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JULY 28, 2003 –
No, we are not going to say, "Eat less and exercise more."
Yes, that would be what some people call the simple reality, but in
reality it is the overly simplified reality.
Those of us who grow larger
than we are genetically disposed to do so not because of weakness,
laziness, or ignorance, but because of the effects of the current
American lifestyle. People from other countries come here
thin, and immediately begin to put on weight. People from
America go elsewhere, and immediately begin to lose weight.
There are many aspects to
this. This article is the first in a series that will unravel
the various aspects of our culture that trap even the best of us
into putting on pounds that threaten our health (we at The Moderate
Independent don't care about the looks aspect of things - I
personally have known many beautiful people who had a few too many
pounds.)
STEP 1
Simple. Stop watching
TV.
The reality is, if you just
do this and don't consider any other change, and you are someone who
is largely overweight, you will lose 20 to 30 pounds.
TV is not just another idle
activity. The difference between watching TV and other
relatively idle activities, such as reading or playing cards, is
enormous.
First of all, TV is
entirely passive. Reading at least requires mental activity.
Playing cards requires both mental and physical activity. This
may seem a minimal difference to you, but it is not. And
especially it is not when you take into consideration the second
problem with TV.
In addition to keeping you
completely sedentary, TV creates cravings. All of those
commercials make you hungry; that is their job.
When you are lost in a book
or involved in a card game, you are not having consumption pushed on
you. Even if you eat while playing cards, you are being
active, involved, and not having extra consumption sold to you in
well-programmed ways.
Thirdly, TV is a hypnotic.
At the gym where I work
out, there are TVs that line one side of the gym. If you
belong to a gym that is similar, stop and observe sometime.
People tend to do their exercise, take a little rest, and then
exercise. But when they get to a machine that faces a TV, they
get lost, and can sit for four, five minutes, even longer between
sets, as they are sucked into the TV's hypnotic glaze.
So simply, if you stop
watching TV you will lose weight. This is a tested fact.
And, since you may be able to cancel cable or satellite service,
this can save you money as well.
STEP 2
This is my favorite, and
very important. When you go out to eat, always split a meal,
rather than each person getting their own.
Much of the weight we
Americans have put on over the last decade or so has been the result
of the sales strategy of our restaurants. The economic reality
is that most of the cost of the meal you order lies in the overhead
- the rent, utilities, staff pay. The restaurant makes very
little off of the first few dollars they charge for what you eat.
However, after that, it is
largely profit. So, for example, if they sell you a burger
that is as big as you need, with a reasonable amount of french
fries, they can get away with charging you maybe three or four
dollars. That will not yield them much profit, but mainly go
toward overhead.
But, if they instead serve
you a burger much larger than you need and much larger order of
fries, they can charge you five or six dollars. The fact that
you don't need what they serve doesn't mean anything to them - the
fact that they made pure profit off of that extra couple of dollars,
with only negligible additional food cost, means everything.
And so they do this with all their meals, even the salads, and with
the beverages, charging you $1.50 for a soda that costs them only 5
cents, and giving you more calories through free refills than you
used to consume in an entire meal.
At this point in time, all
meals are served big enough for at least two people. We all
stuff ourselves to finish what we are served, and in the process,
get used to consuming more than we need or even really want.
And even after that, we have more left to bring home.
So, the question arises,
why would you order two separate meals when one is more than enough
for two?
For one thing, it will be
healthier and help restore your sense of portion back to a healthy
level if you split the meal instead of eating it all on your own.
And secondly, why spend twice the money just to increase your
waistline - a double negative: more money spent than
necessary, and ruining your health by overeating and setting your
accustomed appetite level to an unreasonably large portion.
Split the meal. You
will find it is much nicer to not get overstuffed, much cheaper to
pay for only one meal, and kind of nice and intimate, to order
together as a couple.
Two ideas, both of which
not only cost nothing, but save you money, and both of which are
guaranteed to reduce your weight (if you are overweight.)
Only one question remains:
why wouldn't you give one or both of these a try? This would
be the first step in unraveling the cultural tangle that leads so
many of us - over 65 percent now - to be very overweight.
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