Fat is the New Healthy

Is weight gain contagious? According to Web MD, they say that it is “socially contagious”, meaning that people typically follow suit when their friends and family gain or lose weight. “We are influenced by the choices, actions, appearance, and behaviors of those around us,” says Web MD. The people in our lives have a significant influence on what we eat and how much we exercise. The average American is 23 pounds heavier than his or her ideal body weight.

The rate of obesity has climbed dramatically in the past 20 years. A third of adults are obese today. What is obesity? It is medical condition that occurs when a person has far too much body fat. It can seriously affect your health, which includes high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, heart problems, and much more. A BMI of 30 or over suggests that a person may have obesity.

How did we get to this stage? Practically everywhere we go, whether it is to the movies, sports stadiums, or the mall, food is readily available. You can buy snacks or meals at the convenience stores and even at gas stations, and we are spending far too much on food eaten outside of the home than cooking a good healthy meal in the kitchen. Not surprisingly, we are eating more high-calorie foods, which are readily available than low-calorie foods, such as salads and fruits.

Our daily lives don’t offer much opportunity for activity. Nowadays, children don’t exercise much in school, we drive to work instead of riding the bus and spend most of our day sitting at a computer. Because we work long hours, we have trouble finding time to go to the gym or fitness center to exercise or play a sport.

Make it Count

The idea of a healthy lifestyle is simply to do it. I have found in my life that when you struggle with weight and healthy eating you should start off small. “Small changes result in steady progress on the path to wellness and healthy eating”. Many times I thought if I could stop eating certain foods and diet more, it would keep me from gaining weight. I would say things like “I want to eat healthier” or “I want to lose weight,” which was my favorite thing to say. Unfortunately, that way of thinking only led me on a downward spiral.

So now, my focus is more geared towards healthy eating and exercise. My goal is to become more educated on how to eat the foods that will accomplish the desired results to healthy weight loss over fad dieting.

Web MD states that “many dieters have lured over promises of fast weight loss from the latest diet schemes only to regain the weight lost as soon as they are off the diet. Sadly, to say, I was one of those people. My main go-to diet is low-carb. The low-carb diet allows me to stop eating foods high in sugar, such as cakes, cookies, sodas, and much more. However, the way I thought about food caused me to overeat eat or binge diet, because, in my mind, I thought I had it under control. My weight fluctuates, and I alter binges with extreme dieting. The shame and guilt have led me many times to continue on the journey of overeating. My mind would constantly tell me to follow that path because “I’ve already messed up, and I may as well have everything I want to eat.”

You are what you eat

Sugar found in many of our foods is not suitable for us. One of the many reasons that sugar is bad because of the lack of nutritional value. Experts believe that it is a “major cause of obesity and many chronic diseases such as type 2 diabetes” (Article on Health-line, 2019). Adding it to foods and drinks significantly increases their calorie intake without adding any nutritional value, it causes weight gain, diabetes, along with being a poor source of energy as the body digests it quickly.

Most of the time, when people decide to make changes, they see these big overarching goals that are not easily attainable. We have all done it, snack mindlessly in front of the TV set, eating in the car, on our way to work or the mall, hardly tasting it. I know for me, I usually eat because of boredom, stressed, or feeling overwhelmed about life’s circumstances. The truth is that “if your weight loss is not sustainable for the long term, it’s not worth following, says Michael Dansinger, MD.

However, there is something that can be done to prevent habits of overeating and the weight that follows. Every diet has its pros and cons, but for anyone to work, we have got to get our mind right. “Shifting our mindset about how to lose weight is the biggest factor in losing weight”. The simpler, more pleasant and less emotional demands it is to carry out your goals, the more likely you are to keep them.

Mindful eating, think about it

It is not a diet, but a practice to help you reach a “state of full attention to your experiences, emotions, cravings and physical sensations.”

1. Helps you pay attention to your own thoughts and feelings. Allow yourself to become aware of the positive and nurturing opportunities available through the way you select and prepare food.
2. Rethink rewards and punishments. “Keep in mind that making healthy choices is a way of practicing self-care, says Laura Cipullo author of Women’s Health. She says that food is not an award, and exercise is not a punishment. They are both ways of caring for your body and helping you feel your best.
3. Identify your trouble thoughts. Hokemeyer says to “identify the thoughts that get you into trouble and work to stop and change them.”
4. Don’t step on the scale. We have learned to relate weighing ourselves to self-destructive thoughts and actions. “Don’t bother stepping on the scale until you get to a place in which the scale doesn’t define your self-worth.”

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