Ever since I had a bout of anemia, I've had to work at maintaining my weight. I've also had to rethink my approach to food in order to see the pounds disappear . . . very slowly!
Lent, this year, gave my a new perspective. I didn't fast to lose weight but to work off a little Purgatory time. However, I realized that if I was cutting back on my eating, I had to make sure I didn't wear sackcloth and dust myself with ashes so EVERYONE knew I was SUFFERING! From other attempts, I knew that I knew I had to reevaluate my approach. Instead of depriving myself of food, I changed my eating habits. I soon discovered a bowl of oatmeal in the morning was enough until noon. Sure, I COULD have nibbled on something between times but I kept in mind that I had eaten sufficiently for my needs.
Lunch is where I usually fool myself in food choices. I decided to go with a big lunch but nothing processed, only fresh. You can indulge in a lot of fruits and vegetables with not much calorie return. Besides, the chewing necessary provides you with a 20 minute eating period and you start listening to your stomach when it has enough. I added an ounce or so of some protein and I was good until dinner. Yes, by dinner time, I was hungry but the fact that I started out telling myself there would be no eating between meals, period, facilitated the change in lifestyle. Dinner was always a reasonable helping of whatever I had fixed. Dessert was an orange or apple.
Lent is over. I lost 16 pounds but, more importantly, I feel like I've put myself in charge of my eating. A priest friend said that if you can make one change during Lent to the good, you've done well.
I also got to thinking about the times I used to have an extra cookie just because it tasted good not that I was hungry. Looking back, it was a form of gluttony. And the fact that I would consume non-productive calories that I didn't need, seemed to me to be a form of 'suicide' by diet. When you know you don't need it, when you know you are not nourishing your body, you have to start realizing you could be cutting short your life. Wouldn't that come under one of the Ten Commandments?
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