Friday, February 12, 2010

Fitness Friday: You deserve fitness!

Having plateued over the last few months and gone back and forth between the same 5 pounds, I knew it was time to reassess. What I had started doing to lose weight worked for 30 pounds, then tapered off. Part of assessing the chnges I needed to make has been critically looking at my attitudes toward food, and how society plays into that. Two books I have read recently are "Fat Land" by Greg Critser and "Naturally Thin" by Bethenny Frankel. Very different books, but both books that will make you think about what you put into your mouth and why. One very important conclusion I have come to is this-a big reason we consume too many calories is that we have been told repeatedly that we deserve to. Bad day at work? You deserve a Frappuchino and a muffin at lunch, and a drink or two when you get home. If your supper happens to include overeating , well, you had a bad day, you deserve it! Let's look at that again, a little more honestly: You are under stress, so you deserve to make choices that will lower your physical and mental ability to deal with that stress, cause poor health, which causes more stress, and make your clothes tight, which will cause you to beat yourself up. No, dammit! You DESERVE to be healthy, you DESERVE improved quality of life, and you DESERVE to look good in your clothes. Those are the truly good things. Enjoy the food and drink you want in moderation, but if you are eating or drinking it for any reason than you want to taste it, then it's the wrong reason and will only damage your health.