Everyday Conscious Living
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Your hosts: Kathy and Dennis Lang. Contact them with your opinions at Dennis.Lang@PrudentialNetworkRealty.com |
Conscious Eating and Dieting
In our previous episode, Kathy and I discussed our view of fitness for life. We looked at the overall cost and impact health issues have on our country and how they relate to us individually. We presented several practical everyday steps we all can take to improve our fitness and the impact on those around us.
Here we will summarize our views on conscious eating and dieting. It seems controlling our weight, eating right and fighting the “battle of the bulge” are never ending challenges. Seemingly an ongoing battle, this concern, even an obsession, can be counter productive to overall health. As we said in the previous episode, we are not dietitians and will not make recommendations of supplements. There are other excellent resources for that.
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| Getting tempeh ready for marinating |
Eating Consciously
Today we are so caught up in our everyday lives, meeting the expectations of work, driving crowded streets, balancing home life with careers, school and fitting fitness and relaxation in when we can. For many, eating has become just another of the everyday tasks that must be done. However, it should be an important time out, a time for re-energizing the body with healthy food, a time to unplug, a time to visit and converse with family or friends. It’s that time for revitalizing. Try the following steps to bring awareness and intention to your eating habits:
Prepare food with intention and awareness. Even ready made meals can be prepared with awareness. Take time and make preparation an exercise in awareness and removal from concerns of the day.
Food is our fuel. Treating it as such is important. We are literally refueling our bodies and igniting the life force within us. Be conscious of the significance of that!
Dine in a nice location. Choose a place, perhaps it’s a dining room but it does not have to be. It could be a counter in the kitchen. Make it a place where you are comfortable. If you must drive through and do fast food, choose a healthy low fat food and stop, park and take time to eat. Don’t eat and drive… we often joke about “road food” relative to its ease to be eaten while driving… truthfully eating and driving do not mix.
Take a moment for silence. Perhaps you give thanks to your creator. Be grateful for your abundance and the positive energy you are about to receive.
Allow time for flavor. Cobbling food fast not only leads to digestive issues, but bypasses one of our main senses… our taste buds. Give them a chance to savor the flavors, the essence of the food you made.
Breathe. It’s often missed. As you chew, breathe. Breath brings in oxygen and blends with food to nourish and replenish our bodies.
A Conscious Diet
Remember the old phrase, “You are what you eat”? There is a lot of truth to it. Think about it. Food is a chemical that drives chemical processes and reactions within the body. What you eat and how much are both very important. One must balance quality with quantity.
There are many fad diets. Just go to www.everydiet.org and see the range and compare for yourself. Kathy and I tried many through our time together. Weight Watchers and the South Beach Diets rose to the surface for us but that was years ago.
Now we take a very pragmatic approach which integrates our eating habits with our conscious living philosophy. For us, our diet reflects our need for food and our concern for those around us. We consider diet as a “green” concern in addition to a health concern. We try to buy organic locally grown products, avoid over-processed foods, avoid refined sugar and are vegan by choice. When it comes to dieting consciously, here are some everyday considerations:
Write it down. We mentioned this in the last episode. It is proven that the most effective diet technique is to log your eating habits and food eaten. This brings awareness to reality. We tend to forget how often and how much we eat… be real with yourself. Do this for a week. Then a month later, do it for a week again. See the difference.
Drink water. Even just before a meal. Perhaps while preparing the meal. It takes up volume and takes the edge off your hunger. Say nothing of the many benefits it provides and flushes the system. Make drinking water part of the food prep process to meet your daily quota for water.
Remember the 20 minute rule. As you are really wolfing it down, pause, take a breath and remember the 20 minute rule. That’s about how long the delay is before you “feel” full. Many people tend to eat past a fully satisfied point and then over eat because of this delay.
Read labels. As written in “Skinny Bitch”, www.skinnybitch.net, believe no one! Read the labels. If there are too many ingredients and they include many chemicals that you can not pronounce… don’t buy it.
Avoid refined sugar and artificial sweeteners. Much as been written about this. See the website above for examples. We use raw sugar and evaporated cane juice in recipes calling for sugar.
Buy locally grown organic foods… even a few. The average distance a farm grown product travels to your public grocery store is about 1,300 miles. No wonder food prices are up… it follows the price of a barrel of oil! To buy locally reduces that distance to less that 100 miles and typically 50. So choosing to buy local foods supports the local economy, reduces the “carbon footprint of your eating” and tastes better.
Go vegetarian a couple days a week. Take a break from animal protein once in a while. You body and the world will love you for it. Animal protein is very taxing on the human digestive system and the animal farm factories place a large burden on the environment say nothing of the chemicals used to enhance their production that you eat as part of them. As previously mentioned, Kathy and I are vegan. We choose not to eat any animal products (meat, fish, chicken and dairy). It’s not that radical and not that hard to do. All of our protein is plant based. Click here are a couple of your favorite recipes. . A couple of our favorite cook books are: “Vegan with a Vengeance” and “Veganomicon”, both written by Isa Chandra Moskowitz. These are both awesome cookbooks! Her website is www.theppk.com.
Make a difference in the world! Your diet contributes. You can have an impact, positively or negatively on the world around you by what you eat.
Don’t get caught up by a fad. There is no easy way to dieting. If it sounds too good to be true… IT IS! A balanced diet and exercise is the best and most healthy way to improve your overall fitness.
That’s it. Conscious eating and dieting is not rocket science. It’s about taking a real and responsible approach. Always check with multiple credentialed sources for dietary change and your physician before making any dramatic change in your diet. Let us know your thoughts and if you need any other information.
Summary
- Prepare food with intention and awareness
- Avoid refined sugar and artificial sweeteners
- Buy local and organic whenever you can
- Don't get caught by a fad diet