Awareness: The Key to Maintaining Healthy Body Weight
The Key to Maintaining Healthy Body Weight is Awareness
By Ann Christine Johnson
Food is a basic necessity of life. It provides us with the energy we need to do all the things that we want and need do each day. It is one of life’s little pleasures but like most of life’s pleasures over-indulgence is an ever-present risk. Awareness of a healthy body weight is very important. Consuming an excess of food and having a sedentary lifestyle can lead to us becoming over-weight or even obese. This may in turn lead to hypertension, clogged arteries, coronary heart disease, stroke or premature death. As well, people who have excess body weight are more likely to develop diabetes, gout, gall bladder disease, osteoarthritis, sleep apnoea, eating disorders and bowel, breast, prostate and ovarian cancer.
Put in simple terms, we become overweight when our food intake contains more kilojoules (kJ) than our bodies can use up. To lose weight fewer kilojoules must be consumed than the body needs so that stored up fat is used for energy. Conversely, we become underweight when our food intake contains fewer kilojoules (kJ) than our bodies can use up and need to maintain our healthy body weight. To gain weight more kilojoules must be consumed than the body needs so that fat can be stored. Whether you are planning to lose weight, to gain weight, or to maintain your current body weight, your food intake needs to be nutritionally adequate to avoid lethargy and for your body to remain hearty and well.
Most of us these days have a tendency to over-eat, binge-eat or medicate ourselves with food. Unfortunately our over-indulgence usually catches up with us and we end up being over-weight. Being overweight can usually be solved firstly by changing the type and quantity of food we eat (whilst ensuring that what we do eat is healthy and nourishing); and secondly by increasing our physical activity so that we increase our energy expenditure. Being under-weight can also be a problem for some people. Poor eating habits or not eating sufficiently for the body to remain well, can contribute to a person being under-weight. While this is true for most of us, thyroid gland functioning, heredity, lifestyle, personality traits, mental health and mental attitudes, health problems and the environment we live in, all play a part in us staying a health body weight for our height and age.
To maintain a healthy body weight, set a goal to eat healthily each day. Set a goal to incorporate some exercise into your daily routine. Don’t panic if you relapse occasionally. Your so-called failures are but stepping stones to your success. Learn to listen to your body, to be able to discern whether you are eating because you are physically hungry or whether you are eating for ‘other’ reasons. Eat only when necessary and stop when you are full, not stuffed. Avoid stressed-induced over-eating, emotion-generated eating or eating just because the clock says so. Work out how many serving per food group (fruit and vegetables, whole grains, dairy, protein, healthy fats, legumes, nuts and seeds) you need each day to maintain good healthy and limit yourself to this. If you are over-weight you need to eat less until you have reached your ideal body weight. If you over-eat and don’t have sufficient physical activities to compensate for this you will soon become over-weight. If you under-eat your body will become weak and less likely to ward off illness and disease. So it is for your own benefit that you get in the habit of being aware of what you are eating and drinking each day.
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About the Author
Ann C. Johnson Assoc MAPS: General Psychologist has worked in the helping professions for the past 33 years. In the past 7 years she has published 3 books on personal and spiritual development. Inspired by post she reads on Facebook and events happening in her own life Ann continues to write articles on a regular basis.
Ann can also be found on https://www.facebook.com/annjohnson1948.
