Day 53
March 1, 2009
One of the reasons why I chose to go on a complete fast rather than on a restrictive diet is because I wanted to completely separate myself from dealing with food for a season so I could figure out how to have a better relationship with food. This time away from food is that I can learn to be with food in a healthy enjoyable balanced way. I don’t want to live the rest of my life with certain foods labeled good and others labeled bad. I realize that the food I eat, how much I eat, and when I eat will always need to be made with intentional awareness but I don’t want it to be the focus as it’s been in all my years of struggling with food and my obession with it as someone who eats compulsively. That’s what the fast is all about so I can figure out how to have a fresh start with food.
Here are a couple books I’m in the middle of reading that are the best of the best.
Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think is an entertaining and fascinating book that offers some really helpful insights into how it is we consume more calories tha we think we do and how in turn we can reduce our daily calories without going on a diet or feeling diet deprivation. Mindless Eating isn’t a diet book. It’s a book of research involving real people in real world situations that’s as interesting to read as it is informative. I’m half way through and am LOVING this book and gathering a collection of the smallest ideas that can make the difference between gaining 10 pounds a year or losing 10 pounds a year.
I’m also about half way through Mindful Eating: A Guide to Rediscovering a Healthy and Joyful Relationship with Food and so far I’ve loved every word. Written by a Zen Buddhist and Pediatrician (combined in one person), this book approaches eating from both a medical and spiritual perspective. The author describes the seven hungers that drive us; nose hunger, eye hunger, mouth hunger, mind hunger, stomach hunger, cellular hunger and heart hunger and then suggests how we satisfy all these hungers; sometimes with food and sometimes without and always with mindfulness. I’m finding that this book is shaping how I want to be in relationship with food and by the same token be in relationship myself so I can eat in a way that is both pleasurable and healthy physically and spiritually. The author leads mindful eating workshops at a Zen monestary outside Portland, Oregon and D and I are planning to attend one as soon as we can following our transition back to food.
I’m sure a lot of what I’m getting from these books I’ll be sharing here in the coming weeks but you just might want to go ahead and get them for yourself. These really are both a cut and above any other books on the topic.
As a final note, I’ve been in Portland for a few days and have spent quite a bit of time in food situations with family and friends; in restaurants, at parties and just being at Mom’s house where cake, chocolates and ice cream abound. While it’s certainly been a little more difficult at times to be around so much food while fasting, it’s been surprisingly easy even more of the time. I’ve scooped ice cream, melted cheese on crackers, and sliced a platter of gooey cinnamon rolls and managed to not so much as lick a finger or harm anyone who got in my way. Not to say it won’t be nice to go back on Tuesday to a home that’s a food-free zone!
Posted in Liquid Fast, Weight Loss
