Winds of change

Something has changed.

Somehow, somewhere, the focus has been redefined to me. It started as weight loss mainly for my son, but moved into better overall health for us all and then took a grand leap into defeating Autism, and improving hubby and my health.Suddenly I find myself thinking things like "let's get out and take a walk to soak up as much Vitamin D and strengthen our immune systems" instead of let's go walk to burn calories and gain activity points. When contemplating dinner for the week ahead I am thinking what will our bodies need a lot more than how many points or calories things are. When considering recipes I look for the healthiest options for ingredients instead of what things will make it the lowest in calories. And through it all, my inner voice whispers that if you are getting proper nutrition your body will be satiated faster and you will eat less. It also repeats that with proper nutrition the body will behave as it should and a normal weight will result.

It is a fact that obesity is simply another manifestation of malnutrition. A body that never gets the proper nutrients will force the inhabitant to eat mass quantities (through outrageous hunger) in order to attempt to get what it needs. If a person , in an attempt to lose weight, simply restricts calories and grabs foods that reflect that yet have no real nutrition, they will fail. If you restrict fat and bulk up on fiber, you will fail ( and become very uncomfortable). Yet if you ignore the conventional wisdom for dieting and focus on really feeding your body, you will lose weight and improve your health. Appetite is not simply a behavioral thing. Try this- right now as you are reading this, will your appetite to kick in. Does not happen, does it ? If you become emotionally stressed and desire to eat, it is because your body is craving a substance to help it address the biological needs of the emotional situation. Most likely it is fats ( real needs are Omega fatty acids) and salt ( your thyroid and adrenal glands DESPERATELY need salt to function properly. High blood pressure is not caused by an abundance of sodium, but a depletion of potassium). Our normal response to such cravings would be things like candy, chips and fried foods, simply because that is what we are culturally conditioned to ingest. However, if we reached for a handful of nuts, avocados or even fruits, we would find the biological need addressed. Instead of doing mindless movements with a machine in a building with artificial lights, get out and walk in the sunshine. Your body will thank you in many ways for this, including an edge against all forms of cancer.

I thank Weight Watchers for the skills it teaches with portion control, but I feel it falls short of a real health move. It begins to attempt to address the concept that we need food for life and health, but it just does not take it far enough. From this day on I am no longer going to concern myself with calories or points for our intake. Instead I am going to focus on optimal nutritional needs and the best forms of movement we can get in.