Intentional Eating

I was going to start this week sharing what we are going to be talking about at Homemakers tonight, but I think it requires more thinking than what we need to do right now. The busy holiday season is upon us.

Last week we talked about honoring our husbands amidst our busyness, how about thinking about ourselves this week. Specifically, our eating habits.

How and what we eat will really affect how we feel this holiday so let's share what we do to honor ourselves in this area.

I think we would agree that we are what Dr. Brian Wasnick calls the 'Nutritional Gatekeeper' for our family. We decide what's for dinner for the most part and we stock the food we keep in the house. That means this is an area we really can be intentional in and the holidays are no exception.

Wasnick maintains that we eat more than we think we do. He has conducted experiments to back up his theory. He found that people lost almost 2 pounds per month over 3 months simply by eating off salad plates as opposed to regular-sized dinner plates. What an easy exercise we can do over the next 6 weeks. Just use a smaller plate or bowl as you fill up with holiday goodies.

He also says that the better a food sounds by name, the more likely a person is to eat it. Bavarian Black Forest Cake is more appealing to us than chocolate cake. In an experiment with 1st and 2nd graders, students took 60 % more peas at lunch when they were called power peas.
Maybe we should spend some time re-naming our healthy recipes to appeal to our family's desires!

When it comes to shopping, many 'Nutritional Gatekeepers', buy snacks in bulk. Dr Wasnick says we tend to eat HALF of whatever the snack is in a WEEK, regardless of how much we buy. Some intentional thought should accompany us to the grocery store in the next 6 weeks.

This is as good as any week to be intentional in what we eat and that should carry over to how we feel. We all agree we need to be in top form in all respects as we enter into this holiday rush, so start today. Go ahead and make yourself a 'Personal, Beauty-Enhancing-Peanut Butter Sandwich'...and eat it on a salad plate.