Two good allies

Don’t wait – gain a couple of good habits instead of gaining weight.

When you smoked, your body was more effective at burning calories due to an unnaturally hyped metabolism.

Now you don’t smoke, which is great! However, you may want to consider replacing the effect of smoking on your metabolism by increasing its effectiveness in an organic manner.

Physical activity is your best choice.

Every pattern that is repeated frequently becomes a habit. Take advantage of this phenomenon by acquiring some beneficial habits.

Eating good healthy food is an excellent habit.

Once you start to be conscious of your food intake – and, over time, become scrupulous about what you allow to come into your body – you will discover that this attitude towards food will become your habit.

Similarly, when you embark on physical activity that you enjoy, and you repeat this for a few weeks and establish a routine, it becomes part of your life. You would not want to miss it.

And, in such a simple way, eating good food and exercise become innate routines.

Now these two allies – a good healthy diet and an exercise discipline – go very well together. One habit perfectly supports the other. After you have walked for an hour it feels better to drink fresh water than a soft drink or a cup of coffee. After twenty laps in the pool it just feels right to eat a salad, some rice and lean grilled chicken, and maybe fruit for dessert, rather then indulging in a big piece of steak with pile of fries and a bucket of ice-cream.

Go in both directions simultaneously, rather than just one.

If you go only in one direction it will be much harder. If you overeat and indulge your desire for food, it would be madness to try to balance this with an intense exercise regime. Just as senseless is the attempt to abide to an extremely strict diet while sitting in front of the computer all day and by the TV all evening.

Overindulgence encourages laziness.

Sitting idle all day encourages indulgence.

Go with both allies rather than just choosing one.

You will be very happy to discover for yourself that these two good habits, a balanced healthy diet and an effective exercise regimen, support a non-smoking lifestyle.

Drinking lots of coffee during the day and alcohol at night do wonders to support a cigarette-smoking lifestyle.

When you jog or swim or play a game of squash, and then eat a healthy meal, it is less likely that you will crave a cigarette for dessert.

And so the two allies become three – not smoking, eating well, and being fit.

In Session Eight we will elaborate on a commonsense (though, for some reason, not yet a mainstream) approach to diet and fitness.

One of the principles to be discussed is the simple straightforward principle of a balance of energy and calories. If you simply exert as much energy as the energy gained from the calories you take in – you cannot go wrong.

This simple principle is more important than abiding to any diet. It allows you to be flexible, eat what you like, and feel good about yourself.

When it comes to exercise each individual has his or her own preferences. Discover your preference. Remember when you were a kid, you’d play games just for fun. You would be chasing a ball or skipping with a rope without even being conscious that you were actually exercising.

Invest in finding such an activity now – an activity that will awaken that child-like quality of not exercising, but just having fun playing.

Exercising is not a punishment, it is not a chore and not a drag – it is fun!

Walk, swim or jog; spend time in the gym; join a yoga class; play tennis or any ball game you fancy. Do it alone or with a good mate, it doesn’t really matter. What does matter is that you incorporate physical activity in your lifestyle and have fun doing it.

This same attitude also applies to your diet. Don’t look at eating good healthy food as a punishment – make sure it becomes a most rewarding gastronomic experience.

Invest in finding the food that is good for you and tastes great.

And, of course, don’t forget the important role of water. Water will act as a good substitute for cigarettes in increasing your metabolism.

Water is the fluid of life. Drink plenty of water.