This is why Moms get Fat

"This is why moms get fat", I told my daughter, as she helped me clean the table after dinner. "What do you mean?" she asked. I said, "this....."(as I finished off the leftover portion of chili her brother was too stuffed to eat). "..........finishing off their kids' food after the kids have left the table, and after mom has already eaten a full meal". "oh," she smiled, "but, you're not fat?", she said, a little confused. "That's because I don't usually do this". And I don't, at least not anymore. There was a time as a kid when I used to leave the table feeling so stuffed. I wouldn't want to do anything but sit. That's kind of how I feel now. I hate that feeling.

So now, I'm feeling super stuffed, and just want to sit in front of the TV. I even have a craving to end the meal with something sweet, and am contemplating making some brownies. This is absurd, but eerily familiar to many of you reading this. How is it that our kids can leave 1/2 piece of chocolate birthday cake on their plates, while we wait, stalking their plates and rushing in to finish off their leftovers faster than they can get out of their seats?
Is it a natural progression of motherhood, possibly a side effect of changing hormones, lack of sleep, and worry that causes us to switch to elastic waist bands and skirted bathing suit bottoms? Do we throw up our hands and say, "well, I'm just built like my mom.........". I don't think so!

While things like hormones, inadequate sleep, and stress play a major role in weight gain, I want to jump out on a limb and suggest that the reason many moms fight with their weight may have more to do with mindless eating. You know what I mean, what my friend calls "momma tax", taking that first handful of chips when you open the bag for your son, or sneaking french fries off of their plate when their back is turned.

O how about the taste tests when cooking? How many spoons of that spaghetti sauce do you need to taste before being satisfied it will taste right on your plate? (For me, its five or six!) I also like to drink wine while I cook. It makes me feel as sexy and talented as Nigella Lawson. But these bites don't really count because its not a meal, its not on a plate, I'm not sitting down, right? I mean, I eat really healthy! I don't overeat, really!

The truth is, we all tend to underestimate the amount of food that we eat throughout the day. In one study published in the Journal of The American Dietetic Association, comparing actual food consumption to reported food consumption, women tended to underestimate their daily food intake by up to 500 calories per day. In as little as an extra 100 calories per day, we can gain 10 1/2 pounds in a year. Ten pounds may not seem like much, some of us gain and lose this much on a regular basis. But what happens when we're not paying attention? What happens when we are so busy with our lives that it feels like there is no time to deal with the tightening of our jeans or the loosening of our belt? How fast a decade goes by, and ten pounds becomes 100!

How would our habits change if we knew we had to run an extra 30-60 minutes just to make up for the calories we consumed throughout the day in mindless eating?

Food is good. It nourishes our bodies. It gives us energy to move, to work, to play with our family. It gives us nutrients to make our skin glow, our hair grow, and to allow our brains to comprehend a flurry of stimuli and arrange it into manageable pieces. Food is part of our social rituals, a sign of sympathy, a form of charity. We must re-learn to appreciate food for the ways in which it can add to our lives, in order to become mindful eaters.

Mindful eating is eating intentionally: choosing food based on its qualities, not its proximity. It is choosing food because it not only tastes good, but because it does good things for us. When we begin to live our lives as mindful eaters, things like weight gain, high blood pressure, elevated cholesterol, and debilitating disease start to disappear. It can start with the next bite..............