Wisdom from the Tea shop

Last weekend, I was in my favorite coffee shop. This particular coffee shop is really a tea shop with coffee. The walls are lined with teas and tea paraphernalia, beautiful chocolates in glass display cases, and scattered on the tables are books written by tea lovers.

I picked up Chicken Soup for the Tea Lovers Soul, flipped it open to a page and started reading.

The story was a memory of the author's childhood in Bolivia. In the opening paragraph, the child has just been released from school and is running top speed to her mother's work to share afternoon tea. The author remembers running to tea because, in Bolivia according to the author, if you missed your tea, there would be no food until dinner at 8 o'clock in the evening. So, according to the author, you didn't dilly dally about getting there.

How long has it been since you have faced such a dilemma. Hurry to get somewhere because if you didn't, there wouldn't be anything to eat until dinner time?

Yes... I know... this isn't the way our culture, full of drive-thrus and vending machines, works. But really, wouldn't we all be more aware of the food we eat if there were fewer opportunities to eat?

I used to know a doctor who ate on a very regimented schedule. If he missed lunch because he got behind in his appointments, he wouldn't eat until his afternoon snack time -- and then it wasn't lunch, it was afternoon snack. (His office often overbooked him and his was a very healthy weight. Coincidence? I think not).

How would you feel if you had the structure to live this way? Yes, it required discipline at first (gosh, don't we all hate to tell ourselves "Not yet"?). But after a while, it becomes habit. Not something you have to think about -- just something you do because that is what you have trained yourself to do it.

Here's the key: the behavior has to be rewarding for you. You will be trading the reward of eating something for the reward of attaining and maintaining a healthy weight. And the reward has to be immediate (I am choosing not to eat the snack from the vending machine because this choice is making me healthier right now. By this choice, I am losing weight right now.)

Being healthier. Enjoy food and life more. Right now. Today.