eating and drinking right … urp!

After a winter of hibernation, I woke up and decided it was time to eat right, drink right and get enough exercise. To find out “what is right and enough” I researched the grocery store check-out magazines – which I found in the free box at a garage sale.
The most current magazine reviewed a study of women in the Orient where breast cancer is half that in the States. After studying the Oriental lifestyle, researchers discovered that the women drink a lot more green tea than Americans. Drinking right therefore means I need to consume at least four cups of green tea every day.
Four? Maybe one cup of tea with a cookie, but four? (Sigh) I can try, I guess.
The same article reported the Norwegian women average three glasses of milk a day and also have half as much breast cancer. I have no problem drinking milk I love cookies and milk. Which is a good thing because I also love being as all as I am and calcium intake guards against me shrinking with osteoporosis. Three glasses of milk a day? All right! Bring on the cookies.
Every diet in every magazine includes one sentence, “drink eight glasses of water every day.” Considering the number of times I have read that in other magazines and books, I wish I had the copyright to that sentence. I would be rich!
Eat, count them eight glasses of water every day … I can do that. I think … maybe, … if I have enough time.
Let’s see four cups of tea, three glass o milk and eight of water, make a grand total of 15 cups of healthy fluid intake without consideration of fruit or vegetable juices. I didn’t find anything about drinking them so I went on to research eating right.
Frankly, I found the magazine’s messages confusing. Each magazine was covered with headlines such as “Tired? Overweight? Lose 35 lb. with the hot new energy cure!” which was followed by “Treat your sweet tooth!” My favorite cover read, “lose Weight now! 575 tips … plus desserts that say ‘I love you.’”
Every magazine cover pictured a luscious, gooey dessert. Three of the five featured a decadent, chocolate confection. Obviously the chocolate dessert is intended to be washed down with all that tea, milk and water. I ran across a study back in November that a daily intake of the amount of chocolate typically found in one candy bar reduces the body’s LDL cholesterol (in other words, a candy bar has it health merits.)
Okay, so I know how to eat and drink right: One gooey, chocolate dessert every day, washed down with four cups of green tea, three cups of milk and eight glasses of water.
We’ll get to the fruits and vegetables and protein in the next stack of issues. Right now I am concentrating on how to achieve e a healthy body without dieting. I found an article which opened with, “Fill your stomach … that’s right, eat.” The rest of the article was something about filling up with the right kinds of food. I’ll read that later. I get the main idea, “eat until I am full.”
Finally I figured out what is enough exercise. As one health guru said, “Plan to exercise less,” Take 15, 10-minute exercise sessions over a week rather than an hour long exercise classes three times a week, or even a 30-minute walk every day. All exercise articles can be summarized, “Get off the couch and do something!” One author said people who fidget don’t gain weight as quickly, so tap your feet or pace while talking on the phone. Chew gum and burn 11 calories per hour _ that’s per hour, not per minute.
Today I am ready to being living right. I have my tea ready to slurp after every sentence I type. And every time the phone rings. I will tap my feet and bounce in my chair through the entire conversation. So give me a call – I need the exercise.