Becoming Overweight is Not Just a Choice, but a Habit You Must Learn

It is remarkable to find how many people eat out ofsoon and too often, even when doing simple things like
boredom, sheer habit, or to the accompaniment of awalking and swimming, things that the person of normal
newspaper, a book, or a heated business discussion.weight can handle with ease and pleasure. Don't let
Many succumb to the habit of eating at a "minute"too much weight rob you of a strong heart and the
diner, fast food restaurant or lunch counter, gulping theirvibrant energy that you need to enjoy a full, healthy life.
food and running a "hoof and mouth" race with FatherLearn to count your calories and you can count on
Time. (He always wins.)more years of healthy, happy living.
Others are trained from childhood to stuffWe must remember that in the past 50-100 years
themselves-"finish your plate" (An old relic of primitivethere has been a considerable reduction in energy
days when food scarcities or the uncertainties of aexpenditure, because of a more mechanized way of
next meal or a next day were constantly present).life. People today don't have to go out to the barn and
Some call this "scavenger eating;" many childrenhitch up a horse or team or count on a long walk
acquire this habit by imitating their parents who arewhen they are ready to go somewhere. They merely
imitating their parents who may have been raisedstep into their car, which is as close to the front door
under food scarcity circumstances.as they can manage it, and then drive to their
Many men and women are the victims of monotonydestination, again parking as near the entrance as
or plain poor cooking in their meals. They rarely varypossible.
the selection and choice of foods out of sheer inertia,The introduction of countless labor-saving devices in
indifference, or lack of attention. So they try to makeour home, factories, andoffices has also robbed us of
up in quantity what they lack in quality, seekingmost of the physical exertion our grandparents and
satisfaction from calories instead of from quality andgreat-grandparents knew. In fact, when it comes to
contrast.conserving energy, we seem to have approached
Dr. Arthur Master, in a study of a group of patients notabout as near as we can get to a vegetable
suffering from heart disease, found that a significantexistence.
loss of weight was followed by an average 35 perThe message is clear; we must break our old bad
cent reduction in the work the heart has to do. Thehabits and develop new good ones if we want to lose
lesson to you is clear: Even though your heart isweight. Making healthier food choices whenever
strong, being overweight taxes it with work and strainpossible, watching our portions at mealtime, and getting
beyond its normal capacity. A healthy heart is graduallyin some exercise regularly are paramount if we want
weakened by the extra stress imposed on it by 20, 30to keep our weight down and live a long, healthy,
or 40 pounds of unnecessary fat.happy life.
Your energy reserves are depleted; you feel tired too