Fit To Live
Earlier today, I already posted with a title from another book, “Best Life”… well, “Fit to Live” is another great book by author Pamela Peeke, who is also the author of “Body for Life for Women” which I have never read. She also appears on Cable TV quite frequently. I read this book a few months ago and really enjoyed it.
What got me thinking of it was reading everyone’s BuddySlim blogs and noticing how often we all eat to compensate for stress in our lives. It’s a really weird concept, if you think about it, and yet we all do it, OR we have to fight like crazy to resist the urge to do it. It’s like this : “Okay well everything else in my life is going badly, so I might as well have a slice of cake and ruin my weight-loss goals, too.”
How does that make any sense? There are plenty of foods out there that taste just as good and also plenty of coping strategies for stress that are way better than a box of donuts. So I’m going to try to be conscious of that in myself and my plans. When am I eating due to stress?
Anyway, the book “Fit to Live” goes into nutrition, stress, exercise, finance, clutter in the home and more. The idea is that all these areas are inter-connected. As you straighten out your weight problems, your finances, your stress… it all goes together. More of that “Best Life” thing.
Also she talks about how the world has changed. Terrorism, Hurricanes, etc… if you had to swim to save your child’s life, could you do it? If you had to rush down 100 flights of stairs could you do it? Could you even fit onto the fire escape? She talks about how we must learn not to use Excuses im our life to eat badly and stop exercising. Because “LIFE” with a big “L” will always happen!!
You will have bad days at work. Your kids will fray your last nerve. You will get that phone call to inform you that Uncle Milton has cancer. It happens. It happens to us all. But we have got to learn to stop turning to food. Healthy food will make us feel even better through trying times, as will exercise. But a bag of Doritos and sitting around does nothing for our stress or our hectic lives and certainly it does not help our waistlines.
I did work out with Leslie Samsone this morning. For breakfast I am having 3 egg whites with fat free cheese and salsa. A cup of mixed fruit. And some coffee with sugar free cocoa to sweeten it.
—Matt
