Week 14

Everything in moderation
You might wonder where is week 13? Not that I am superstitious but I don’t do thirteen. Now back to business and why I choose the title “everything in moderation”. Don’t you think that this motto should be incorporated into all aspects of our life? Even things that give us immense pleasure should not be overindulged. If we use this motto for work, play, exercise and nutrition, our lives would be so much simpler. We would have far less workaholics, depression, obesity or even slackers in the world. Let me use the example of this past week, when our family participated in our schools annual Celebration of the World event. This was a wonderful occasion for the thirty eight nationalities represented at our school, to come together under one roof. There were approximately 1500 people who attended the event. Each country was responsible for providing a taste of typical food from their homeland. This is an arduous task considering the number of mouths to feed. Just to give you an idea of what some of the countries offered; the Canadian booth flipped over 2000 “loonie” sized pancakes served with maple syrup. The booth from Argentina made over 1000 bite sized empanadas. The Swedish table offered smoked salmon on a cracker, and the Japanese table served small plates of yakisoba. Now add food samples from another twenty plus countries to this list and that was “lunch”. Miraculously people were able to circulate around the food court, tasting delights from around the world, over a period of four hours, without feeling stuffed or gluttonous by the end of sampling. Studies have proven than eating smaller portions in moderation is more beneficial to our health. Think of your body as a machine that needs constant energy source (food) for fuel. Stop feeding it and it’s going to run sluggish. It is important to keep that engine stoaked throughout the entire day. There are three main benefits to eating smaller meals more often. First, it takes about ten percent of the calories in your food to digest it, so eating more frequently helps rev up the engine. Second, you will have more energy to be active, and third, you are less likely to reach for a sugary snack, when you are keeping your blood sugar steady. Grazing is term that I like to call this method of eating. When we eat more than our body needs, the excess is sent to the liver to be turned into fat. With our face paced busy life, and far less breaks, it is really a task to EAT OFTEN. This concept sounds fine on paper but it really forces you to have to plan better. So, take a few minutes every morning to think about what you will consume that day, with regards to both the size and frequency of your food intake. The next time a person tells you that they can’t eat that piece of brownie or scoop of ice cream because they are on a diet, tell them that you believe that it is important to have “EVERYTHING IN MODERATION”. Have a great week friends and HAPPY MAY!