Read Online Chicken Soup for the Dieter's Soul by Jack Canfield - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Jack Canfield
Ads: Link
the muck and puddles while a frenetic eighty-pound Energizer Bunny romps alongside you.
Even in the summer, there are often other things we’d rather be doing: relaxing after a hard day’s work, taking care of the house, visiting friends. But when you make a commitment to a pet, it has to be honored. So we still take those walks, every day.
Of course, there’s another reason we strap on those leashes.
Since dedicating ourselves to keeping our dogs fit, my wife and I have each lost more than forty pounds and kept it off. As soon as we realized the daily exercise was working as good for us as for our canine companions, we found the motivation we’d been lacking to stick to our own healthy diets.
Gone are the days when we’d give in to temptation and eat fast food, or buy popcorn and candy at the movies. In the past four years, I’ve had approximately twelve cans of soda. Before that, I drank it with lunch and dinner every day.
When we want Chinese food, we chop vegetables and tofu and make our own stir-fry. We measure portions of pasta and rice. The only snacks after dinner are fruit and sugar-free Jell-O. We’ve eliminated cheese on hamburgers and substituted veggie burgers for the beef patties.
On the occasions when we go out for dinner with friends or family, we make sure to fill up at the salad bar, skip the appetizers and order grilled chicken or some other healthy choice.
When one of us is lured into temptation, the other is always there to provide that most effective of all dissuasions: “Honey, if we eat that we’ll have to walk an extra mile every day this week.” Those words have the power to make either of us drop the candy or frozen pizza as if it were poison.
Of course, walking by itself isn’t enough of an exercise program for a middle-aged person fighting the never-ending battle of the bulge. We’ve set up a small exercise room in our basement, with stationary bike, treadmill, elliptical machine and even a Bowflex for the arms and chest. On days when the rain, snow or temperature are too horrid for even diehard dog-walkers to venture outside, the home gym is a warm, dry alternative.
I’ve also gotten my wife to play golf with me, and we’re both bad enough at the game that we get plenty of exercise walking from cart to ball and back again.
But in the end, it all comes down to the dogs. They’re our impetus for rising early each morning and heading back out again in the afternoons when all we want to do is sit on the deck with a glass of wine.
The funny thing is that all the excuses we had for never doing something like this before have turned out to be just that—excuses. No time? We still get everything done that we always did. It’s too cold? Five minutes after coming home, it’s like we never went out. Skipping a day won’t hurt? Not only do Harley and Buffy make us crazy by bouncing off the walls, but we’ve found that we don’t feel good if we skip a day.
Most importantly, all four of us are healthy, which means we’ll be together for many years to come.
Greg Faherty
Skinny Munchies
J ust think of all those women on the Titanic who said, “No, thank you,” to dessert that night. And for what!
Erma Bombeck
Dieting is an embarrassing occupation, one I would really rather keep quiet about. My logic goes something like this: If no one sees me buying diet food, they certainly won’t notice the extra fifty pounds I’m hauling around on my 5’3” frame. Perhaps it isn’t the diet that’s as embarrassing as the failure to stay on the diet.
Discretion is essential when shopping, and knowing your way around the local grocery store is crucial. It’s reassuring to know where the Marshmallow Mateys are when you’re in a hurry for a nutritious breakfast. Or which aisle to avoid when toting a toddler with a long reach. Or where along the cookie aisle some teenage bag boy has stocked the Chips Ahoy.
After moving to a small town from a large metropolitan city, I was unable to
Even in the summer, there are often other things we’d rather be doing: relaxing after a hard day’s work, taking care of the house, visiting friends. But when you make a commitment to a pet, it has to be honored. So we still take those walks, every day.
Of course, there’s another reason we strap on those leashes.
Since dedicating ourselves to keeping our dogs fit, my wife and I have each lost more than forty pounds and kept it off. As soon as we realized the daily exercise was working as good for us as for our canine companions, we found the motivation we’d been lacking to stick to our own healthy diets.
Gone are the days when we’d give in to temptation and eat fast food, or buy popcorn and candy at the movies. In the past four years, I’ve had approximately twelve cans of soda. Before that, I drank it with lunch and dinner every day.
When we want Chinese food, we chop vegetables and tofu and make our own stir-fry. We measure portions of pasta and rice. The only snacks after dinner are fruit and sugar-free Jell-O. We’ve eliminated cheese on hamburgers and substituted veggie burgers for the beef patties.
On the occasions when we go out for dinner with friends or family, we make sure to fill up at the salad bar, skip the appetizers and order grilled chicken or some other healthy choice.
When one of us is lured into temptation, the other is always there to provide that most effective of all dissuasions: “Honey, if we eat that we’ll have to walk an extra mile every day this week.” Those words have the power to make either of us drop the candy or frozen pizza as if it were poison.
Of course, walking by itself isn’t enough of an exercise program for a middle-aged person fighting the never-ending battle of the bulge. We’ve set up a small exercise room in our basement, with stationary bike, treadmill, elliptical machine and even a Bowflex for the arms and chest. On days when the rain, snow or temperature are too horrid for even diehard dog-walkers to venture outside, the home gym is a warm, dry alternative.
I’ve also gotten my wife to play golf with me, and we’re both bad enough at the game that we get plenty of exercise walking from cart to ball and back again.
But in the end, it all comes down to the dogs. They’re our impetus for rising early each morning and heading back out again in the afternoons when all we want to do is sit on the deck with a glass of wine.
The funny thing is that all the excuses we had for never doing something like this before have turned out to be just that—excuses. No time? We still get everything done that we always did. It’s too cold? Five minutes after coming home, it’s like we never went out. Skipping a day won’t hurt? Not only do Harley and Buffy make us crazy by bouncing off the walls, but we’ve found that we don’t feel good if we skip a day.
Most importantly, all four of us are healthy, which means we’ll be together for many years to come.
Greg Faherty
Skinny Munchies
J ust think of all those women on the Titanic who said, “No, thank you,” to dessert that night. And for what!
Erma Bombeck
Dieting is an embarrassing occupation, one I would really rather keep quiet about. My logic goes something like this: If no one sees me buying diet food, they certainly won’t notice the extra fifty pounds I’m hauling around on my 5’3” frame. Perhaps it isn’t the diet that’s as embarrassing as the failure to stay on the diet.
Discretion is essential when shopping, and knowing your way around the local grocery store is crucial. It’s reassuring to know where the Marshmallow Mateys are when you’re in a hurry for a nutritious breakfast. Or which aisle to avoid when toting a toddler with a long reach. Or where along the cookie aisle some teenage bag boy has stocked the Chips Ahoy.
After moving to a small town from a large metropolitan city, I was unable to
Similar Books
