As a health psychologist working with people who are trying to change their relationship with food and their bodies, I don’t put a focus on weight. That is problematic for a wide variety of reasons and it usually doesn’t help. Instead, I ask people to pay attention to how their bodies feel as they do certain activities and eat various kinds of food. Paying close attention to the effects of these things on the body then begins to shape our behavior naturally. If it feels healthy, we do more of that. If it feels unhealthy, we do less. Makes sense. Yes?
In particular, getting in touch with the body’s need to move and stretch and breath encourages us to engage it more often. It feels good. And we can be fit and feel good, even at a weight that you might think is too high for you. And when we exercise we boost our metabolism and are more likely to maintain our weight. Read more about research in this are conducted by Dr. Thomas at the University of Missouri–very enlightening and worth a read. http://mizzoumag.missouri.edu/2012-Summer/features/survival-of-the-unfit/index.php
The down low is that, once again, we are hearing good evidence about why we need to get more physically active. We were designed to be more active than we are today. We, as a culture, have sat down and we forgot to get up. Continue reading
