I believe everyone has heard the expression "You need to put mind over matter!" Any time my children would hurt themselves or scrape their knees when they fell down from riding a bike or running in a parking lot, my husband would say those words to keep them from crying. I don't know why but it always seemed to work.
I can remember my husband telling me the story about he and my son Will going out to a job site to paint window splashes on the front of a store window. They were having to climb up and down ladders to reach the high areas. My son had sat his really sharp scraper with a four inch razor blade on the top step of his ladder. When he reached to pull the ladder towards him the scraper blade descended down on him and sliced the front of his leg open, his shin to be exact. This was the last thing my husband needed at his clients place of business. So he began to repeat the phrase "Will, you need to put mind over matter!" They went to the emergency room and he had to have stitches to close up his filleted leg, but he learned a valuable lesson that day. Not only should he never sit a sharp scraper with a four inch long razor blade on a ladder that he is trying to move, but he also learned to put mind over matter.
On my journey to a new me I am learning to put mind over matter every day. In the past I would not be finished eating one meal and I would already be thinking about my next meal or snack or food to munch on. Learning to put mind over matter was one of the harder things that I have had to learn to do.
One of the first things that I did when I began my journey to as new me was to look at food differently. Thinking about the words that my doctor had said to me on my first doctor visit way back on December 11, 2010 he said, "You need to concentrate on eating only 1400 calories per day, and remember, your body does not know the difference between a carrot stick and a piece of carrot cake. All your body knows is how many calories you have eaten". So with this information I thought about the foods I was going to eat and what the "costs" or calories would be.
Next, I determined to re-think my portion size. There are many ways to do this. You can eat a half portion of a favorite food item and take the other half home as leftovers, and you can eat on a smaller plate. Instead of a ten inch plate, use a eight inch plate. This will give your smaller portion size the look that you are still eating a lot of food.
The third trick to gain "mind over matter" was listening to my body for clues as to when I was really hungry, and also for the clues to say I was full or that I had eaten enough. So what if I had planned to eat four ounces of beef or chicken and half way through I decided that I was full. There is no harm in not finishing everything on your plate, regardless of what your mother told you growing up. Many people today are over weight because they were taught to "Make A Smiley Face" and clean their plate! Well I for one wish that I had never been taught this golden rule and that I had made less Smiley Face Plates growing up.
And finally, another great way to put some mind over matter is to eat slower and really learn to taste your food. When you remove all the heavy salad dressing from your salad you can really taste the freshness of the vegetables. The same goes for baked potatoes. It was only after I ate one plain baked potato with "salt and pepper only" that I realized what the potato even tasted like. Without the fattening butter, sour cream, shredded cheese and bacon bits, I was able to savor the hot moist potato and found that half of a potato was really all that I wanted. Do you have any idea how many calories I save by eating my baked potato plain? More than you could guess. The butter alone has 100 calories per one tablespoon. Sour cream has 62 calories per two tablespoons, Kraft shredded cheese 110 calories per quarter cup serving and the bacon bits have 25 calories for one tablespoon. So my calories before adding the calories for the potato were hitting around 297! That is three hundred calories for toppings alone! The medium potato has 161 calories so you then have 458 calories for this loaded baked potato. I guess it would be okay if that was all that I was eating. But I always ate meat, other side dishes and bread. So who knows, my calories for that one meal alone could have topped 2,000.
Why am I re-living my past and thinking about all my bad eating habits? I believe it is healthy to look at my past, my present and my future. By using "mind over matter" I have been able to think about what I am doing, what I am eating, and why I am eating. There is not a day that goes by that I don't hear the voice of my doctor saying, "Your body does not know the difference between a carrot stick and a piece of carrot cake." And this tells me that if I wanted a piece of carrot cake I could have it as long as I counted the "cost", the calorie cost that is. So what is stopping you from putting mind over matter in your eating habits? Take a minute to Re-think how you think about food. Believe me, once you do you will be so glad that you did. After all it is only "mind over matter" any way!
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