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Community Leon's Spin Meditate, don't medicate! | Meditate, don't medicate! |
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| Written by Leon Sun | ||||||
| Thursday, 13 November 2008 | ||||||
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Anyone who has tried dieting knows that the hardest part is curbing food intake in evening - like, just before bed time!!! This just goes to show how much of eating is emotional. This is pretty well documented in scientific circles. I know it certainly is for me, which is why meditation helped me a lot. [Caveat - The following piece came out of an email conversation I had recently with a friend, who thought it may be a good idea to share this with the BBP community. Please note that I am not a doctor and whatever is said here reflects a layman’s experience and is not backed by scientific evidence, or any kind of spiritual authority, for that matter.]I began my diet coincidentally when I began training this past May (2008) for the Doggone Fun Run - a 10K run to raise funds for P.A.W.S. I did not plan on dieting, but weight (i.e., fat) loss was a happy by-product of all the running I was doing and I became very encouraged by it. Also, I did not specifically meditate on the subject of dieting, but generally, I benefitted from meditation in that I became aware of my mental processes with regard to eating (and lots of other issues, of course!) It gave me clear insight into my cravings and addictions. It enabled me to separate them from real, i.e., physical hunger. I found out that real hunger is actually very minimal. If I could get by the initial hunger pangs and all the attendant anxieties, I found that I could continue to do a lot before I actually have to stop and eat. Once I got over being reactive, I discovered real inner strength - not just some sort of psychological or ideological construct, but real power - in my heart, lungs and leg muscles to keep on pedaling. I learned to truly listen to and trust what my body was telling me. I learned to distinguish between habitual hunger and actual physiological hunger, at which point - and only then - did I eat something. Just enough to keep the “bonk” at bay. The trick was to not panic. I just said to myself, “Oh yeah, this is what real hunger feels like, take mental note of it so you’ll recognize it the next time.” After a while, each time I felt hungry, I would find myself saying, "No, it's cool. I can go a little longer without eating." And as I moved on, I found the body itself forgets about the hunger pangs, and starts to draw on its energy reserves - be it fat stores, already metabolized food, whatever - it was a lot less than what I thought I needed. That's when I began to feel truly free - liberated! I was no longer going around carrying this load of anxieties. I saw my cravings clearly for what they were and I watched them as they passed on by! Once I got to some level of mindfulness over these issues, the rest was pretty straightforward: caloric intake has to be less than caloric expense to lose weight, or equal to expense in order to maintain a desired weight. I ate according to my level of activity, not habit or routine. I not only ate less but chose healthy foods. We’re so lucky to live in a region where wholesome food choices are so readily available and pleasurable that there is no excuse not to eat right! And, as you all know, exercise feels so good! By August (2008), I reached my target weight of 145 lbs (starting from 160 lbs In May 2008.) However, you got to know that, even as I write this, I still have to struggle with the same issues just to maintain this weight. But I have the tools to work with and it’s a lot easier now than when I first started. Good luck, if you are dieting or thinking of it!
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