a parent who is overweight, or a mother who is constantly on diet, or a parent who calls you “fussy” for choosing health bread over white bread. Embrace a lifestyle where exercise, healthy eating and good sleeping patterns are established. A healthy lifestyle is about making choices. Making choices about your health helps with being a sexier person. It gives you the skills to make healthy sexual choices too. Trust me on this one!
See ‘Mind Over Fatter’, under Resources
Diet
Who just swore? I did! I used the “D” word. It’s a word that engenders fear, terror, promises and anxiety in all of us. You seldom see a glossy magazine that does not offer a new magic diet. The word “diet” sells a dream, a hope that the beauty myth can be yours. What a load of rubbish. I believe that if you are carrying extra weight or too little weight, you need it. The weight, or lack thereof, is ‘protecting’ you from some issue that you are not addressing. That’s why diets generally do not work. They talk to the superficial aspect of weight and bodies. The people who benefit the most from diets are the companies who manufacture, promote and sell them.
Let’s throw out the “D” word, change the language and I am sure you will get far better results in controlling your weight. The word that replaces “diet” is “health”. Yes, boring, but it works. It works by providing you with an early start to ensuring good health as an adult. It works because it makes you feel alive and energetic, and makes you look fresh and glowing.
Healthy eating requires you to be in touch with your own hunger needs. It teaches you to take control of your own food and body.
You are the one who has to decide:
•Am I hungry?
•What does my mind and body feel like eating?
•Do I feel like eating or am I merely bored/lonely/angry/horny/nervous/stressed?
Food should be a delicious sensual experience. It is so closely linked to sexuality that suppressing your food appetite can lead to suppression of your sexual appetite.
When people are on diet they eat what the dietician or weight loss programme prescribes for them. They are told what to eat, how much of it and when to eat. If one does not follow one’s own hunger patterns, you may end up eating the “diet” way and still sneaking in the food you actually crave. Taking a diet pill, or using drugs like dagga or Tik to reduce your appetite is a stupid thing to do – you’ll end up being an addict with an eating disorder.
Food should be a delicious sensual experience. It is so closely linked to sexuality that suppressing your food appetite can lead to suppression of your sexual appetite. Just as you never admit you are hungry, so it could be hard for you to admit your sexual hunger or to know what kind of sexual play your body wants. When you numb your body to hunger, you numb it to sexual hunger too. Building a good, healthy relationship with food will allow you to stay in your body. It is important, the best way to feel and a good place to be when you choose to be sexually active!
Healthy eating habits
•Make sure you have easy access to the foods you enjoy. Binge eating will be avoided this way. More thoughtfulness and choice goes into your eating, rather than just a spontaneous response to hunger.
•Begin your day with a wholesome big breakfast – you have to feed those brain cells.
•Nutritionists recommend snacking every few hours rather than starving the body for hours between meals. Prepare healthy snack food to carry around with you.
•Fruit and vegetables are healthy, so make sure you eat some every day.
•Avoid greasy and unhealthy junk food. It’s nice every now and then as a treat if you are craving it, but it should not be part of your regular food intake.
See Alcohol
•Drink plenty of water. Choose fruit juice and bottled water over fizzy drinks and caffeine. Try reducing coffee and tea, but herbal teas are great. Alcohol is terribly unhealthy and definitely adds weight.
•Ensure you have good food variety, balanced food groups to choose from and always practise moderation in the amounts that you eat.
•If you are vegetarian, make sure you are supplementing with vitamins and minerals.
Exercise
No compromise on this! Exercise has so many benefits that it’s hard to list them all. Let’s start with the most important one, which is that it is like preventative medicine. Embracing any kind of exercise consistently from your teens onward lowers your risks of heart failure, obesity, hypertension, and osteoporosis (brittle bones).
See Menstrual mischief
As you exercise, you release into your blood stream feel-good chemicals called endorphins. These ward off depression. Exercise also seems to help relieve premenstrual pain and cramps.
Develop a culture of fun around exercise: hang out in the gym with your friends or meet on the sports field for a group session.
The way you feel about yourself after an exercise session is what it’s all about: you feel alive, confident, and proud that you are investing in a healthy lifestyle. An added bonus is that you’ll end up with a great, toned body that you feel proud of dressing up and strutting out on the town. Exercise should be incorporated into your life in a consistent and deliberate way. Make it part of your weekly schedule. It is not easy to commit to exercise on a regular basis, but seen as part of a healthy lifestyle may make it easier for you. Choose an exercise that you enjoy – this will ensure that you actually do it. It’s fashionable and considered healthy to do different forms of exercise weekly. Like any activity (including sexual play!), exercise can get boring if the same routine is exclusively practised. So, for example, gym twice a week, play a group sport once a week, do a dance /martial arts class once a week. Develop a culture of fun around exercise: hang out in the gym with your friends, meet on the sports field for a group session. If you can’t afford a gym subscription, or have transport difficulties, hit the road and go jogging. Or turn up the volume and boogie at home.
Sleep
Perhaps you think sleep is for babies and as a teenager sleep may not be something you think about a lot. Your body, however, thinks about it a lot. It is undergoing intense growth spurts, so sleep is very important for your body. Studies have shown that teenagers who do not get enough sleep develop bad skin, lack concentration, have lower energy levels and are prone to emotional ups and downs.
It may feel right for you to have a nap in the afternoon. Twenty minutes or so will be great – longer may make you unable to sleep properly at night. Don’t think long weekend sleeps can make up for little sleep during the week – they can’t. As with exercise and eating, develop a good sleep routine. A good idea is to switch off your cellphone before sleeping as SMSs from wide-awake friends can disturb and disrupt your sleep pattern.
Basic confidence-giving hygiene routines
Think of an advertisement. I bet one of the first that comes to mind is one that promotes a beauty product: Soap, shampoo, toothpaste, deodorant and of course perfume. We think we are smelly, so we automatically buy these products.
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