by Effie Moore Salem

Created on: October 07, 2008   Last Updated: June 07, 2011

There really are no secrets. Naturally slim people are people who eat sensibly, slowly, and they don't overeat. At least this is what we are taught to believe but there's more to it than that. Naturally slim people were born with systems that are more efficient and are programmed to use every calorie wisely. Either that or their metabolic gauge is set higher allowing them to quickly utilize the food they eat; adding to that maybe even less an appetite that the more rotund of us have.

Now the other kind of slimness: There are slim people, although not naturally slim, that make it a daily habit to eat wisely. Their desire to be slim and trim is powered by many other factors than food: Their job requires them to be in near perfect order such as models and fashion conscious folk; they are emotionally tied to their appearance and are overly conscious of how they want others to see them; they eat sensibly and wisely for the sake of their health.

What does nutritionist say about these naturally slim people and their secrets? To get that answer I went online and conveniently stumbled upon prevention.com and their eight secrets of the naturally slim. "Act like you are a size smaller and you will be a size smaller". The mirror does not lie! The writer emphasizes that basically eating is a matter of how we think about it. Some people don't think about it until they are hungry, others can think of nothing else.

I discovered the secrets of the naturally thin aren't really secrets at all but are reworded advice we've been hearing for years. The skinny ones got the message; the rest of us ignore it. Perhaps we can't hear over the roar of our hunger, or supposed hunger. The professionals advise satisfaction over stuffy; hunger isn't a disease; eat fruit, become creatures of habit; control your urges; become active; get a good nights sleep.

In other words, to be healthy is to be hungry about every four hours. It takes this amount of time for the stomach to empty. We don't gobble down our food and therefore overeat, we eat slowly and when we no longer are hungry but are comfortably full, we quit. To make that easy we don't put on our plate what we don't intend to eat - just in case we believe it is sinful to waste food.

Hunger is not a diseased condition, in fact to be hungry tells us our body is working well. Therefore understanding this we can eat and go on our way and think of other things. We don't have to immediately start planning our next meal. We don't dwell on food once we know what works well for us.

For an afternoon pickup a piece of fruit over a candy bar will give a boost and will last longer. Food for thought, far from what we may believe, is what to do with our time when our thinking is not consumed with feeding our bodies, but feeding our minds with positive thoughts on how to use our well fed bodies more productively.

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