Monday, February 21, 2011

Step Away from the Chalupa!

I'm not knocking Mexican food here or even a particular type of this ethnic cuisine. I'm just using this exhortation from a TV commercial a few years back with the little chihuahua making a police style bust on somebody eating a chalupa to illustrate a mindset that we all should have when we start to get those signals from our stomach telling us that our holding tank is getting full. The problem is when we're eating a tasty entree like a chalupa that our minds just don't want to hear it. We've got this head of steam going and all we want to do is plow ahead and finish off that baby. It's a case of  "Damn the torpedoes! Full speed ahead". Right? Can you feel me here?  I know you can, because when it comes to eating lip-smackin good food like this we are not about to abruptly cut short the enjoyment. Ah, but there in lies the rub, my chalupa loving amigos. If you are at all serious about losing that excess baggage you've managed to accumulate over the years, this is precisely what you have to do... Step away from that chalupa! You have to be willing to listen to what your body is telling you in terms of where you are in relation to how full you are getting and pull yourself up short and say to yourself "OK I'm going to live to fight another day here". I mean come on, you can wrap that thing up and take it home with you. There's no law against that, is there? Just think what a great item you'll have again to eat at tomorrow's lunch or breakfast or even dinner. Think of the money you'll be saving! Heck, you just took what you spent on that chewy-gooey delight and divided it by two!! That's right you just cut your eating expense in half. You are now half again as much money ahead of the game. Now that's what I'm talkin about in this God-forsaken economy that we are all suffering through. It makes good economic sense too!

If you can train yourself to pay attention to how full you are getting and then heed the signal and stop yourself, you will have made a huge stride in being able to reduce your hugeness. If all those reasons I gave you above are not motivation enough for you to drop the chalupa ( into the wrapper, of course, so you can have leftovers), then you need to think about all the other problems that comes with being overweight.  High blood pressure, Diabetes, heart problems, failing joints (knee and hip replacements), even hemorrhoid problems just to tick off a few. So let the exhortation that is the title of this post be your rallying cry and mental marker to take a step back and reassess the situation thus allowing you to take charge of your health and well-being so that you can begin to get your weight in line with where you want it to be.