Being Overweight is a Learned Habit, Not a Choice

It is remarkable to find how many people eat outsimple things like walking and swimming, things
of boredom, sheer habit, or to thethat the person of normal weight can handle with
accompaniment of a newspaper, a book, or aease and pleasure. Don't let too much weight rob
heated business discussion. Many succumb to theyou of a strong heart and the vibrant energy that
habit of eating at a "minute" diner, fast foodyou need to enjoy a full, healthy life. Learn to
restaurant or lunch counter, gulping their food andcount your calories and you can count on more
running a "hoof and mouth" race with Fatheryears of healthy, happy living.We must remember
Time. (He always wins.)Others are trained fromthat in the past 50-100 years there has been a
childhood to stuff themselves-"finish your plate"considerable reduction in energy expenditure,
(An old relic of primitive days when foodbecause of a more mechanized way of life.
scarcities or the uncertainties of a next meal or aPeople today don't have to go out to the barn
next day were constantly present). Some call thisand hitch up a horse or team or count on a long
"scavenger eating;" many children acquire thiswalk when they are ready to go somewhere.
habit by imitating their parents who are imitatingThey merely step into their car,
their parents who may have been raised underwhich is as close to the front door as they can
food scarcity circumstances.Many men andmanage it, and then drive to their destination,
women are the victims of monotony or plain pooragain parking as near the entrance as possible.The
cooking in their meals. They rarely vary theintroduction of countless labor-saving devices in
selection and choice of foods out of sheer inertia,our home, factories, and offices has also robbed
indifference, or lack of attention. So they try tous of most of the physical exertion our
make up in quantity what they lack in quality,grandparents and great-grandparents knew. In
seeking satisfaction from calories instead of fromfact, when it comes to conserving energy, we
quality and contrast.Dr. Arthur Master, in a studyseem to have approached about as near as we
of a group of patients not suffering from heartcan get to a vegetable existence.The message is
disease, found that a significant loss of weightclear; we must break our old bad habits and
was followed by an average 35 per centdevelop new good ones if we want to lose
reduction in the work the heart has to do. Theweight. Making healthier food choices whenever
lesson to you is clear: Even though your heart ispossible, watching our portions at mealtime, and
strong, overweight taxes it with work and straingetting in some exercise regularly are paramount
beyond its normal capacity. A healthy heart isif we want to keep our weight down and live a
gradually weakened by the extra stress imposedlong, healthy, happy life.Jim O'Neill gives you tons
on it by 20, 30 or 40 pounds of unnecessaryof valuable information on the subjects of weight
fat.Your energy reserves are depleted; you feelloss, fitness, and nutrition to make it easy for you
tired too soon and too often, even when doingto live a healthy lifestyle.