Combat that holiday excess
Stress for Success
January 27, 2009

“All work and no play make Jack a dull boy.”

If work includes healthy eating and exercise and play includes no exercise and eating lots of Christmas goodies, then I’ve been a very interesting girl. My husband’s homemade toffee candy is to die for and my Norwegian lefse is nothing to sneeze at and I’m full of both.

Since the late 1960s at this time of year I eat only a variety of apples (about eight a day) for two days (the recommended is for three days.) It feels good to flush out from my system all those accumulated holiday sugars.

Avoid being too dull by balancing your excesses with moderation, even though it goes against our survival instinct of eating until we’re full.

For most of human history the food supply was uncertain so our metabolism was calibrated to guard against possible future starvation. The problem today is because eating more doesn't satisfy us we merely readjust how much we think we need.

Our survival instincts work against us in several other ways, too.
§ We crave the historically rare calorie-dense fats and sugars that protected us from starvation that are now plentiful and in overkill cause obesity;
§ We don’t yearn for historically abundant plants;
§ Our dieting willpower decreases once we've lost weight.

Just compare our ancestors' lean and muscular bodies due to their physical exertion for hunting or gathering their unsure food supply to ours. It isn’t pretty. We have an overabundance of food that we get from the grocery store. Too many of us eat entirely too much and exercise entirely too little, and not just over the holidays. For many it’s a lifestyle choice.

According to an April 3, 2008 US Department of Health and Human Services Public Health Service progress review:
§ Adults 20+ years with healthy weight range (body mass index or BMI 18.5 - 24.9) was 32% from 2003 to 2006
o It was 42% from 1988 to 1994
o This disturbing trend was found across all demographic groups for whom data were collected, including Mexican Americans, non-Hispanic blacks, and non-Hispanic whites, across genders and income levels.
§ Obese (BMI 30 or above) 20+ years old was 33% in 2003 to 2006
o Up from 23% from 1988 to 1994.
o Mexican Americans rose from 29% to 35%
o Non-Hispanic blacks from 30% to 45%
o Non-Hispanic whites from 22% to 32%

The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health posted a July 28, 2008 projection that 86% of Americans could be overweight or obese by 2030 with health care spending as much as $956.9 billion!

We’re all in this boat of excess together. It’s in our collective interest to develop more moderate eating habits and to lose significant weight, improving our health, which would take pressure off of insurance premiums and taxes that ultimately pay for these excesses.

Next week we’ll look at how we can overcome our human nature of eating more than we need out of the fear we may starve tomorrow.

Jacquelyn Ferguson, M. S., of Inter Action Associates, is a trainer and a Stress Coach. E-mail her at www.jackieferguson.com with your questions or for information about her workshops on this and other topics and to invite her to speak to your organization