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Mr. Lyons and I recently joked about a title for a great
self-help book — Half-Ass Your Way to Health. We laughed
about it at first but the more we discussed the concept, the more
sense it made.
So you drink four Cokes a day?
Cut back to two.
So you eat a dozen cookies
every time you make a batch? Cut it down to six.
So you absolutely hate
exercising four times a week (or don't do it at all!)? Do it
twice.
So getting out of bed by noon
takes an act of Congress (pardon the political reference
please)? Aim for 10 a.m.
What have we described? An
incremental, step-by step way of improving your health and
habits while not feeling deprived or making huge changes you
aren't ready for.
Certainly, if you smoke 2
packs of cigarettes each day, you'll be much better off
financially and physically if you stop smoking altogether.
That's a no-brainer. But some of us may not be ready — or
motivated — to make such drastic changes. Other times,
health or weight problems can be so overwhelming, that just
the thought of making a single change can bring on the
waterworks. What typically happens then? We do nothing and
feel guilty, which doesn't help anyone, certainly not our
bodies, which continue to deteriorate.
Ergo...our proposal — half-ass
your way to health by choosing one or more areas you
want to change and figure out how you can get halfway to
your goal.
For myself, the dozen cookies
in a day is not out of the realm of recent
baked-goods consumption. I told myself two years ago that I
would only eat three cookies a day. And that's all I have—some
days. Others? It's Katie-bar-the-door, Larissa's craving
sugar.
So effective immediately, my
goal is to rework all of my absolute favorite recipes —
using half the sugar.
Yeah, this particular goal may not necessarily be that
lofty, but baking sweet, chocolatey goodies is my personal
weakness. If I weren't so damn good at it, it wouldn't
matter. But I make a mean batch of brownies, cookies,
pumpkin pie, layer bars...well, you get the idea.
I don't drink sodas and don't
eat packaged foods or go out for meals. My "comfort" food is
homemade, gooey good and delicious.
But these delectable homemade
treats are also aging my body faster than it was meant to,
weakening my immune system and lowering my resistance to
outside disease, along with keeping my overall health from
being the absolute best it could be.
And it seems that no matter
how many times I go "off" sugar, I keep thinking about how
soon I can have something yummy and homemade again. Fingers
crossed — if I can reduce my current consumption by half,
then I should be on my way to feeling 50% better, right? :-)
Hey, the math may not be perfect, but I still think the
concept holds. And after I reach this goal, I'll worry about
the next phase in my "half-ass" plan.
Interesting tidbit...I first
handwrote everything to this point sometime around early 2006. Here
we are in the spring of 2008 and I'm just now getting around
to dictating this. I'm thrilled to report that my
plan to reduce my sugar intake worked magnificently. I
initially reworked recipes using half the sugar they called
for, often substituting healthier sweeteners altogether,
then during the entirety of 2007, I chose to do without
refined white sugar and to avoid eating anything that had
"sugar" on the label. This meant not one Hershey almond bar
(eegads) and not one single DQ Blizzard — I swear they
must've had a chart somewhere at headquarters showing how
many Georgia Mud Fudges I ordered each month.
I did great in all 2007. I
almost hit a major snag in October, when some emotional
waves all hit at once, causing me to contemplate chucking at
all, driving 35 miles to the nearest Dairy Queen, and buying
a blizzard. But I didn't.
Even though my official "avoid
white sugar" time period has lapsed, I have chosen not to
reincorporate it into my diet. Still no blizzards. Still no
Hershey bars. But I have been substituting with a number of
healthier alternatives and as this year progresses, I plan
to eventually cut out all of those as well. I want to see
how well my body does when I truly avoid all forms of
sweeteners and sugars. I haven't decided on a definitive
date yet, but I've let Mr. Lyons know it's in the offing.
Each time I mention it, he frowns and asks me to make
brownies. So far, I have persevered and don't think I've
made them at all this year. [And why do I state my intention
out loud? That will be another article!]
If you decide to try my
half-ass concept, drop me a line. I'd love to know how it
works for you! :-) Larissa
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