Gluttony is a condition of character that affects all of us and is known as one of the 7 "deadly sins" for a good reason. Giving it free reign over our food habits and choices can have a hugely detrimental effect on our health.
This is the second and final part to the article, "Are you a glutton?"
The once happily pumping heart muscle now has his veins and arteries taxed with plaque and blockage. The pre-diabetic pancreas is now encased in fat and can not properly function. The diaphragm becomes surrounded with a yellowish glob of fat that presses upwards, causing a shortness of breath as the diaphragm can not fully expand. "Help me", the body says, while the traitorous part of the brain who wants to experience over and over the desired feeling of fullness says, "Do not pay any attention". Gluttonous behavior results in a slow and sinister wasting of the body. It kills its host little by little. Like the happy green frog placed into the pot filled with tepid water heating up on the stove. He does not notice till it is much later that the sleepy, contentment he felt is now being replaced with alarm as the warm water has now become boiling. What about you? What is the temperature of YOUR WATER? Warm, a little hot?
Or are you starting to succumb to the boiling water? Well, the good news is that if you are reading this, then you are still alive and can still jump out of the pot. What is the answer? Another diet? Another pill? Another unused gym membership? If you can utilize these tools and make them work for you, then proceed! But if you have been trying all of the above and your habits in eating and your weight or health has not improved then you are missing something. And that something is as simple as … self control. Ooohh. Harsh word. But it is the only trait that will help you and protect you. It is a trait that is cultured and strengthened through attention and practice. It is the trait that has saved your life. Self Control is the barrier, the guard at the door.
Without self control, we would jump into traffic to retrieve a ball, drive our car too fast into oblivion, neglect studying for tests, not set the alarm clock and make it into work on time. Self control is not a trait we are born with. A new born baby has no sense of self control as any young parent can attest to. So, if this is the answer, the means to produce enough effort to help us basically deny our wants and address our needs, how do we go about adding more of this mental self control into our life? Our parents, our school system, our workplaces, our goals we set are all involved in the process of developing our own personal set of controls. We learned them through harsh consequences, we learned them through the reward system. One of the ways I recommend, to develop greater self control is to incorporate a martial art into your life. There are all kinds and styles available for all genders, ages, and fitness levels. It is a subject that needs to be investigated thoroughly by the participant as each style has something to offer but be better suited to your particular circumstances. Martial Arts encourages an incremental process of learning. It is this process that trains us to learn self control as we are taught various manners of moving our body in prescribed ways to effectively defend ourselves.
To name a few, there is Taekwondo, Kung fu, Karate styles, Juijitsu, Judo, Tai Chi and hundreds of others. I also have some further recommendations to implement immediately to combat a gluttonous predisposition. Hide, throw out, put away for now or just give them away, any books, magazines, or reference materials about food, recipes, or diets. No pretty pictures of sparkling beverages and tantalizing meats, brightly colored vegetables or mouthwatering candies and cookies are to be found on your coffee table, or in that magazine sitting dog-eared on your office desk. No more tuning into the food channels. Take off the magnets on your refrigerator that involve pictures of fruit, spreads or sprinkled donuts. Why would you want to have pictures that remind you of what you should not be focusing on? Even diet books and diet magazines are just portals of information geared to make you focus on food. More advice to follow. Never eat out of bag, box or container. Never again. Only eat off a plate or a bowl. Never eat while the television is on. Watch television later if you must. But here is the most important thing you can do for your goal of absence from too much food, from cultivating your gluttonous behavior …. Keep your hands and mind busy. Read a book, buy an electronic book, knit, crochet, draw, put a puzzle together, play with your child's Game-boy and then buy one for yourself. Develop a habit of engaging in an enjoyable hobby or distraction.
Even use these mind-distractors and hand-occupiers while you are watching TV. Again I must repeat. Never eat in front of the TV. I had an acquaintance who is 110 pounds overweight tell me that he keeps a bowl of plums or some type of fruit in a bowl on his desk at work, in case he feels hungry. He said this rather proudly as if he had come up with a great plan. I told him that for him, hunger was not bad. It would only be the times he felt hunger that he would be losing his weight. And that bowl of fruit was just a constant visual reminder of food. He would tell me that he wanted to lose weight, but then he would describe to me about the meal he had the other night and how "tender the meat was" and how he used "just a little oil" and how "delicious" everything was. I noticed that as he related all this to me that his demeanor was totally relaxed and a dreamy expression came over his face.
The druggie appeasement of food was his high point of life and was clearly pointed to his gluttonous character. The current avenue of his weight control was not working. Look around. Massive people. Massive health problems. Are you one of them? Are you a glutton? Can you get better? Can you learn the self control necessary to save yourself? Do you want to be saved? I will be cheering for you and I hope you will receive some of this information in this article seriously. If you do, combine your new views with additional health information such as those you can discover from my health improvement website to raise your level of awareness! I believe that you will see a difference in your life and that of your family.