Showing posts with label moderation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label moderation. Show all posts
Saturday, December 24, 2011
Happy Healthy Holidays!
I am not going to start this entry by stating the obvious; exercise daily, eat right, be one with your body, listen to what your mind is telling you, do yoga, floss. Instead, I am going to remind you that there is a reason the old saying goes "HAPPY HOLIDAYS". During this holiday season; celebrate, dance, give, take deep and meaningful breaths, savour the moments, hydrate, pray to and for whomever, and please enjoy eating. I am giving you permission to have that second glass of eggnog, try the tasty appetizer that your friend baked or eat your mom's yummy homemade stuffing and BE HAPPY doing so. Practice my personal favourite mantra "everything in moderation". Take pleasure in the holiday spirit and show your happiness. Don't eat for the sake of eating, instead, use all of your senses to heighten the eating experience. Smell the wonderful flavours, look at the presentation, feel the textures on your tongue and follow the 40-chew rule in order to savour every mouthful. Think about the tender love and care that went into making the holiday treat. If you a person that needs hard statistics, rather than just indulging in the pure joy of eating, The Smell and Taste Treatment and Research Foundation in Chicago, found that a less acute sense of taste leads to over consumption of foods rich in sugar salt and fat. There will be more about taste enhancers in next weeks entry. Until then, HAPPY HOLIDAYS and ENJOY yourself because after all, happiness is a choice.
Friday, May 14, 2010
Week 15
Mother knows best
The people in our lives often inspire us to become more loving, more generous and more graceful. I feel fortunate to have so many people in my life that fit this bill, but today, I will write about one specific person who is my inspiration, my confidant and my biggest fan. This is my MOTHER, Connie. After providing you with just a glimpse of the type of person she is, you will understand why I am honouring her, and I hope that you will take some of her wisdom to heart, as I did.
It amazing just how many life lessons I learned from my mother. To be honest, I didn’t give her enough credit until I was a mother myself. I used to think “how hard could it be?” I did not appreciate the unconditional love, perfect intimacy of mother and child, and utter frustration when things don’t go as planned, followed by relief with resolution. I have vivid memories of being at the local ski hill one Saturday night saying to myself, “Geez, why is she over-reacting to the fact that I am drinking Malibu rum out of a plastic pineapple, after all, I am 15 for crying out loud.” Life lesson number one: Think before you act and learn from your mistakes. Why is it that my mother always knows what is best and relentlessly has my best interest in mind? How exhausting. Some of my earliest recollections of my mom giving me advice surround the topic of food. Up until about 15 years ago, Connie was a yo-yo dieter who would be willing to try any new diet trend that came along. These diets were always effective in the short-term, but she found it very difficult to keep the weight off. She enjoys both the preparation and indulgence in great food. Once she told me that she was half bulimic, she said that she had the binge part down, but couldn’t seem to participate in the purge part. Thus, life lesson number two: never diet, don’t skip breakfast, eat only until you are no longer hungry and enjoy the taste of healthy food. Eat in moderation.
I have always been a bit of a sun worshiper and I can recall lying on the dock like a roast of beef, with a 15 minute timer set indicating the time I was meant to flip. Connie would casually come down to visit, donning a large brimmed hat and long sleeved t-shirt, to say “You might feel healthier tanned, but in reality you are going to have alligator skin by the time you are twenty.” Lesson number three, moisturize.
Life lesson number four: do not be afraid to get older, age is only a number. Connie is a beautiful, vibrant, strong, balanced woman who does not hide the fact that she will turn 66 on June 6, 2010. In fact, she is somewhat proud of this fact and is the first to take offense when she is not offered the senior discount at Safeway. She is honest with herself and knows how much work it takes to be healthy at 66. She does daily Thai Chi, wogs (this is the word she uses to describe how she combines walking with running) for 30-40 minutes every day and also enjoys aqua fit classes four or five times a week. Connie will be participating in the 5km Mother’s day race with my brother Rob as her Mother’s day present to herself. I am so proud of her. I am grateful to have such an amazing role model, as I embark on this unexplored frontier of thought and emotion called motherhood. With her guidance and support, I am confident that I too will have such an impact on my children, and only hope to be as influential on my children as Connie has been on me. You go girl!
Happy Mother’s Day!
The people in our lives often inspire us to become more loving, more generous and more graceful. I feel fortunate to have so many people in my life that fit this bill, but today, I will write about one specific person who is my inspiration, my confidant and my biggest fan. This is my MOTHER, Connie. After providing you with just a glimpse of the type of person she is, you will understand why I am honouring her, and I hope that you will take some of her wisdom to heart, as I did.
It amazing just how many life lessons I learned from my mother. To be honest, I didn’t give her enough credit until I was a mother myself. I used to think “how hard could it be?” I did not appreciate the unconditional love, perfect intimacy of mother and child, and utter frustration when things don’t go as planned, followed by relief with resolution. I have vivid memories of being at the local ski hill one Saturday night saying to myself, “Geez, why is she over-reacting to the fact that I am drinking Malibu rum out of a plastic pineapple, after all, I am 15 for crying out loud.” Life lesson number one: Think before you act and learn from your mistakes. Why is it that my mother always knows what is best and relentlessly has my best interest in mind? How exhausting. Some of my earliest recollections of my mom giving me advice surround the topic of food. Up until about 15 years ago, Connie was a yo-yo dieter who would be willing to try any new diet trend that came along. These diets were always effective in the short-term, but she found it very difficult to keep the weight off. She enjoys both the preparation and indulgence in great food. Once she told me that she was half bulimic, she said that she had the binge part down, but couldn’t seem to participate in the purge part. Thus, life lesson number two: never diet, don’t skip breakfast, eat only until you are no longer hungry and enjoy the taste of healthy food. Eat in moderation.
I have always been a bit of a sun worshiper and I can recall lying on the dock like a roast of beef, with a 15 minute timer set indicating the time I was meant to flip. Connie would casually come down to visit, donning a large brimmed hat and long sleeved t-shirt, to say “You might feel healthier tanned, but in reality you are going to have alligator skin by the time you are twenty.” Lesson number three, moisturize.
Life lesson number four: do not be afraid to get older, age is only a number. Connie is a beautiful, vibrant, strong, balanced woman who does not hide the fact that she will turn 66 on June 6, 2010. In fact, she is somewhat proud of this fact and is the first to take offense when she is not offered the senior discount at Safeway. She is honest with herself and knows how much work it takes to be healthy at 66. She does daily Thai Chi, wogs (this is the word she uses to describe how she combines walking with running) for 30-40 minutes every day and also enjoys aqua fit classes four or five times a week. Connie will be participating in the 5km Mother’s day race with my brother Rob as her Mother’s day present to herself. I am so proud of her. I am grateful to have such an amazing role model, as I embark on this unexplored frontier of thought and emotion called motherhood. With her guidance and support, I am confident that I too will have such an impact on my children, and only hope to be as influential on my children as Connie has been on me. You go girl!
Happy Mother’s Day!
Friday, April 30, 2010
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!
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!
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