The joys of Monday
by Carol WoodliffFor many who work normal 9a-5pm jobs, Mondays are days they groan about having to go back to work. The weekend is over and the serious stuff begins again. For me, since I work Saturdays seeing clients, I try to make Mondays a day off. Sometimes I don’t succeed and I’ll schedule a speech or a client on Mondays but in general for me, Mondays are easy days.
But the true joy of Monday for me is that each Monday is like a mini-new year. You get a whole new week to decide how you are going to live. You reset your intentions for your life. What do you want to accomplish this week? What exciting thing can I manifest this week? How am I going to take care of myself this week with food and exercise? Notice I didn’t say, “I’m getting back on my diet”. I am not on a diet. I am on a “healthy eating, take care of Carol” program. When I look at my life this way, I am excited to begin a new week. It is a week of opportunities not a week of “shoulds.”
And today I am focusing on the healthy eating part of the program. I went to my friends Kristi and Paolo’s on Saturday night. There, the food and wine flowed and I joyfully ate my way through Paolo’s wonderful authentic Italian cooking–pasta, homemade pizza from his wonderful outdoor wood pizza oven, amazing chicken and a dessert that was like a shortbread cookie with lemon custard on it. All yummy. Most not on my normal program but I enjoyed every bite and I believe that this food cooked with so much love and care was nurturing for my body and spirit.
I do know this can’t be an everyday occurrence if I want my body to let go of the extra weight but I also believe deep inside that the intention with which food is prepared and eaten makes a difference in what it does to our bodies. I have no proof of this, but here is what I think: When we are eating food for comfort to shut off a hurt we are supposed to feel, that food translates into more pounds than food we are eating in celebration and love. This is just my theory. I have no proof. But I believe that when we eat food for because we are hurting and want to suppress the hurt, it is like telling the body, ”Insulate me from this pain. I don’t want to feel or experience the outside world.” So we get more insulation in the form of fat.
I’ve noticed over the last year of focusing on my eating that the occasional joyful celebration does not make me gain weight. The container of Hagen Daas over the kitchen sink because I’m agitated or scared sure does!
I’m sure there may be studies of this somewhere but it is a theory that is working for me–so I’m sticking with it.
Happy Monday everyone!
Carol
July 3rd, 2008 at 9:21 am
So true about enjoying eating - one of my friends visited Italy several years and I always remember her talking about how much time Italians took to eat their meals, even if it was a roll and coffee.
July 3rd, 2008 at 10:48 am
I agree. The Italian and French cultures eat amazingly rich foods and yet have less obesity than the US. I do think it has to do with the time and care they take to sit down to a meal. Although our fast food culture is creeping into European cites and their obesity rates are going up too–sad!
Dinner at Kristi and Paolo’s house is a several hours affair as the food comes out of the oven and it is joy! I think Paolo’s mission is to nourish people! We can take a note from his book and look at how we cook and eat are we really eating to nourish and enjoy our food? I know many times I look at fixing food as a burden–does that make my food less nourishing? Just a thought!
Glad to see you here again Connie!
Carol