Want to lose Weight? Be a good owner!

If you had a dog and didn’t treat it well – you starved it on
some days, overfed it on others, gave it far too many doggie
treats and not enough doggie nourishment or water, kept it
indoors in front of the TV and gave it no exercise, berated it
for being lazy and fat – how would you feel about yourself as a
dog owner?

Would you say you were negligent? Would you expect the animal
welfare people to be keeping an eye on you?

You’d feel bad about that, right?

But when it comes to you, how do you treat yourself? Are you
like the bad doggie owner?

Do you give yourself the right food and exercise? Do you give
yourself enough fresh air and water? Do you get all the vitamins
you need? Do you give yourself enough gentle encouragement and
pats on the back?

Would you say your health and well-being are worth as much as
any dog’s?

Of course they are!

Somehow, because we are responsible for our own health we think
it’s Ok to be neglect ourselves. At least we think it’s Ok until
something goes wrong – until we get to the stage where we hate
our shape, we have heart problems, we can’t get around so easily
or whatever.

And then we struggle with changing our diet and our way of life
because those old ways have become a comfortable habit.

But you CAN switch to being a “good owner” if you think your
body and your health are worth it.

And not just for a few weeks or months while you get in shape
but permanently so that you never have to think about it again.

Like a dog, you can’t just retrain yourself overnight by
switching your routine – you have to relearn new habits so that
the whole process becomes automatic and as comfortable as your
old way of living. But they can be learnt without too much
effort. It takes just 21 days to learn a new habit.

And the rewards are huge – the difference between a happy dog,
full of energy with a wagging tail and an overweight snarling
miserable dog lying in its basket all day is really just a few
new habits away.

Which habits will you start to change today?

Copyright 2005, Janice Elizabeth Small

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