Life in Balance Scale

3/18/2021

I Use a Life Balance Scale and a Hunger Scale.

Well I cannot criticize, my addiction is food. 'Eyes bigger than my belly' my mum would have called it.

If you suffer from 'eyes bigger than your belly' syndrome, when serving up food, look at your fist when serving a meal. Your stomach is the size of your fist. An over stretched stomachs will shrink of its own accord they do not need stapling just a period of not being stuffed overfull to regain normal size = normal hunger.

I don't weigh myself or my food very often any more, just 'keep an eye on it' and go by my natural body hunger response, how I feel, what I am doing and how I look in and out of my cotes to assess ow I am taking care of my body. OK I have had 64 years experience, a mid life of yo-yo dieting, a degree in nutrition and participation in gyms and fitness programs to get to this stage of tuning in and being able to listen to my body.
Even with all that experience it is an ongoing program to stay focused on listening to my body's hunger signals and achiving a life balance as the ponly scales I need, and for that reason I devoted blogs specific to those and see this as primarily my fitness blog.

Life Balance Scale
I want a balanced life with the natural weight that is right for my own body not what some BMI tells me is correct and I trust my own body to give me natural hunger signals if I listen and learn to understand that my unstretchable stomach is the size of my clenched fist, perfect guide to portion of a meal anyone can follow as it is personalized.

I also know my need for a protein serve is equivalent to the palm of my hand x the thickness of my hand. That again is a very personalized measurement.

I know that food will not satisfy emotional hunger and I need to do what I can to love myself, think positive thoughts, improve those things I can improve in my life and accept and learn tools to manage those things I cannot change for the better. Those things I strongly believe are more important to long term weight loss that weighing my food or myself. But then that is just me and what I believe in.

Not everyone agrees and we should all do what works for us. Have faith in your own decisions, I am all for the individual, there is not just one way to become a master of your fitness and weight. I would walk away from anyone who claims there way is the only way, that reeks of cultism.

Now the Prevention magazine recommends, (quite good advice if you cannot listen to your own body for now.)
Quote :-"This morning, use a set of kitchen scales to check out what the right portion sizes look like. Food quantity is as important as quality for maintaining healthy weight. Revising your estimations will help you avoid ‘portion distortion’ over Christmas. Visit preventionmag.com.au for more info on recommended portions." Unquote.

This is my Hunger Scale and I have a blog devoted just to eating to the hunger scale.

THE HUNGER SCALE
1 Physically Faint

2. Ravenous

3 Fairy Hungry

4 Slightly Hungry

5 Neutral

6 Pleasantly Satisfied

7 Full

8 Stuffed

9 Bloated

10 Nauseous

Normal Eating takes place within the 3 to 7 range and equals weight maintenance.

To loose weight start and stop eating a stage sooner.

Begin eating prior to 3 and or eat beyond 7 equals weight gain.

You do not need any other scale unless participating in a quality program like the Michell Bridges 12WBT and needing to give evidence that you are releasing excess body weight to others or enjoy weighing for your own pleasure and motivation .

And so our mothers and grandmothers have, more often than not anonymously, handed on the creative spark, the seed of the flower they themselves never hoped to see -- or like a sealed letter they could not plainly read."
-Alice Walker.

Spicy, Apple, Mint Oat Breakfast Slice

Reg and me—in the kitchen, today, experimenting with my Mum's Scottish heritage, mint patty recipe from the 1920s, to bring it in line with today's homemade muesli bar breakfast food.
It's in the oven. Taste test ahead...

Ingredients

2 large butters slice pans
1 ½ cups wholegrain self raising flour. (store wholegrain flour in fridge. )
1 ½ cups Rolled Oats
½ - ¾ cup dark brown sugar
½ - ¾ cup sultanas, dates, dried apricots, or mixture
½ - ¾ cup of slivered or roughly chopped nuts or whole seeds

1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon of ground mixed spice
1 teaspoon of nutmeg
1 level teaspoon of Bi Carb Soda
½ - ¾ cup butter.
2 Granny Smith (large green) apples, grated with peel on.
¼ - ½ cup of chopped mint (according to taste.)

Method

Preheat oven to 180°C.
Combine dry ingredients, rub in softened butter. Add the moist ingredients and mix.
Bake for approximately 30-35 minutes —the time will vary according e the moisture in the apples and the thickness of your slice, so cook until golden.
Set aside to cool slightly before cutting into slices and lifting to a cooling rack.

This will keep in fridge for three days or freeze for up to six months.

And the taste test:

Verdict—Yummy! This is what's left after my brunch. :-) I left some for Reg.

For me, wonderful nostalgic memories of my mum's mint patties. I'll cook this again.

Tip: If you are not used to spicy mint flavour, halve the quantity of mint.

Remember to chew well.
Carbohydrates need to be partially digested by saliva and mastication in your mouth prior to swallowing. Most so called lactose intolerance, isn't an intolerance but a sight that you guts your food and don't chew it enough. Learning to eat (and sleep position) correctly overawes most digestion problems. After that yummy snack the remainder stored for future brunches, Reg is off for a nap.

A blast from the past. I wrote this when I was sixty-four.

I'm thinking of my mum today. Warning, do not read on if you’re not prepared for sentiment, because I am crying, but they are happy tears of emotion, it’s not sadness I feel.

I know the Mother’s Day Classic is to raise funds for breast cancer research. It is usual to dedicate your run to someone you know who has had breast cancer, but I am dedicating my private run, on Mother’s Day, to my mum who died at age sixty-two, in 1972, following a ten-year battle, with heart disease and emphysema.

So while running around the oval during two separate 500 meter runs yesterday I was thinking, ‘I hope you can see this mum and be happy.’

I was also thinking, ‘I wish mum had good guidance and been able to start a health recovery program before it was too late for her, she died far too young’.

When I was at my rock bottom, three and a bit years ago I did the only thing I had the control to do. I made the best decision of my life, not to diet at all. I have always eaten healthy, occasionally, I indulged in non-nutritious food, and often I ate more food than my body was burning for fuel. Arguments about poor metabolism and 'Oh I can’t help it it's in my genes' or my 'Syndrome X or whatever' are just excuses. I was frankly overeating too often and not exercising enough.

I changed my lifestyle to being consistent in self-care.
I did not begin with running. A hundred meter walk had me puffing, and in pain, I just made a start. That's all we have to do, 'take on today,' at the best we can do. We can 'do today.'

Today, three years and three months later, I just ran 4 kilometers in 32 minutes maintaining a consistent 8 kilometers an hour, and I dedicate my run and my new found, fitness to you, mum, with all my love. I see you now, much as you looked when you left me, only it’s the healthy happier version. Every time I look in a mirror now, I see you smiling back at me. Yes, we had a troubled relationship, there were times I hated you, and in all honesty, I was a monster of a defiant child.

I have learned that mums are not perfect and we all do the best we can with the skills and the circumstances we find ourselves in, even I made mistakes as a mum but I know I did the best I could and this helps me to understand that you also did the best you were capable of. You always told me that your idea of heaven or hell was that you thought that souls might be aware of what people thought about them after they had left their human body form and other than that, you had no idea what there was beyond human life on earth. I think that was a very insightful observation and I don’t know that anyone has a better explanation of heaven and hell than that, so mum, I hope you are in heaven today, feeling joy and a happiness seeing how fit and happy your youngest daughter is.

“I talk about you with pride these days, and I now treasure that my childhood was so unusual, you helped me develop skills I have needed in my life, there is a purpose for everything after all. I love you mum, I'm remembering our best times together.”

This video was so much fun to make, I hope you enjoy it as much as Reg, the cats, Tabby and Valentine and I enjoyed making it. The cats have been using it for a few years now and it has made life easier for us humans. If you would like to know more about the amazing Litter-Robot III Open Air, its available in Australia. If you do make a purrchase, add in our Advocat code rynshell for a little thank you! https://catevolution.com.au/litter-robot-iii-open-air.html?tracking=rynshell, I'm a happy customer and thrilled to give a shout-out for family friendly, ethical products.

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