Act more like a dog, treat yourself more like a dog, and being thin will come naturally.  Think about it:

1)  Dogs love to go for walks.  They dance around when walk time arrives, bring us their leashes, tilt their heads if we say the word “walk,” nudge our elbows, pant in our faces if we try to sleep in some morning — all because they love exercise and want to go for a walk.  Be more like a dog, and take yourself on more walks.

2)  Only eat as much food as you need.  Find out the calorie counts of foods, along with your height & weight, and figure out how many calories you need each day to maintain your weight.  Think “portion control.”  Why would you want more food than your body requires? Being overweight will only weigh you down, and that would make it harder to run and play, which is so much more fun.

3)  Get plenty of rest. Sleep as much as you can at night, and take plenty of naps. Learn the art of the power nap, the siesta, and the lovely weekend nap. Studies show the less sleep we get, the hungrier we become, and the more likely we are to overeat.  Leptin, which suppresses appetite, is manufactured when we get enough sleep (See: “Is Your Full-O-Meter Broken?”). Have you ever noticed how much dogs like to sleep?

4) Love yourself unconditionally. No matter what your weight is at any given moment. Most dogs seem pretty okay with themselves.

5)  Forgive and forget. Don’t hold grudges – it’s bad for your health and it may make you want to overeat. Dogs are always happy to see you, no matter what they did or what you did yesterday — every day is a new day in their eyes (See: “Diet Redemption; No Regrets, You Always Get Another Chance“).

6) Give Yourself a Treat Sometimes.  After being good all week (watching calories, salads for lunch every day, exercising, etc.), I let myself splurge a little on some tasty item.   We give our dogs little treats sometimes, right?  Treats are the spice of life, after all.  

Can you think of some other ways you can treat yourself like a dog, in living the thin lifestyle? I would love to hear your ideas.

This entry was posted on Friday, December 10th, 2010 at 8:29 am and is filed under Health. Tags for this post: Bathroom scale, BMI, buffet restaurants, Burning Calories, Calorie Calculator, Calorie Counting, calorie myths, Calories, Counting Calories, Diet, Diet Ideas, disneyland, fat calories, fat grams, hcg, Health, Healthy Eating, Healthy Lifestyle, Keeping Weight Off, Lap-Band, Living Thin, Living Well, Losing Pounds, nutrition, overeaters anonymous, real age, Restaurant Eating, Scales, thermic vegetables, trans-fat, Weight Maintenance, weight management. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.