I am six feet tall and weigh
‘around’ two hundred pounds. I feel
best when I can maintain my weight at one-eighty-five. Regardless what you weigh your weigh is the
product of your food intake and your energy output. Exercise works great to tone the body, but
exercise is not the answer to weight loss.
There are numerous diets; and
diets do work but they require you to maintain the diet plan in order to maintain
the weight loss. My wife and I attended
Weight Watchers (she was only one-thirty-five but wanted to come down five or so
pounds) I dropped fifteen pounds in six
weeks and felt great, but did not see the need to continue to pay once I knew
the process – then back to old habits.
I am convinced that weight
loss and maintenance requires a life style change – and that is hard to
do. It requires conscious eating.
If you read this blog
regularly you will know that I am an on-again off-again Buddhist. Like weight maintenance, I always feel
better when I am actively, consciously practicing the concepts of ZEN. Therefore I have looked for guidance on
weight maintenance in the community of Buddhist writings.
The book Mindful Eating, published by Shambhala publications and written by Jan Chozen Bays
(MD) is worth a read.
I am absolutely positive that following the concepts of this book can result in weight loss and maintenance – If you live in a monastery.
However, in every day life it requires the same dedication that is
involved in Zen mindful living.
The book is a good read, and
if you are weight conscious it presents ‘a healthy and joyful relationship with
food’ that meshes well with Zen practice.
The concepts are:
·
Be mindful when
you eat. Turn off the TV and put down
the book; look at your food, smell the food; taste the food.
·
Slow down. Chew your food well; the book suggests you
put down your fork after each bite.
·
Quit eating when
you are sated – go back for second portions if necessary rather than over load
your plate.
·
Balance food
intake with physical activity.
·
How to deal with
cravings
It is important to remember
that Buddhism is about peace of mind – living productively in the now; not
about self doubt and recrimination.
If weight loss and weight
maintenance can improve your health and make you feel better about yourself than
it is a worthy cause and should be approached with mindfulness. (Weight
loss should be determined by how you feel about yourself – not about the
opinion of others that you allow to negatively affect you self-image.)
You should remember that it
is all-right to be a FAT HAPPY BUDDHA.
the Ol'Buzzard
I'm 65 and have weighed around 145...64 kilos for years. My friends I work with kid me and say I have 2 tapeworms, one speaks French and the other English and I have to feed them both. As you know I love food and will eat anything...snails if they are done right! For me the key is ego, exercise and never, ever snacking. Americans seem to obsess about food and diet and that is the downfall. The more you think about it, the more you want. The less you eat, the less you want....I am concerned about the quality of the food I eat. I only eat meat a few times a week...I am a happy skinny Buddha on a bicycle!
ReplyDeleteQuite possibly the greatest post ever...........Exercise is Evil! I tried to diet recently and gained 10 pounds! ha ha ha ha Good luck to you with your eating discipline. Don't use me as a role model. I weigh 285! ha ha ha ha ha
ReplyDeleteI remember when I was a kid being told to chew my food 32 times. Once for each tooth, now I guess I could just swallow the food whole!!
ReplyDeleteThe Zen eating practice you describe is a great idea if you can maintain the discipline. On the other hand, I got this in the mail from an old friend a few days ago. He titled it My New Theme Song.
ReplyDeleteWhere does the ice cream with chocolate syrup and bananas come in to play?
ReplyDelete