Here’s another one of my simple nutrition tips:
CHEW YOUR FOOD!
Part of the trouble with the typical American diet is that people are in such a hurry that they simply don’t take enough time to actually digest the food they put in their mouth.
Up to 30% of the digestive process is designed to take place in the mouth and act of chewing actually sends signals to the rest of the system to begin the efficient metabolism of those ingested nutrients.
Your grandmother probably told you something like "chew your food 20 times" … That’s a good start. Or you may have heard "chew your liquids and drink your solid foods" meaning chew all foods until they become nearly liquid in your mouth and even chew a couple of times when taking in beverages to start the digestive process. Good advice in either case. For now, let me just suggest that you make an effort to chew everything twice as long as you think is necessary.
This will also slow down the pace of eating and may give you the opportunity to recognize that you feel full with less food.
Take the time to enjoy the foods you eat. Even if you don’t change any of the things you eat, you will make a significant difference in the way your body looks and feels by simply chewing the food completely.
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A training session doesn’t always need to be a structured event that happens around specific exercises. With a little creativity, you can make some of your everyday activities into training sessions by simply applying an addtional purpose.
For example: I needed to get the cars washed today and didn’t have time to fit in my energy system training and wash the cars before my appointements for the day. So, I decided that if I put on a weighted vest and washed the cars as normal, I could get both things done at once. Wow! What a huge difference taking care of a normal task with an extra 30 pounds on my body. It felt great to be burning some extra calories and getting work done at the same time.
Look around. Could a few extra trips up and down the stairs make a difference? How about walking to the grocery store?
Get a little more involved in playing with your kids, that’s an easy way to get the heart rate up.
Walking through the mall? Throw on a back pack with some heavy items in it.
Carry your golf bag around the course today, instead of using the cart. Add a squat each time you need to pick up your ball.
Be creative, move a little more, just have fun with it and be proud that you have taken definite steps toward better fitness.
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I took a little road trip up the northern California coast this past weekend in an attempt to escape the temperatures in the valley that were pushing 110 degrees.
During the drive at one point I became fixated on something in the rear view mirror…Now, I can’t remember if it was one of the stunning vistas of that stretch of coastline or one of the huge trucks threatening to run us down and devour our little car…. In either case, my attention was drawn away from my course of travel. Finally, I look glance back toward the road, adrenaline rushed through my body as I stomp on the brakes and narrowly avoid disaster….
A big brown cow had wandered onto the middle of the highway! That’s certainly something you don’t expect.
Had I not been fortunate enough to look up when I did, the event of hitting that cow, at that speed, on that stretch of road, would have been potentially fatal for all parties involved.
The thing I realized after this experience is that many of us spend most of our life fixated on the things in our own “rear view mirror”. We have been told by many an “expert” that the best indicators of the future are in the past. We validate who we are by the performances of the past. Look for the reasons we are who we are by the things that happened to us as children. Spend countless hours trying to figure out what went wrong with this or that.
If we spend so much time fixated on what’s happened in the past, how can we have a clear picture of where we are going?
If it happened behind you, it’s behind you and there’s nothing you can do to change what’s already happened. I don’t care how many “experts” have told you different, you cant’ change the past.
The only place you have control is in the road ahead. Had I been looking forward I would have seen the cow, I definitely could have avoided her and perhaps would have seen something remarkable in the process.
Stop fixating on the rear view of your life! If something doesn’t go as planned, let it go. It was just a result.
You will avoid disaster by seeing the unexpected up ahead and You can change the result of the future by focusing on what you want that lies ahead of you.
Drive forward!
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I just looked outside my window and noticed three birds sitting on my fence.
If one of those birds decided to fly away, how many birds would there be on the fence?
I ask a question similar to this very often. About 98% of the time I get the same answer… "There would be two birds left on the fence"
I’m sorry! Try again.
The answer is… All three of the birds are still on the fence. I said that the one bird decided to fly away, but the mere decision to fly doesn’t mean that he actually did anything about it.
This is an important distinction because, all to often, we decide to do things and then think that we have failed when we don’t get the result we wanted. When in reality there was no action taken that could have moved you closer to the outcome you wanted.
How about this situation….
You decide you’re going to go on a diet and lose some weight this month. End of the month comes around and you really don’t see the weight loss you were expecting, so you tell yourself that diets just don’t work.
If you look back, you will probably find that your "decision" was followed by weak actions that lasted no more than a day or two.
Good decision does not equal a better outcome. A Good decision plus committed action creates a successful outcome.
Practice making better decisions by realizing that a decision doesn’t mean anything unless you actually do something about it.
In my book STOP WORKING OUT!
I explain this process in detail as well as some specific actions that you can take toward your decision to create a healthier, better looking body.
Never leave the site of a decision without acting upon it!
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Summer officially started this morning at 5:26 A.M. PDT.
Today will bring us 14 hours and 47 minutes of sunshine… Get out and enjoy some of it.
Sometimes Fitness is just about taking the time to appreciate what our world gives us.
Make today a great day!
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