Sunday, December 28, 2008

Beautiful Me...beautiful You...in No Time At All

By Ferda Shinsky

Imagine this scenario: a healthier you, a trimmer body, and a longer life; all without investing much time at all. Sound crazy? It's all too possible with just a few tiny behavior changes. But first, you absolutely must truly decide to reshape your body. If you decide that yourself, and this article can give you some help as to how to get there. The secret is to form good habits to replace your bad ones.

So many people just sit and eat without thinking about it at all when they are lonely or bored. When you eat for entertainment, you eat things you body doesn't need, and sometimes in dangerous amounts . Eating when you are bored or lonely also trains your body to think it is hungry when you're really just bored. If you sit around and eat, all you do isstore fat from the foods that you eat, a big cause of obesity. These signs and others, such as Diabetes, heart conditions, cholesterol problems, and breathing problems are distress signals from your body that indicate that it is high time you made a change in your life.

Your brain is the biggest ally and your biggest enemy in gaining a healthier you. Your current poor health is an obstacle that you need to over come on your path to becoming a newer, healthier person. You have to cover your current habits with newer, healthier thinking. Self-esteem is important, because self-esteem will eventually drive you toward your goal. Don't wait for someone to pat you on the back when you do a good job; do it yourself. Learn to reward yourself for good behavior with small rewards that keep you on your path.

The first change you need to make to find a healthier you is to reduce your consumption of high calorie food, and replace them low-calorie, nutrient dense foods. If you were going to have a cheeseburger and fries, you can skip the fries and have a garden salad with low-calorie dressing instead. If you like chicken nuggets with creamy pasta, try having chicken breast with vegetables and a high-fiber bread, or replace that creamy pasta with a low-fat marinara sauce. Instead of take out pizza, try some oven baked fish with rice and a small salad instead.

Change #2: Take those times of boring sitting periods and turn them into fun exercise periods IE: Instead of sitting and watching television-Take a walk/better yet have someone walk along with you (drive your car and mark out a mile distance)aInstead of sitting and playing on the computer for 2 hours-Go and play an activity in the backyard such as volleyball or badmintonaInstead of laying down in bed and watching television-Go to the beach and go swimming and/or walk the beach.

It is also a good habit to write down everything you eat so you are aware of it. Lots of people gain weight by sitting in front of the television with a big bag of chips. If you make sure you portion your food so you can write it down, it's a lot easier to keep track of how many calories you are taking in. One of the first steps to a healthier you is to get out of denial about how much you really eat. Lots of people who are overweight claim they don't eat much, but if you really examine their habits, they are eating tons of calories without even knowing it.

It's also a good idea to keep a log of your activities so you can be aware of your progress in getting more active. There are many books available to help you log your activity, and there are also many websites that will help you log your activities and count the calories you expend in your activities.

One of the most important things to remember is not to fear failure; in fact, expect to fail multiple times before you reach your goal. Remember that those failures are small battles in an overall war for your health. Remember that you must stay the course to win the war. Everyone is going to have their bad days. If your boss yells at you, and you get sad and sit in front of the television and eat too much pizza or an entire tub of ice cream, this is no reason to give up or beat yourself up about it. If you slip, it's just a sign that you haven't reached your goal yet, and you need to pick yourself up and get back on track instead of falling back into the pattern. - 15438

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