where he is missing the nerve in his body that tells him his body is full. This causes him to eat on an ongoing basis, it is so bad that my friend said she caught him eating flour one day. They keep the cabinets and fridge locked so he does not have easy access to food.

My first husband died from complications of diabetes. I did not keep a lot of junk food in the house, if I did get something for the kids, I had to hide it. What I did do was make sure there were healthy foods always available for the children, my self and my husband. Keep the junk to a limit, currently the boys are allowed one bag of chips a month. However, they have to pour some in a bowl they are not allowed to sit down with the whole bag which causes you to eat more.

It took me a year to stop drooling at the check out counter as my two favorite treats taunted me. I am not going to say it is easy because that would be a lye, it was, hard watching everyone else eat whatever they wanted to. But, I stuck to my guns, I was going to take off the extra weight and get healthy. So, get rid of the foods that taunt you and stock your shelves with healthy choices, hugs my beautiful friends.

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