Personal Development and Eating Well
There is an old saying that goes, “We should eat to live,
not live to eat.” Today’s culture is obsessed with eating, especially in
America where we have come to believe that bigger is better. We have all been
amazed when we stand in line at a fast food place and the person in front of us
(or maybe it is us) orders two triple decker burgers, an order of fries large
enough to feed a small country, and a diet drink. I always wonder, “What is
that diet drink supposed to do?” Anyway, we have become a people that love to
eat, and there is no hiding that.
I know this is the part when we start talking about the
hunger that grips a massive part of the world’s population and how guilty we
should all feel that we eat so much and they so little. Well, this is not meant
to be a political or social statement. I am talking about personal development here.
There is a time and a place to discuss these other issues, but this is neither.
I want to talk about how you personally deal with food; you can choose how you
personally deal with the world.
Eating is really a simple matter. We all know that if we eat
junk food, we will look and feel like junk. Really, few people need to learn
how to eat right; they do not lack the knowledge, they lack the will. That is
the key to the whole eating issue? It is having the discipline to do what you
know is the right thing to do. As coach Vince Lombardi said, “The difference
between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of
knowledge, but rather a lack of will.”
One of the most prosperous businesses in this country is
that of the dieting industry. Americans spend billions of dollars a year to
allow other people to tell them how to eat and what to do. Here is a fact about
diet plans: do you know which one works best? They all do. That is right:
almost every plan and system out there works for someone. They will all give
you success stories about how someone who weighed in at 300 pounds ended up at
125 in six months. I know, as you do, that some of these stories are bogus or
at least exaggerated, but others do have some great successes. Why is that? How
can so many diets work for so many, and yet not work for so many others? The
answer is simple: it is not the diet that works, it is the person on the diet
that does.
The truth is that most any diet will work for you if you
are willing to follow it. The problem is not the diet, but our lack of
discipline to follow it. Success-minded people know that for anything to work,
whether that is a diet, success plan or studying for a degree, it will not
happen unless you make it happen.
One of the things I really dislike in advertising diet
plans (or anything for that matter) is the statement, “It is not your fault”.
Then whose fault is it? Did the neighbor come over and shove that burger and
fries down your throat? Did your spouse or family member force you to eat that half
gallon of rocky road ice cream? Of course it is our fault and, if we are going
to fix the problem, we have to take the responsibility.
It is not my intent to be harsh on those who fight a
weight problem. I have been overweight and still struggle with my weight going
up and down. However, I know that the source of that problem is not the food, other
people, time, or convenience: it is me. I am responsible for what and how much
goes into my mouth. A couple of years ago my wife and I went on a diet. It was
a system that we had seen advertised on TV and thought we would try it. I was a
good fifty-pounds overweight, and it all seemed to settle in my belly. I was ready
to try anything. We stayed on this diet for about a year, and you know what
happened? I lost the weight! I lost 47 pounds and felt great.
Here is what I learned from the diet: it was not the food
we were eating that was causing us to gain weight. My wife and I, for many
years, have eaten very well. We eat mostly natural foods that are organic and
“clean”. We are not ones for fast food or junk snacks all the time. The problem
was not what we were eating, it was how much we were eating. We would prepare enough
food for six (both my wife and I cook. For me it is a fun hobby, for her it is
an art form. She is much better at it than I am, but I do love to cook) and the
two of us would eat it all. We ate well, but we ate a lot.
Once we understood the importance of portion size, we were
able to manage our diet on our own. The key was not the diet plan, although it
was very helpful, it was what we learned from the plan. If you know what to eat
and how much to eat, you will then only need one element to succeed in your
eating habits – discipline.
To discover how you can achieve the dream you have believed was
impossible for too long, read Getting
Personal: A Guide to Personal Development by John Patrick Hickey. You can get a signed copy for yourself and
get one for a friend, by going to http://www.johnpatrickhickey.com/it-is-good-to-set-goals-better-to-achieve-then/. Now available on Kindle, Oops! Did I Really Post That? Online
Etiquette in the Digital Age by John Patrick Hickey.
© 2016 John Patrick Hickey. No part of
this may be reprinted or published without permission of the author.
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