At any given time more than 60 percent of the adults are overweight and the number of children joining the overweight crowd is quickly increasing. I have been part of this group off and on at different parts of my life. One of the biggest realizations I have come to is your mind has to be in the right place before health become a regular part of other areas of your life. Healthy mind healthy body is a lifestyle that everyone should follow.
The biggest challenge for me is dealing with stress. I have realized that I become overwhelmed by large lists of tasks. Looking at a list that has many items on it automatically increases my appetite. I try not to put unnecessary hard deadlines on myself. If I have a long list, I determine which items MUST be completed today and everything else goes to bottom of the list until all “MUST DO” things are complete.
Unfortunately, exercise and other things that are important get pushed farther down the list, but I do try to catch up on those things in the same week. I have found that if I can keep things simple and take tasks one at a time the stress level is kept to a minimum. When this happens, I find it easier to make healthier food choices and not feel like rating my way through the stress.
I don’t eliminate anything from my diet, but I do eat small portions as much as I can. That way I can enjoy anything that sounds good at the time. I do try to limit bread and pasta. I don’t enjoy it that much and it makes tired, not to mention that cravings it sometimes causes. I love ice cream and try to save enough calories to end each day have a serving. This will probably not change unless I hit a weight loss plateau.
Have an uncluttered mind makes it easier to stick to an exercise plan. I actually bought a fitness tracker that can measure swimming. It measures other types of exercise also. I find after wearing it for a few weeks, I am more motivated to try to meet the 10,000 daily steps goal. It is difficult on days that I work. I try to walk at least 5,000 steps before I head off to work and get the balance of the 10,000 steps in after work.
The things that cause me the most stress always seem to happen when I am at work. My plan for eliminating stress quickly…I have a list of five minute things (mostly on my cell phone) that I can do that will help get my mind back on track, such as: read a few pages from a book, look at pictures that I love, listen to a song, even just close my eyes and think about being at the beach.
After I take five minutes to decompress, I take five minutes to evaluate the situation that caused the stress. I ask myself what I can do to make this situation go away and begin to put steps in place to eliminate the problem. Sometimes it may take several days to complete eliminate the problem, but trust me when I say the sooner you start working towards a solution, the sooner the stress and the feeling to want to eat when you aren’t hungry will disappear.
As long as I can keep my mind healthy, the healthy body will follow!