Conscientious Eating – Andrea Arthur Owan

13 Tips for a Healthy, Happy (Regret-free) Thanksgiving

Have you ever gotten to the end of Thanksgiving Day or awakened the following day regretting the amount of food you ate, the desserts consumed, and the way you feel post-feast?

Why not turn over a new leaf by deciding now that things will be different this year—that you’ll make better, healthier choices, and be happier and proud of your new lifestyle choices.

That you’ll enjoy conscientious eating!

How to do it—

If you’re ready and excited to give it a try, use some or all of these tips to maximize your success by having a game plan. No game plan usually means failure!

FIRST and FOREMOST, be prayed up before you hit the table! That your eyeballs and tastebuds are not led into temptation!

After you’ve gotten the turkey all dressed and prepped and popped in the oven, grab your sweetie and four-legged family members and go for a walk. Getting outside in the fresh air can help you work up an appetite. It’ll also get the digestive tract going so it’s primed to digest the food better when you do sit down to eat.
If you’re using paper plates, buy smaller ones, rather than the big, oval smorgasbord-type models.
Don’t showcase all of the food on the dining room table so you only have to grab, spoon and plop the food on your plate. Having the food in front of you makes it too easy to mindlessly overeat. Place the food on a table in another room besides the dining room, so you have to get up to serve yourself.
On your first round at plating your food, select salads, veggies and fruit and sit down and eat those. Then return for the meat and potatoes. Or fill up most of your plate with the salads, veggies and fruit and save a tiny space for the meat, potatoes and gravy.
For the dessert, make a decision ahead of time to take small servings for the desserts, or take four to five bites (don’t overload your fork!) and then put your fork down and immediately toss the rest of the dessert so you’re not tempted.
Reduce the number of sweetened drink selections (like sodas, lemonades, etc.) and replace them with homemade, unsweetened lemon, lime, orange or cucumber water. Have orange slices for the kids (or the adults) who like a spurt of sweetness.
Have a spread of nuts, fruits and cheeses out for guests to nibble on before sitting down to the regular meal. A bowl of grapes is always a big hit in our house.
When eating, put your fork down between bites so you maximize your chewing and improve digestion.
Try to spend more time chatting, listening and socializing than eating. Don’t eat and chew simultaneously!
Immediately following the meal, refrigerate the uneaten food that might quickly spoil (to avoid reflexive nibbling), wrap up the other items to keep them fresh, and then go for another post-meal, digestive-enhancing stroll.
For you football or sports fans, avoid over-saturation and too much sitting by deciding you’ll only flop on the couch to watch two games, or five hours maximum during the day. If you’re busy cooking and watching, you might be able to squeeze in more, but don’t park yourself on the couch all day. It’s dangerous for your health!
If you want to try something really off-the-wall, dig out the chopsticks and try eating your meal with them! That’s a recommendation I received from a professional in healthful eating that I interviewed for an article a couple of years ago. Fun, and funny! (You will eat less while stimulating your brain and coordination.)
Instead of watching sports, dig out the board games and stimulate your brain and conversation.

You don’t need to brag about being a glutton to enjoy the day. Think of all of the components that go into it and see how you can apply even small tweaks to leave you feeling healthy and happy, and proud of your self-care!

Let’s hear it for no more guilt!

Time to share—

What does your family do to keep the healthy lifestyle going on the biggest meal ingestion day of the year?

Until next week,

A very blessed and Happy Thanksgiving to you!

Andrea

May you prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers (3 John 2).

Photo by Libby Penner on unsplash

Conscientious Eating Basics: Adding the Good and Weeding Out the Bad

Which of the following most describes your eating or meal experience?

A) I throw together 2 pieces of bland bread, lunchmeat, a slice of cheese, a limp strip of lettuce and a spread of mayo and mustard for lunch. Every -day.

B) I often eat while working at my desk and/or computer.

C) I eat while watching television or reading the mail, magazine or a book, or chatting on the phone or reading text messages.

D) I often stop at fast a food “restaurant” or pick up a pizza for dinner because it’s late, I don’t have anything at home to fix, or I’m too tired to prepare a meal.

E) Most of my meals are microwaved or come from frozen packages.

Relate to any of those? How about one or more of them?

Today we’re getting an introduction to several posts dedicated to conscientious eating. But before we get into specifics, let’s look at some dismal facts:

For a variety of reasons, our current medical system is based on people being sick and dying.
2/3 of Americans go to work with flu-like symptoms. (We really do live at work.)
The #1 reason for bankruptcy in the U.S. is medical bills that can’t afford to be paid.
Sitting and lack of activity is killing us, literally. Seven hours of TOTAL sitting time a day doubles your risk of death.
1/3 of Americans die before 65.
Most people don’t get enough sleep.
70% of your immune system is in your digestive tract.
Many experts believe all disease begins in the gut.
Even though we may be surrounded by people, we live and work in a very solitary way.
Since the beginning of time, plants and food have been our true medicine. We need to return to that foundation.
69% of Americans are overweight or obese.
SUGAR is now considered by many professionals to be poison.
While we are living longer thane ever, we are sicker than ever.
We grow our foods in the chemicals they use to make chemical weapons.
High fructose corn syrup is like crack to your body and brain.
We tend to treat separate symptoms rather than the whole person.
When you’re under stress, you crave sugar, fat, and salt, and there is no satiation (satisfaction met) point for these.
It is emotion that causes people to reach for the wrong kind of food.
90% of serotonin—a chemical and neurotransmitter that regulates mod, social behavior, digestion, appetite, sleep, memory, sexual function and desire—is manufactured in the digestive tract, not the brain as we once thought.
Wellness is really a diet and mental health lifestyle connection.
We really are living in a “food desert” that comes with a 5x the average death rate—death that comes from curable diseases.
Cultures that eat grains have a higher rate of dementia.

Important Takeaway—

Food does affect the body and mind, but most of us blindly eat whatever is put in front of us or opt for the quick and easy (boring) meal approach.

Conscientious eating—

As we explore conscientious eating, which goes beyond just being mindful of how you eat, we’ll focus on:

being more aware
being more mindful
taking back your health

As Hippocrates, the Father of Medicine, said,

“Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.”

As we move rapidly into this busy holiday season, where we’re ramping up everything in our lives to an often frenzied, overspent schedule, I invite you to keep something very important in mind—

It can be self-destructive to not tend to yourself.

Please take a moment to let that statement sink in. Meditate on it.

To many of you, that truth runs contrary to what you think your religious faith teaches you. It might even sound as though it borders on sinful, contrary to God’s word.

But how does Jesus, the reason for this marvelous season and for our very lives, say we should approach our lives?

With a light burden. Not a weary or heavy-laden feeling.

I can hear many of saying right now: “What does that have to with conscientious eating, Andrea? Or eating in general?

Plenty.

The fact, as I already noted, is:

Emotion causes people to reach for the wrong kind of food.

Life is emotional. The holidays even more so.

Just as our physical choices, activity choices, lifestyle choices and career choices affect us profoundly, so do our food-style choices affect us. What it comes down to is:

Adding the good stuff and weeding out the bad. (In that order.)

As we go into Thanksgiving, Christmas and the New Year, we’ll be learning about food—God’s magnificent gift to us. A gift he created for our

enjoyment and pleasure
sustenance
mental and physical health and healing
social fulfillment

And as we go forth, keep those highlighted statements in mind:

**It can be self-destructive to not tend to yourself.**

Emotion causes people to reach for the wrong kind of food.

**You need to add the good stuff to your life and weed out the bad.**

It won’t happen immediately or all at once. Our goal will be to recognize what causes us to fail in this area and start the weeding process.

And we’ll accomplish it together!

Join me this Friday when I’ll talk about the art and health of social eating. It’s something I knew and really learned how to do while walking the Camino de Santiago. Actually, when I ate on the Camino. That post will give you a bonus to our conscientious eating discussions!

Until then,

Decide that you don’t want to be one of the dismal statistics.
Pray about what God might be saying to you in this area.
Find a good friend, or several, to be accountability buddies with you. Friends that want to embark on this life-changing journey with you, to support and encourage you. To be supported and encouraged.

Thank God for the bounty He has provided, and prepare to enjoy it in new ways. With family and friends.

PS I’m humbly requesting prayer for recovery from having a bone spur cut off my big toe. While the surgery wasn’t long or extensive, the recovery is painful, and I’m unable to get around as easily as they said I would. In fact, I’m not getting around much at all. That’s one of the reasons this post was scheduled so late. Thank you!!

Blessings,

Andrea

May you prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers (3 John 2).

Photo by rawpixel on unsplash

Surviving the Holidays with Conscientious Eating

What’s the one thing most of us have in common during the Thanksgiving to Christmas holiday window?

Want a hint?

Overeating.

Not a surprise, is it? All of those delectable goodies: the rich desserts, the fatty dressings, company parties, family gatherings, Aunt Bee’s 1000 calories a piece family heirloom recipe, and on and on. You feel obligated to indulge and out of control. You excuse it as okay because you’re going to turn over a new eating leaf in 2019.

As we rev up to Thanksgiving this month and then into Christmas in six weeks, maintaining healthful eating habits and not gaining an extra five to ten pounds that will likely not come off next year, we’re going to wade into the conscientious eating waters here on Workout Wednesdays.

Just exactly what does conscientious eating mean?

It’s not just conscious eating, as you’re probably familiar with. Living consciously is a big topic these days. It goes beyond that.

It means not just being conscious of what or how you’re eating, but being conscientious about the food choices you make.

Specifically, we’re going to look closely at how eating affects your mental health, body inflammation levels and brain, especially the aging brain.

Last month I had the opportunity to attend a great educational program on conscientious eating.

One of the sad facts we learned is that the US life expectancy hasn’t improved much in the past several decades, and the major determinant in improving life expectancy was the introduction of antibiotics after World War II.

And although the longevity age seems to be eking up, much of that may be due to available medicine.

An ugly statistic we must face is that the United States ranks 34^th on the longevity list, tied with Cuba.

Not a pretty picture.

Country Comparisons

One thing both Chris and I noticed when we returned from Europe was just how overweight Americans are. I knew the statistics, but the glaring fatness and sluggishness of Americans couldn’t be missed, or ignored.

Just why is that? And does that heavily influence our poor longevity status?

I think there are a lot of contributors to our obese status, and we’ll look at several of those. But we’ll focus primarily on what you can do—as a consumer and as a person concerned about your health, your lifestyle, and your overall fitness and energy levels—to improve your health, lose weight without going on some special six-week caloric restriction diet, and reduce your chances of serious illness.

We’ll really delve into the woes of the Western diet and why we need to care about inflammation in the body, what it means for your overall present and future health.

Want to feel good mentally, physically and spiritually on January 2? Then meet me back here next week when we start our conscientious eating focus!

Pre-holiday checklist:

Until then, go through your cabinets, pantry and refrigerator to get an idea of how many products you purchase that contain sugar, added sugar and ingredients like fructose and high fructose corn syrup. This includes any kind of sugar, even if it’s raw or evaporated cane source. What percentage of your overall food intake does it constitute? (Make sure you examine ingredients in every processed food, frozen, fresh or canned.)

Blessings,

Andrea

May you prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers (3 John 2).