Alice Munro - "Boys and Girls"and tips of being thin
Big Issue~
How to be thin
From Health magazine
"I look fat. I hate my body."
"She can eat anything she wants. I hate her."
"Im not going to that party. Ill just eat way too much."
"I would be happy if I could just get skinny."
Sound familiar?
These aren't the words or thoughts of a naturally thin person, but they might be the things you say or think to yourself. I used to talk to myself like this, but I dont do it anymore. You can stop, too. You can break free from the oppression of food obsession and become "naturally thin."
What do I mean by that? Its not some state of being beyond your grasp. You are naturally thin. You just have to make a few simple changes to let your natural thinness emerge.
By trade, Im a natural-foods chef. And a lot of what I know about food comes from my passion for both food and health.
Im naturally thin, too, but I didnt come preprogrammed that way. Dieting was always in the forefront of my mind. I cant believe how much of my life I wasted feeling fat, obsessing about what to order on a date, or figuring out how to pass up an invitation to a restaurant I perceived as serving fattening food. Back when I was ingrained in the diet mentality, I never really thought I could escape. But I did.
Today, I no longer diet. I eat pretty much whatever I want to eat. And Im ready to help you transform your entire relationship with food. Here, Ive condensed everything Ive learned about eating and cooking into simple rules you can use, too.
Your diet is your bank account
I consider this the mother of all the other rules. Its the first thing I tell people when they ask me how I stay naturally thin. And its the first thing I want you to think about every day. Just as you balance your spending and savings, you must balance your food choices. Dont eat too much of any one thing, balance starches with proteins, vegetables and fruits with sweets, and always balance a splurge with a save. This balancing is approximate—but it works, without counting, measuring, or obsessing.
Most of the time, make smart investments in healthful foods that fill you up. Then, when you really want to splurge, go ahead. You arent dieting, remember. You are living. However, a splurge comes with a price. You have to balance that splurge by cutting back a little afterward, until your accounts are in order again. Lets say you had pancakes for breakfast. Theyre fine—and starchy and sweet. So what do you have for lunch? Pasta? Of course not. Thats more starch. Because you had starch and sugar earlier in the day, you now need protein and vegetables. So have a salad with grilled chicken or some vegetable soup. Just stay tuned-in to what you are doing and youll be able to have the foods you really love—in a balanced way.
Cancel your membership in the clean-plate club
This rule isnt about wasting food. On the contrary, it will help you get more for your money by increasing the fun factor, making one meal into several meals, and by putting less food in your body. Try these strategies.
• Share it. This helps you eat less while allowing you to taste more. Whenever I order something in a restaurant—salad, appetizer, soup, entree, even a drink—I always offer a taste of it to whomever Im with. More often than not, people are curious about food and happy to have a taste of what someone else chose.
• Save it. I often take food home in a doggie bag. I love having a beautiful, healthy, delicious dinner or lunch to look forward to the next day. Its economical, figure-friendly, and gives you one less meal to plan the day after. Ask the server to pack up half the entree in a doggie bag before you even see it. Instant portion control!
• Leave it. What if you realize the food really isnt all that good? Or maybe its fine but you arent in a situation where you can carry that last quarter of food home? Just leave it. If its hard for you to do, start by simply leaving one or two bites of something, then gradually increase the amount you leave.
Get real
In other words, eat real food and limit processed. Choose food thats as close to its natural state as possible. An apple is better than pasteurized apple juice, but apple juice is better than an apple-flavored drink that doesnt contain any apples. It may sound trite, but you are what you eat, so keep it real by eating organic, seasonal, and local foods. Plus, in most cases, fresh, real food tastes better.
Another important reason why eating real food can help you become naturally thin: Its usually high-volume food. Raw vegetables, in particular, are high in fiber and volume so when you eat them first you end up with less room in your stomach for other, higher-calorie foods. Start your meal with a big salad or a bowl of vegetable soup and you wont have much room left for food with more fat and calories. Sure, I still have my favorite junk food, and you can, too. But if it becomes an "I know what this is going to do to me, so Ill have only two bites" kind of thing, then youll be eating like a thin person.
Taste everything, eat nothing
I dont really mean that you cant eat anything. You will eat plenty of full portions of things. But you dont always need to do it. I love the Italian saying mangia poco ma bene. It means "Eat little, but well." In fact, I learned this rule during a trip to Italy: I started each morning with cappuccino with real full-fat milk, the way the Italians drink it. They dont drink "skinny lattes" or ask for skim milk and sugar-free sweetener. For lunch or dinner, I would have some pasta, but at only one of those meals, and only a small order, combined with a little filling protein. Its how humans are supposed to eat—tasting little bits of the very best foods. But how do you pull off little tastes?
If you spoil your appetite, rule 4 is possible. For example, when you know youre going to an event that will offer opportunities for overeating, the worst thing you can do is to starve yourself all day because you think it will allow you to eat more. Do just the opposite: Eat a simple, sensible breakfast; have a healthy, light lunch; and right before you go to the party have a healthy snack.
People are so afraid to do this! They think that eating before a party will add way too many calories. But the calories you save by having a healthful snack before you are faced with temptation will more than make up for the calories you spend.
Pay attention
When you barrel through the food on your plate as if youre in a race, do you really taste what youre eating? Did your body even register that it had a meal? Eating consciously makes food worth the calories. It also helps you become choosier about what you eat. And it helps you eat less. Here are some tips for learning how to do it.
• Taste your food. It takes two seconds to shift your attention to what you are doing and actually taste what youre eating. Then, the food will register as an experience.
• Quit multitasking. If somebody told me to quit multitasking, I would laugh. My life wouldn't work if I didn't do a million things at once. But we don't have to carry that way of life into mealtimes. When we do, not only do we fail to digest our food as well or enjoy it as much, but we also eat more of it. New policy: Don't eat while doing something else. I know this isn't always possible, but its a good goal. If you have to eat an energy bar in the car, take little bites and taste it.
• Always sit down to eat. When you eat standing up, whether youre cooking, snacking, or just picking at food, you wont feel satisfied, because you arent really thinking about eating. Those bites while youre distracted with cooking really add up. If you dont eat until youre ready to make yourself a plate and sit down, youll save hundreds of unnecessary calories.
• Make food special. In a restaurant, you pay to have your food made special. So why shouldnt you do it at home? To make a salad, dont just grab some iceberg lettuce out of a bag. Choose fresh, crisp greens, and top them with nuts or shaved Parmesan. Add herbs or crumbles of feta cheese.
If your food is really worth it, youll be more likely to pay attention.
Downsize now
If your portion is small, you can eat absolutely anything that really sounds good to you. But I'm not going to tell you to break out your measuring cups and spoons. You aren't on a diet. You aren't eating obsessively or with anxiety and worry. Just put these simple containers in your portion-control tool kit instead.
Small plates.
If you put a little food on a big plate, youre going to feel cheated. I always use a salad plate instead of a full-size dinner plate for my meals and snacks at home. Keep the salad plates at the front of your cabinet, and grab those first.
Never eat anything out of a bag; use a ramekin for decadent treats like ice cream or chips. I use them every day.
Mini-muffin tin.
Instead of baking big cakes and loaves, bake mini cupcakes and muffins—automatic portion control.
Chopsticks.
Although you can certainly use regular utensils, chopsticks are fun and can help slow you down.
Small juice glasses and dessert wineglasses.
Save the big tumblers and pint glasses for water. For everything else, use smaller glasses.
Know thyself
All that time and energy spent wishing you looked like, say, Victoria Beckham is much better spent getting to know yourself and your own hunger patterns. Part of the problem I have with "eating every three hours" or "eating five times every day" is that not everyone is hungry so often; and even if you are this hungry on some days, you wont be on other days.
Or, maybe youre the kind of person who does have to eat when you arent hungry because if you dont, youll forget about eating until youre ravenous, and then you wont be able to control yourself. It all depends on you. Youre the one in control—not the food, and not any kind of diet. Get to know yourself: Write down your own rules about how you like to eat, but only if you see them as your personal preferences and qualities, rather than self-imposed laws.
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The Secrets of Thin People
※Thin people favor bulky foods.
Barbara Rolls, a professor of nutrition at Pennsylvania State University, has done extensive research on “calorie density,” or the ratio of calories to the weight of food.
Simply put, foods with a high water content―fruits, vegetables, water-based soups and stews, and cooked whole grains―are low in calories but satiating. Most also contain lots of fiber (an apple has three grams; one cup of cooked barley has six), which fills you up.
Whether consciously or not, many thin people follow the strategy of starting out with a sizable soup or salad, which leads them to eat less for the rest of the meal. One Rolls-led study found that subjects who began a meal with a low-calorie salad―about 100 calories for three cups―were more likely to eat fewer total calories. “It subtracted about 12 percent of the calories from the meal,” she says. Foods with a lot of water, she adds, “can help you perceive that you’ve eaten more.” Drinking water with a meal, Rolls has found, doesn’t have the same effect.
※Thin people watch portion sizes.
No, most thin individuals don’t travel with a food scale and measuring cups or demand fat-gram counts from waiters.
But to keep an eye on what they eat without being obsessive,
many focus on filling their plates with mostly fruits, vegetables, and lean protein.
“No one ever got fat from a grilled shrimp,” says Stephen Gullo, Ph.D., a psychologist and the author of The Thin Commandments Diet.
They also use strategies such as
(A)buying just a single serving’s worth of food,
(B)eating portion-controlled frozen meals,
(C)passing up gargantuan-portion family-style restaurants,
and...
(D)using smaller-than-normal plates.
The National Weight Control Registry (NWCR), an ongoing study of how more than 5,000 people keep off the weight they’ve lost long-term, has found that successful weight maintainers tend to eat five small meals a day rather than three squares, which may make it easier to scale down portions.
※Thin people can put themselves first.
For five years, Anne Fletcher, a registered dietitian and the author of Thin for Life, worked in an obesity clinic. “So often the women I saw were people who refused to take time for themselves,” she recalls. “Their whole lives were spent giving, giving, giving―which women tend to do anyway, but it was really to a fault. Sometimes you need to put yourself first.”
Thin women prioritize eating right, exercising regularly, and reducing stress―all of which are conducive to staying slim. Fletcher confesses to missing the occasional Little League game to work out but contends that such behavior shouldn’t induce guilt. Rather, it’s about taking care of yourself.
“When people take the reins, they realize that the solution to weight control is inside them, not in some magic potion or fad diet that their mother or sister is on.”
※Thin people have thin parents.
And genes are only partially responsible.
“Perhaps 30 percent of being thin is genetic―the rest is environment,” says James O. Hill, Ph.D., director of the Center for Human Nutrition at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, in Denver, and cofounder of the NWCR. If you’re raised playing sports and eating healthy, unprocessed foods, chances are you’ll continue those habits into adulthood, significantly raising your odds of staying slim.
Holly Johnson, age 45, a co-owner of a Sarasota, Florida–based marketing and public-relations firm and the mother of an eight-year-old, describes her father as a “beanpole” and says her mother still weighs “within three pounds of what she did when she married my dad.”
But while genetics were clearly in her favor, Johnson credits healthful home-cooked meals for creating a model of good eating that helps her maintain her weight. “We always had breakfast and dinner together,” she says. “I was brought up with family meals, and now my family sits down every night and lights candles. Dining and healthy eating are important to me.”
※Thin people don’t skip meals.
Slender people don’t drop everything to eat the minute their stomach starts to rumble, but they don’t let themselves get famished, either.
“In my work with over 15,000 patients, the number one behavior that leads people to lose control is skipping meals,” psychologist Stephen Gullo says. Why? Being ravenous makes you much less likely to control impulses to overeat.
Alice O’Neill, a trim 40-year-old playwright in Brooklyn, is quite familiar with this phenomenon. “Skipping meals can be deadly for me, because I do get really hungry and I don’t bear the pain of hunger well,” she says. “And if I’m hungry, I’ll eat anything, and too much of it. Sometimes I use hunger as an excuse to eat things that aren’t good for me, like pizza and French fries.”
※Thin people limit their options.
While everyone needs a variety of foods for optimal nutrition, professor of nutrition Barbara Rolls's research shows that the more types of food we have available, the more we tend to eat. It’s related to what’s called “sensory-specific satiety"―meaning our stomachs and appetites will cry “Uncle!” after we eat a lot of pasta, but if dessert is pie à la mode, suddenly we’ll find just enough room to partake.
“What happens during a meal of many different foods or courses is that we experience satiety for each food as we eat it,” says Rolls, who is also the author of The Volumetrics Eating Plan . “But we are still ‘hungry’ for foods we haven’t eaten yet, particularly those that have different tastes, aromas, shapes, textures, and other sensory properties.”
Still, Rolls would never recommend severely limiting the number or types of food in an effort to stay slim. “People should increase the variety of low-calorie-dense foods they eat―such as vegetables, fruit, and soup―to get the nutrients they need,” she says.
＊optimal: most desirable or satisfactory
※Thin people live in Colorado.
And why are there fewer fat Coloradans? “My take is that, traditionally, Colorado has attracted people who value outdoor living and health and wellness more,” says James O. Hill, Ph.D., director of the Center for Human Nutrition at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, in Denver, who has lived there for 14 years. “People will take off every Friday because they go to the mountains. They’re willing to prioritize health and wellness.”
The state has the country’s largest system of city parks, more than 3 million acres of national parks and forests, 10 major ski resorts, and 400 mountain-biking trails. In addition, 20 percent of Coloradans belong to health clubs―the second-highest percentage in the United States. (Delaware has the highest.) Colorado’s weather also helps. Says Hill: “We have 300-plus days each year when it’s nice to be outside.”
※Thin people don’t sit still.
At the Endocrine Research Unit of the Mayo Clinic, in Rochester, Minnesota, a study of 20 self-proclaimed couch potatoes―half of whom were lean, half mildly obese―revealed that the thin volunteers were more likely to stand, walk, and fidget. The researchers noted that the obese participants sat, on average, more than two hours longer every day than the lean ones did.
“If the obese subjects took on the activity levels of the lean volunteers, they could burn through about 350 calories more a day without working out,” says endocrinologist James Levine, the lead author of the study. “Over a year, this alone could result in a weight loss of approximately 30 pounds, if calorie intake remained the same.”
Simply moving around more, taking walks during the workday, and parking your car at the far end of the parking lot can burn many calories. But regular exercise is important, too. “Ninety percent of people who maintain their weight are exercising in a way that’s the equivalent of walking four miles a day,” says registered dietitian Elizabeth Somer, the author of 10 Habits That Mess Up a Woman’s Diet .
Johnson, for instance, does “some yoga stretching and light weights in the morning.” Then, she says, “I combine a run with walking my son to the bus. I’ll usually get some aerobic exercise every day.”
Regular workouts have another dividend: “Exercise makes you more aware of your body,” psychologist Stephen Gullo says. “You’re less likely to eat the chocolate cake that you know will take hours to burn off on the treadmill.”
※treadmill:
(a) any type of repeated work that is boring and makes you feel tired and seems to have no positive effect and no end
(b)an exercise machine that consists of a moving strip or two step-like parts on which you walk without moving forward(Just like the picture down below↓)
※Thin people weigh themselves.
For years diet experts discouraged stepping on the scale to keep weight in check. Yet one of the findings of the NWCR is that slim people do weigh themselves regularly. Not obsessively, not agonizing down to the ounce, but at least a couple of times a week. “At the first sign of weight gain, they go right back to their weight-loss plan,” says registered dietitian Elizabeth Somer.
Anne Fletcher, also a registered dietitian, says of the weight maintainers she’s interviewed over the years, “Most have found that it’s easier to manage their weight if they don’t allow themselves to go over their goal.”
Holly Johnson, age 45, a co-owner of a Sarasota, Florida–based marketing and public-relations firm and the mother of an eight-year-old, confirms their findings. She always knows whether she’s in her preferred range of 105 to 113, because she weighs herself about twice a week. “If the scale starts creeping up to the higher end or I feel that things are starting to get out of control,” she says, “I cut back on starchy carbs and dessert.”
※Thin people don’t skip breakfast.
You’ve heard it ad nauseam: Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. It’s also a way to stay svelte.
A 2002 study of nearly 3,000 NWCR participants found that 78 percent ate breakfast every day; just 4 percent said they never ate breakfast. (The registry also found that people who don’t eat breakfast have caloric intakes similar to those who do, meaning the skippers make up the calories later.)
A recent study of breakfast eaters in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association backed up other findings that people who eat breakfast are less likely to be overweight than those who don’t.
※Thin people enjoy their food.
It’s tempting to think that one of the reasons thin people stay that way is that they simply aren’t “foodies.” Not true, psychologist Stephen Gullo says. “Naturally thin people enjoy their food every bit as much as overweight people do,” he says. “In fact, many enjoy it more, because they eat without self-reproach.”
Feelings of guilt, or believing that everyone is watching what you’re eating (and thinking you shouldn’t be having that hot-fudge sundae), interfere with enjoyment. “Thin people are selective gourmets,” Gullo says. “Our bodies have a budget, like our checkbook. We should ‘spend’ on what we eat selectively, not compulsively.”
※Thin people practice early intervention.
“A large number of the people who seem to be ‘naturally’ thin have evolved their own strategies for staying that way,” psychologist Stephen Gullo says. They have to, because thin people do gain weight. But they take action when the numbers on the scale creep up or their pants become hard to button.Their response usually involves a combination of exercise and dietary changes.
Carla Matthews, a 38-year-old stay-at-home mother of two in Newport Beach, California, says that when she goes over her upper limit of 130 pounds, she cuts out dessert and wine, drinks more water, and rides her exercise bike three times a week instead of once (in addition to doing Pilates twice a week). “I also tend to eat more salads and do my ‘halves’ routine, where I only eat half of whatever I would normally,” she says. “After 7 to 10 days, my weight is usually back in the comfort zone.”
Understanding what causes you to put on pounds can go a long way toward preventing them. “Thin people know they need to either limit exposure to certain foods that trigger appetite or limit the quantity or frequency of those foods,” says Gullo, whose personal kryptonite is pizza. “Or, if they can’t do any of those, they ban the food completely.”
Anne Casher, a 37-year-old stay-at-home mother of two in Wilton, Connecticut, has learned to steer clear of her enemy: “I decided not to keep ice cream or cookies in the house,” she says, “because if there are some really good chocolate-chip cookies in the drawer, I’m inclined to eat them after dinner even if I’m not hungry.”
Because stress, sadness, anger, loneliness, and grief can send anyone to seek solace in a pint of Ben & Jerry’s, the successfully thin person knows mood-driven eating when she sees it and defends against it, Gullo adds. “Thin people recognize the syndrome and don’t bring trigger foods into the place where it happens,” he says. “Mood eating takes place primarily at home.”
※Thin people do what works.
Perhaps nowhere does the frequently cited definition of insanity―doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result―apply more aptly than with weight loss. The math makes this clear: By one estimate, one-third of Americans are on a diet, but 64 percent of us remain overweight or obese. Something doesn’t add up.
The biggest difference between the permanently thin and everyone else might very well be this: Those who don’t gain (or regain) have come up with effective, specific, and often personal ways to keep their weight in check.
Becky Grebosky, age 38, a children’s-clothing and gift manufacturer and a mother of two in Albuquerque, New Mexico, makes a smoothie when she feels like having a treat. “I mix up yogurt, a bit of juice, some water, ice, and whatever fruit is around,” she says. “It tastes like a milk shake.” Other thin people can’t live without dessert, so they shave calories elsewhere or “pay” for the indulgence with extra time or intensity at the gym. “Thin people get out of the mind-set of being ‘good’ or ‘bad,’” psychologist Stephen Gullo says. “It’s about doing what works.”
This practice may account for the single most annoying trait of the always-thin: that their achievement seems effortless. But it’s not. “People think you never have a fat day―I do,” Holly Johnson, age 45, a co-owner of a Sarasota, Florida–based marketing and public-relations firm and the mother of an eight-year-old, says. “I have days when I feel awful. But I spend a lot of time and energy on fitness and cooking. And I have to work really hard, especially now that I’m over 40.”
But when good habits are integrated into your life, something shifts. There’s no need to count calories, agonize over an order of fries, track miles walked, or (worst of all) talk endlessly about what you’re eating and not eating. For the thin, feeling strong, healthy, and, yes, slim are powerful rewards―and their chief motivation to continue, as Anne Fletcher, a registered dietitian, has heard from dozens of people. “More than 90 percent of those who have mastered weight maintenance feel like they’re not dieting,” she says. “It becomes a way of life.”
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Today's class
Alice Munro’s short story, “Boys and Girls," has a very interesting detail written into it. The narrator’s brother is named Laird, which was carefully chosen by the author. Laird is a synonym for lord, which plays a important role in a story where a young girl has society’s unwritten rules forced upon her. At the time of the story, society did not consider men and women equal. The name symbolized how the male child was superior in the parent’s eyes and in general. Along with that, the name also symbolizes the difference between the sexes when this story took place. The time when this story took place was a time when men and women were not equal. Mothers had traditional roles, which usually left them in the house, while men also had their roles, outside of the house.
The male was the dominant figure in the house, while the woman had to be subservient. It was an off thing to see my mother down at the barn. She did not often come out of the house unless it was to do something – hang out the wash or dig potatoes in the garden. She looked out of place, with her bare lumpy legs, not touched by the sun, her apron still on and damp across the stomach from the supper dishes. The narrator had problems coming to terms with the role in life that she was expected to lead. She wanted to work outside with her father doing the work that she deemed important. The mother tried to get the narrator to work inside doing work deemed appropriate for a lady, however it was not something she enjoyed. “I hated the hot dark kitchen in the summer” . The narrator was not considered of any consequential help to her father, simply because she was female. “Could of fooled me,” said the salesman. “I thought it was only a girl” . Even though the narrator could do more work than her younger brother, she was still under appreciated. “Wait till Laird gets a little bigger, then you’ll have a real help”
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※lumpy: (a)having a heavy clumsy appearance
(b)uneven and often crude in style
(＊ crude: simple and not skilfully done or made)
※subservient : very willing or too willing to obey someone else
※hygiene: the things that you do to keep yourself and your surroundings clean in order to maintain good health.
How to be thin
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| Inspiration to be fit |
"I look fat. I hate my body."
"She can eat anything she wants. I hate her."
"Im not going to that party. Ill just eat way too much."
"I would be happy if I could just get skinny."
Sound familiar?
These aren't the words or thoughts of a naturally thin person, but they might be the things you say or think to yourself. I used to talk to myself like this, but I dont do it anymore. You can stop, too. You can break free from the oppression of food obsession and become "naturally thin."
What do I mean by that? Its not some state of being beyond your grasp. You are naturally thin. You just have to make a few simple changes to let your natural thinness emerge.
By trade, Im a natural-foods chef. And a lot of what I know about food comes from my passion for both food and health.
Im naturally thin, too, but I didnt come preprogrammed that way. Dieting was always in the forefront of my mind. I cant believe how much of my life I wasted feeling fat, obsessing about what to order on a date, or figuring out how to pass up an invitation to a restaurant I perceived as serving fattening food. Back when I was ingrained in the diet mentality, I never really thought I could escape. But I did.
Today, I no longer diet. I eat pretty much whatever I want to eat. And Im ready to help you transform your entire relationship with food. Here, Ive condensed everything Ive learned about eating and cooking into simple rules you can use, too.
Your diet is your bank account
I consider this the mother of all the other rules. Its the first thing I tell people when they ask me how I stay naturally thin. And its the first thing I want you to think about every day. Just as you balance your spending and savings, you must balance your food choices. Dont eat too much of any one thing, balance starches with proteins, vegetables and fruits with sweets, and always balance a splurge with a save. This balancing is approximate—but it works, without counting, measuring, or obsessing.
Most of the time, make smart investments in healthful foods that fill you up. Then, when you really want to splurge, go ahead. You arent dieting, remember. You are living. However, a splurge comes with a price. You have to balance that splurge by cutting back a little afterward, until your accounts are in order again. Lets say you had pancakes for breakfast. Theyre fine—and starchy and sweet. So what do you have for lunch? Pasta? Of course not. Thats more starch. Because you had starch and sugar earlier in the day, you now need protein and vegetables. So have a salad with grilled chicken or some vegetable soup. Just stay tuned-in to what you are doing and youll be able to have the foods you really love—in a balanced way.
Cancel your membership in the clean-plate club
This rule isnt about wasting food. On the contrary, it will help you get more for your money by increasing the fun factor, making one meal into several meals, and by putting less food in your body. Try these strategies.
• Share it. This helps you eat less while allowing you to taste more. Whenever I order something in a restaurant—salad, appetizer, soup, entree, even a drink—I always offer a taste of it to whomever Im with. More often than not, people are curious about food and happy to have a taste of what someone else chose.
• Save it. I often take food home in a doggie bag. I love having a beautiful, healthy, delicious dinner or lunch to look forward to the next day. Its economical, figure-friendly, and gives you one less meal to plan the day after. Ask the server to pack up half the entree in a doggie bag before you even see it. Instant portion control!
• Leave it. What if you realize the food really isnt all that good? Or maybe its fine but you arent in a situation where you can carry that last quarter of food home? Just leave it. If its hard for you to do, start by simply leaving one or two bites of something, then gradually increase the amount you leave.
Get real
In other words, eat real food and limit processed. Choose food thats as close to its natural state as possible. An apple is better than pasteurized apple juice, but apple juice is better than an apple-flavored drink that doesnt contain any apples. It may sound trite, but you are what you eat, so keep it real by eating organic, seasonal, and local foods. Plus, in most cases, fresh, real food tastes better.
Another important reason why eating real food can help you become naturally thin: Its usually high-volume food. Raw vegetables, in particular, are high in fiber and volume so when you eat them first you end up with less room in your stomach for other, higher-calorie foods. Start your meal with a big salad or a bowl of vegetable soup and you wont have much room left for food with more fat and calories. Sure, I still have my favorite junk food, and you can, too. But if it becomes an "I know what this is going to do to me, so Ill have only two bites" kind of thing, then youll be eating like a thin person.
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Taste everything, eat nothing
I dont really mean that you cant eat anything. You will eat plenty of full portions of things. But you dont always need to do it. I love the Italian saying mangia poco ma bene. It means "Eat little, but well." In fact, I learned this rule during a trip to Italy: I started each morning with cappuccino with real full-fat milk, the way the Italians drink it. They dont drink "skinny lattes" or ask for skim milk and sugar-free sweetener. For lunch or dinner, I would have some pasta, but at only one of those meals, and only a small order, combined with a little filling protein. Its how humans are supposed to eat—tasting little bits of the very best foods. But how do you pull off little tastes?
If you spoil your appetite, rule 4 is possible. For example, when you know youre going to an event that will offer opportunities for overeating, the worst thing you can do is to starve yourself all day because you think it will allow you to eat more. Do just the opposite: Eat a simple, sensible breakfast; have a healthy, light lunch; and right before you go to the party have a healthy snack.
People are so afraid to do this! They think that eating before a party will add way too many calories. But the calories you save by having a healthful snack before you are faced with temptation will more than make up for the calories you spend.
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| 新增說明文字 |
Pay attention
When you barrel through the food on your plate as if youre in a race, do you really taste what youre eating? Did your body even register that it had a meal? Eating consciously makes food worth the calories. It also helps you become choosier about what you eat. And it helps you eat less. Here are some tips for learning how to do it.
• Taste your food. It takes two seconds to shift your attention to what you are doing and actually taste what youre eating. Then, the food will register as an experience.
• Quit multitasking. If somebody told me to quit multitasking, I would laugh. My life wouldn't work if I didn't do a million things at once. But we don't have to carry that way of life into mealtimes. When we do, not only do we fail to digest our food as well or enjoy it as much, but we also eat more of it. New policy: Don't eat while doing something else. I know this isn't always possible, but its a good goal. If you have to eat an energy bar in the car, take little bites and taste it.
• Always sit down to eat. When you eat standing up, whether youre cooking, snacking, or just picking at food, you wont feel satisfied, because you arent really thinking about eating. Those bites while youre distracted with cooking really add up. If you dont eat until youre ready to make yourself a plate and sit down, youll save hundreds of unnecessary calories.
• Make food special. In a restaurant, you pay to have your food made special. So why shouldnt you do it at home? To make a salad, dont just grab some iceberg lettuce out of a bag. Choose fresh, crisp greens, and top them with nuts or shaved Parmesan. Add herbs or crumbles of feta cheese.
If your food is really worth it, youll be more likely to pay attention.
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| Skinny girl |
If your portion is small, you can eat absolutely anything that really sounds good to you. But I'm not going to tell you to break out your measuring cups and spoons. You aren't on a diet. You aren't eating obsessively or with anxiety and worry. Just put these simple containers in your portion-control tool kit instead.
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| small&beautiful plate |
If you put a little food on a big plate, youre going to feel cheated. I always use a salad plate instead of a full-size dinner plate for my meals and snacks at home. Keep the salad plates at the front of your cabinet, and grab those first.
Never eat anything out of a bag; use a ramekin for decadent treats like ice cream or chips. I use them every day.
Mini-muffin tin.
Instead of baking big cakes and loaves, bake mini cupcakes and muffins—automatic portion control.
Chopsticks.
Although you can certainly use regular utensils, chopsticks are fun and can help slow you down.
Small juice glasses and dessert wineglasses.
Save the big tumblers and pint glasses for water. For everything else, use smaller glasses.
Know thyself
All that time and energy spent wishing you looked like, say, Victoria Beckham is much better spent getting to know yourself and your own hunger patterns. Part of the problem I have with "eating every three hours" or "eating five times every day" is that not everyone is hungry so often; and even if you are this hungry on some days, you wont be on other days.
Or, maybe youre the kind of person who does have to eat when you arent hungry because if you dont, youll forget about eating until youre ravenous, and then you wont be able to control yourself. It all depends on you. Youre the one in control—not the food, and not any kind of diet. Get to know yourself: Write down your own rules about how you like to eat, but only if you see them as your personal preferences and qualities, rather than self-imposed laws.
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The Secrets of Thin People
※Thin people favor bulky foods.
Barbara Rolls, a professor of nutrition at Pennsylvania State University, has done extensive research on “calorie density,” or the ratio of calories to the weight of food.
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| Thin girls |
Simply put, foods with a high water content―fruits, vegetables, water-based soups and stews, and cooked whole grains―are low in calories but satiating. Most also contain lots of fiber (an apple has three grams; one cup of cooked barley has six), which fills you up.
Whether consciously or not, many thin people follow the strategy of starting out with a sizable soup or salad, which leads them to eat less for the rest of the meal. One Rolls-led study found that subjects who began a meal with a low-calorie salad―about 100 calories for three cups―were more likely to eat fewer total calories. “It subtracted about 12 percent of the calories from the meal,” she says. Foods with a lot of water, she adds, “can help you perceive that you’ve eaten more.” Drinking water with a meal, Rolls has found, doesn’t have the same effect.
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| cute& thin model |
No, most thin individuals don’t travel with a food scale and measuring cups or demand fat-gram counts from waiters.
But to keep an eye on what they eat without being obsessive,
many focus on filling their plates with mostly fruits, vegetables, and lean protein.
“No one ever got fat from a grilled shrimp,” says Stephen Gullo, Ph.D., a psychologist and the author of The Thin Commandments Diet.
They also use strategies such as
(A)buying just a single serving’s worth of food,
(B)eating portion-controlled frozen meals,
(C)passing up gargantuan-portion family-style restaurants,
and...
(D)using smaller-than-normal plates.
The National Weight Control Registry (NWCR), an ongoing study of how more than 5,000 people keep off the weight they’ve lost long-term, has found that successful weight maintainers tend to eat five small meals a day rather than three squares, which may make it easier to scale down portions.
※Thin people can put themselves first.
For five years, Anne Fletcher, a registered dietitian and the author of Thin for Life, worked in an obesity clinic. “So often the women I saw were people who refused to take time for themselves,” she recalls. “Their whole lives were spent giving, giving, giving―which women tend to do anyway, but it was really to a fault. Sometimes you need to put yourself first.”
Thin women prioritize eating right, exercising regularly, and reducing stress―all of which are conducive to staying slim. Fletcher confesses to missing the occasional Little League game to work out but contends that such behavior shouldn’t induce guilt. Rather, it’s about taking care of yourself.
“When people take the reins, they realize that the solution to weight control is inside them, not in some magic potion or fad diet that their mother or sister is on.”
※Thin people have thin parents.
And genes are only partially responsible.
“Perhaps 30 percent of being thin is genetic―the rest is environment,” says James O. Hill, Ph.D., director of the Center for Human Nutrition at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, in Denver, and cofounder of the NWCR. If you’re raised playing sports and eating healthy, unprocessed foods, chances are you’ll continue those habits into adulthood, significantly raising your odds of staying slim.
Holly Johnson, age 45, a co-owner of a Sarasota, Florida–based marketing and public-relations firm and the mother of an eight-year-old, describes her father as a “beanpole” and says her mother still weighs “within three pounds of what she did when she married my dad.”
But while genetics were clearly in her favor, Johnson credits healthful home-cooked meals for creating a model of good eating that helps her maintain her weight. “We always had breakfast and dinner together,” she says. “I was brought up with family meals, and now my family sits down every night and lights candles. Dining and healthy eating are important to me.”
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| Healthy Diet |
※Thin people don’t skip meals.
Slender people don’t drop everything to eat the minute their stomach starts to rumble, but they don’t let themselves get famished, either.
“In my work with over 15,000 patients, the number one behavior that leads people to lose control is skipping meals,” psychologist Stephen Gullo says. Why? Being ravenous makes you much less likely to control impulses to overeat.
Alice O’Neill, a trim 40-year-old playwright in Brooklyn, is quite familiar with this phenomenon. “Skipping meals can be deadly for me, because I do get really hungry and I don’t bear the pain of hunger well,” she says. “And if I’m hungry, I’ll eat anything, and too much of it. Sometimes I use hunger as an excuse to eat things that aren’t good for me, like pizza and French fries.”
※Thin people limit their options.
While everyone needs a variety of foods for optimal nutrition, professor of nutrition Barbara Rolls's research shows that the more types of food we have available, the more we tend to eat. It’s related to what’s called “sensory-specific satiety"―meaning our stomachs and appetites will cry “Uncle!” after we eat a lot of pasta, but if dessert is pie à la mode, suddenly we’ll find just enough room to partake.
“What happens during a meal of many different foods or courses is that we experience satiety for each food as we eat it,” says Rolls, who is also the author of The Volumetrics Eating Plan . “But we are still ‘hungry’ for foods we haven’t eaten yet, particularly those that have different tastes, aromas, shapes, textures, and other sensory properties.”
Still, Rolls would never recommend severely limiting the number or types of food in an effort to stay slim. “People should increase the variety of low-calorie-dense foods they eat―such as vegetables, fruit, and soup―to get the nutrients they need,” she says.
＊optimal: most desirable or satisfactory
※Thin people live in Colorado.
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| OK, so there are thin people outside Colorado. But there must be something the Centennial State knows: According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Colorado has the highest percentage of people with a normal weight (meaning neither overweight nor obese) in the nation. |
And why are there fewer fat Coloradans? “My take is that, traditionally, Colorado has attracted people who value outdoor living and health and wellness more,” says James O. Hill, Ph.D., director of the Center for Human Nutrition at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, in Denver, who has lived there for 14 years. “People will take off every Friday because they go to the mountains. They’re willing to prioritize health and wellness.”
The state has the country’s largest system of city parks, more than 3 million acres of national parks and forests, 10 major ski resorts, and 400 mountain-biking trails. In addition, 20 percent of Coloradans belong to health clubs―the second-highest percentage in the United States. (Delaware has the highest.) Colorado’s weather also helps. Says Hill: “We have 300-plus days each year when it’s nice to be outside.”
※Thin people don’t sit still.
At the Endocrine Research Unit of the Mayo Clinic, in Rochester, Minnesota, a study of 20 self-proclaimed couch potatoes―half of whom were lean, half mildly obese―revealed that the thin volunteers were more likely to stand, walk, and fidget. The researchers noted that the obese participants sat, on average, more than two hours longer every day than the lean ones did.
“If the obese subjects took on the activity levels of the lean volunteers, they could burn through about 350 calories more a day without working out,” says endocrinologist James Levine, the lead author of the study. “Over a year, this alone could result in a weight loss of approximately 30 pounds, if calorie intake remained the same.”
Simply moving around more, taking walks during the workday, and parking your car at the far end of the parking lot can burn many calories. But regular exercise is important, too. “Ninety percent of people who maintain their weight are exercising in a way that’s the equivalent of walking four miles a day,” says registered dietitian Elizabeth Somer, the author of 10 Habits That Mess Up a Woman’s Diet .
Johnson, for instance, does “some yoga stretching and light weights in the morning.” Then, she says, “I combine a run with walking my son to the bus. I’ll usually get some aerobic exercise every day.”
Regular workouts have another dividend: “Exercise makes you more aware of your body,” psychologist Stephen Gullo says. “You’re less likely to eat the chocolate cake that you know will take hours to burn off on the treadmill.”
※treadmill:
(a) any type of repeated work that is boring and makes you feel tired and seems to have no positive effect and no end
(b)an exercise machine that consists of a moving strip or two step-like parts on which you walk without moving forward(Just like the picture down below↓)
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| treadmill |
※Thin people weigh themselves.
For years diet experts discouraged stepping on the scale to keep weight in check. Yet one of the findings of the NWCR is that slim people do weigh themselves regularly. Not obsessively, not agonizing down to the ounce, but at least a couple of times a week. “At the first sign of weight gain, they go right back to their weight-loss plan,” says registered dietitian Elizabeth Somer.
Anne Fletcher, also a registered dietitian, says of the weight maintainers she’s interviewed over the years, “Most have found that it’s easier to manage their weight if they don’t allow themselves to go over their goal.”
Holly Johnson, age 45, a co-owner of a Sarasota, Florida–based marketing and public-relations firm and the mother of an eight-year-old, confirms their findings. She always knows whether she’s in her preferred range of 105 to 113, because she weighs herself about twice a week. “If the scale starts creeping up to the higher end or I feel that things are starting to get out of control,” she says, “I cut back on starchy carbs and dessert.”
※Thin people don’t skip breakfast.
You’ve heard it ad nauseam: Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. It’s also a way to stay svelte.
A 2002 study of nearly 3,000 NWCR participants found that 78 percent ate breakfast every day; just 4 percent said they never ate breakfast. (The registry also found that people who don’t eat breakfast have caloric intakes similar to those who do, meaning the skippers make up the calories later.)
A recent study of breakfast eaters in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association backed up other findings that people who eat breakfast are less likely to be overweight than those who don’t.
※Thin people enjoy their food.
It’s tempting to think that one of the reasons thin people stay that way is that they simply aren’t “foodies.” Not true, psychologist Stephen Gullo says. “Naturally thin people enjoy their food every bit as much as overweight people do,” he says. “In fact, many enjoy it more, because they eat without self-reproach.”
Feelings of guilt, or believing that everyone is watching what you’re eating (and thinking you shouldn’t be having that hot-fudge sundae), interfere with enjoyment. “Thin people are selective gourmets,” Gullo says. “Our bodies have a budget, like our checkbook. We should ‘spend’ on what we eat selectively, not compulsively.”
※Thin people practice early intervention.
“A large number of the people who seem to be ‘naturally’ thin have evolved their own strategies for staying that way,” psychologist Stephen Gullo says. They have to, because thin people do gain weight. But they take action when the numbers on the scale creep up or their pants become hard to button.Their response usually involves a combination of exercise and dietary changes.
Carla Matthews, a 38-year-old stay-at-home mother of two in Newport Beach, California, says that when she goes over her upper limit of 130 pounds, she cuts out dessert and wine, drinks more water, and rides her exercise bike three times a week instead of once (in addition to doing Pilates twice a week). “I also tend to eat more salads and do my ‘halves’ routine, where I only eat half of whatever I would normally,” she says. “After 7 to 10 days, my weight is usually back in the comfort zone.”
Understanding what causes you to put on pounds can go a long way toward preventing them. “Thin people know they need to either limit exposure to certain foods that trigger appetite or limit the quantity or frequency of those foods,” says Gullo, whose personal kryptonite is pizza. “Or, if they can’t do any of those, they ban the food completely.”
Anne Casher, a 37-year-old stay-at-home mother of two in Wilton, Connecticut, has learned to steer clear of her enemy: “I decided not to keep ice cream or cookies in the house,” she says, “because if there are some really good chocolate-chip cookies in the drawer, I’m inclined to eat them after dinner even if I’m not hungry.”
Because stress, sadness, anger, loneliness, and grief can send anyone to seek solace in a pint of Ben & Jerry’s, the successfully thin person knows mood-driven eating when she sees it and defends against it, Gullo adds. “Thin people recognize the syndrome and don’t bring trigger foods into the place where it happens,” he says. “Mood eating takes place primarily at home.”
※Thin people do what works.
Perhaps nowhere does the frequently cited definition of insanity―doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result―apply more aptly than with weight loss. The math makes this clear: By one estimate, one-third of Americans are on a diet, but 64 percent of us remain overweight or obese. Something doesn’t add up.
The biggest difference between the permanently thin and everyone else might very well be this: Those who don’t gain (or regain) have come up with effective, specific, and often personal ways to keep their weight in check.
Becky Grebosky, age 38, a children’s-clothing and gift manufacturer and a mother of two in Albuquerque, New Mexico, makes a smoothie when she feels like having a treat. “I mix up yogurt, a bit of juice, some water, ice, and whatever fruit is around,” she says. “It tastes like a milk shake.” Other thin people can’t live without dessert, so they shave calories elsewhere or “pay” for the indulgence with extra time or intensity at the gym. “Thin people get out of the mind-set of being ‘good’ or ‘bad,’” psychologist Stephen Gullo says. “It’s about doing what works.”
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| yogurt |
But when good habits are integrated into your life, something shifts. There’s no need to count calories, agonize over an order of fries, track miles walked, or (worst of all) talk endlessly about what you’re eating and not eating. For the thin, feeling strong, healthy, and, yes, slim are powerful rewards―and their chief motivation to continue, as Anne Fletcher, a registered dietitian, has heard from dozens of people. “More than 90 percent of those who have mastered weight maintenance feel like they’re not dieting,” she says. “It becomes a way of life.”
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Today's class
Alice Munro - Boys and Girls
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| A Boy and a Girl |
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| A boy and a girl |
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※lumpy: (a)having a heavy clumsy appearance
(b)uneven and often crude in style
(＊ crude: simple and not skilfully done or made)
※subservient : very willing or too willing to obey someone else
※hygiene: the things that you do to keep yourself and your surroundings clean in order to maintain good health.
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