- A patient's "best weight" is that weight he can maintain while still enjoying his life.
- Exercise should be encouraged but not to the point of exhaustion, injury, obsession, or neglect of other important things in life.
- If there is no room for celebrations, for resting, for comfort, for pleasure, then any weight management strategy is too restrictive and cannot be maintained.
It seems to me on the one hand that these ideas make sense, and on the other hand that some of us need stricter life guidelines for weight management. For me, eating nutritarian feels good, tastes good, and IS good for me nutritionally. And I know I have to be very careful with celebratory foods--had just a bite or two of most Thanksgiving treats last week, for example. But I don't want to come to the dangerous place of calling foods "forbidden." A little here and there of meat, oil, sweets, even chips is not deadly. However, it can be dangerous to me, since indulging even a little CAN trigger me into losing control.
It's always balance, isn't it, and knowing ourselves, and applying wisdom?
Your summary of the points are excellent! It's true though that this information in the wrong hands could be used to justify over-indulging, depending on what your standards are. I know those near and dear to me who would feel then that it's okay to have celebratory foods every weekend, many times over!
ReplyDeleteI heard Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn speak about a year ago (author of Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease) and he said the most outrageous thing, "Moderation kills." But I think he is so right. Clearly, a very large number of people cannot eat toxic food in moderation. If they could, we wouldn't see the outrageous obesity rates in America. So a lot of us need to be very aware of what is safe for us. Thank you for speaking up about this!
ReplyDeleteHealthyGirl, I just now found your comment to publish--so sorry about that! Thank you.
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