Your Body Isn’t Fat, It’s Efficient

Your body is a very efficient machine. You should be proud. If we were living in prehistoric times, you would be a survivor. Your body has been designed to keep you alive and functioning in times of food shortage. In ancient times we had to hunt or gather our food, and then clean, prepare and cook it, before we could eat. Not a lot of food came cooked and ready made from the bag or can.

Our bodies, super efficient survival machines that they are, are designed to keep us fit enough to go out and hunt for our food after periods of little or no sustenance. Our bodies have storage areas all over to hold a cache of extra energy for when we need it.

Today we live in an environment of comfort and ease. Our food needs little in the way of preparation and most of it is efficient food. Efficient food is food that provides a lot of energy. A good example of efficient food is chocolate. It is easily converted to energy by our bodies. If the energy is not used immediately, it is stored by our efficient bodies for a time when we may need it for our survival.

In order to become slimmer we first need to change the way we think of our bodies. Instead of feeling your body is fat, tell yourself your body is super-efficient. Get over your mental hang-ups and stop punishing yourself for being a survival machine. Think of your body as super efficient. Understand that your body is doing a great job. It is doing exactly as it was designed.

You must realise your body doesn’t understand abundance. It is afraid you will run out of food. The best way to help your body feel safe is to keep feeding it. Instead of starving yourself, you should eat more often. This tells your body there is no shortage of food. The type of food you eat is important,   too.  Food that takes a lot of energy to chew, digest and convert is the type of food you need.

If you remember your body is a super efficient machine that still believes it is in prehistoric times you will do well. Foods like fresh fruit and vegetables, or very lightly steamed vegetables are excellent. They use energy to digest and convert them to energy. You are not storing as much energy by eating these foods.

Eating fresh, unprocessed foods will make you feel full, they will help clear your system of bad fats and cholesterol and they will help your body work even more efficiently. You will feel great and your body will use up the extra stored energy. You will be slimmer, healthier and proud of the super efficient machine that is your body.

Ten tips to a healthier you

Stop telling yourself you are fat. If you focus on fat, you will feel fat. You will feel hopeless and helpless. Do your self esteem a favour and stop calling yourself names.

Start the day feeling positive and that sets the tone for the rest of your day. Get into the habit of being grateful for all the beautiful things in your life and you will begin to love yourself and your life. The parts you don’t like so much, like those extra couple of pounds will disappear in time.

Eat fresh fruit and vegetables to clear out your insides. You will be amazed at the difference in the way you feel after a week or two. You will be able to think more clearly and move more easily. You don’t have to be overweight to feel the difference. Our bodies cope with the stress of daily living much better if they don’t have to process the wrong types of food. Do yourself a favour and try at least two weeks of fresh fruit and vegetables.

Throw out your frypan to give your body a major boost. There’s very little value in fried food. The heat destroys the best of the vitamins and we really don’t need more fat in our diets. After eating well for a while, you will come to detest fatty, fried food. It really does spoil the taste of good food.

Fresh food is best but if you want to cook your food, steaming or grilling is far better than fried. It preserves the flavour and does not use extra fat. Baking is all right as long as the food is not swimming in fat. A baking rack can help lift the food from the fat.

Thirty minutes per day of gentle exercise will make you feel fantastic. You should also do a little more intense cardio- type exercise but if you are unused to exercise, it’s best to start gently. You are trying to feel good so you won’t want to pull anything and end up in pain. Take it slowly but gently increase your level of activity each week. You will come to love exercising and if you have to skip a day, you will really miss it. It will become a fun part of your daily routine.

To be truly happy you need to enjoy the company of friends. It is great for your health too. It doesn’t have to be a big deal. A coffee and a chat are enough. Make some regular time to get together with friends. Tell them it’s great for their health too.

Laughter is really the best medicine. You need to laugh every day. It releases endorphins and its helps lower blood pressure. It feels pretty great too.

If you get a good night’s Sleep you are better able to cope with all the day throws at you. You work more efficiently and your body works better too. If you don’t get enough sleep, you can put on weight. It’s best to have a regular routine so try to get ready for bed a t the same time every night and get up at the same time each morning. The amount of sleep you need each day varies from person to person; everyone is different, so listen to your body.

Water is vital to your body so if you want to be healthy you need to replenish your supply every day. Eight glasses is the usual suggested quantity. You don’t have to be fanatical but try replacing some of those coffees with water. A big glass of water is good start to the day, and a glass before each meal helps you to feel full so you eat less food.

When you eat and drink sensibly, get enough exercise and sleep, everything else falls into place. Your body weight should stabilise and your moods with be brighter, your thinking will be clear and you will enjoy your life. It’s all about balance.

1. Make a planner and fill in your goals. For example if you want to lose one kilogram per week, plan a day for you weigh in, write down your goal, and on the day write down the actual weight loss.
2. Keep a journal. Record the meals you eat. Don’t forget to add those snacks. Write down your moods, significant events or anything that may influence your weight loss.
3. Have a special day assigned for your rewards. If you stick to the plan and lose your goal weight, you need a reward. Make sure you highlight your reward days.
4. Your planner should have your exercise routine set out. You should be able to see at a glance which exercise you are doing each day. You should also record your progress.
5. There are computer programs to record your progress in weight loss and in fitness. These programs are a great way to follow your progress. It is encouraging to see how well you are doing. It is good for those times when your weight loss plateaus. You can look back to where you were and see that it has not been a waste of time.
6. Join a weight loss forum. There are plenty around. Some have a progress bar on your page. It shows how much weight you have lost and what you are aiming for. It’s great to get support from others who are going through the same as you.
7. Do it with a friend. Get yourself a partner and the two of you can exercise together. It’s great for motivation because if you try to skip an exercise session, you will feel like you’re letting your partner down. You may find you work that little bit harder when you have some competition.

Computers are modern day miracles, capable of performing tasks faster and more accurately than man can perform.  Computers just about run our lives, controlling everything in our society from transport, trade and health to communications, entertainment and security. We depend on computers performing accurately.

There is an expression in computer programming circles, ‘garbage in, garbage out’. Simply this means that if you put garbage in, that is what you’ll get in return. The system is only as good as the input.

Our bodies are miracles too, and like the computer if you put garbage in you will get garbage out. Unless you fuel your body with quality, healthy food, your performance will be sluggish and unreliable. Mistakes will be made, information will be lost and if the ‘garbage in’ is a long-term thing the system will shut down.

It is vitally important for your health to eat a variety of healthy food. Food that is close to its natural form is the best for you. Fresh fruit and vegetables, smaller quantities of lightly cooked meat and fish and some nuts and grains are the perfect fuel for your body.

Avoid overly processed foods like fast food, cakes, sweets, potato chips and sugared soda. Avoid anything deep-fried and avoid white bread, white sugar and anything covered in white bread or white sugar.

Avoid cigarettes and any drug that has not been prescribed by your doctor. Large amounts of alcohol should be avoided too. A healthy, well-nourished body should have no need of medicines as illnesses like indigestion and many headaches are usually caused by an unhealthy lifestyle.

Your body is like a computer or a finely tuned sports car. If you treat it well you will be rewarded with the best performance and a lifetime of service. Unlike, computers and sports cars you only get one body so treat it well. No garbage in!

Depression is becoming one of the most common diseases affecting people these days. Unless you have experienced depression, you cannot understand how debilitating it is. There are so many different symptoms and causes. It is confusing to try to understand the disease and even more confusing to try to find a cause or a cure. Sometimes there are different causes in the same person. It is thought to be caused by a combination of events and circumstances, which can vary each time, and the severity can be mild to severe. Sometimes a cure will work for one person, but not another.

One link to depression in many people is diet and exercise. So many people have found that regular exercise can help with recovery from depression. It is also good in prevention of depression. It helps with the severity of the bout in many people. Exercise releases natural chemicals in the body, which help elevate moods. Exercise also helps regulate body weight, often linked to depression and mood disorders. Exercise is considered to be beneficial as part of a cure and as a strong foundation to prevention of further outbreaks of depression.

Food was thought to be a trigger because many depressed people are, or become, overweight. Many people fall into despair and feel unloved, unwanted and unattractive when their weight gets out of control. The feelings of self-loathing fuel the depression, which fuels the urge to eat. Food was seen as a comfort tool and was used to fill emotional holes.

These days we know that types of foods and the combinations in which they are eaten have a dramatic effect on the chemical balance in our bodies. The foods themselves and the chemicals they are treated with need to be examined for the effect they have on our health. The chemicals used to extend the life of fresh foods and the chemicals used for artificial flavouring and colouring, the fertilisers and the chemicals in the plastic and foam packaging are all absorbed by our bodies. These are major contributors to the state of our health. If we cut out the majority of artificial elements in our diets, and eat a healthy, well-balanced combination of good food we can eliminate many impurities from our systems.

There are other combinations of foods to try if this does not help but try getting rid of the unnatural, unhealthy products in your diet and see how much better you feel.