A Diet for the Mind
A theme of my blog has been that real, long-term weight loss can’t be achieved through simple tactics. There is no quick fix and anybody who wants to sell a simple solution to a complex and individual problem like obesity has only one true goal: profiting at your expense. Success in this area of your life (and honestly any area that’s actually worthy of success) requires deep mental and emotional work. You can approach this work in a number of ways: therapy, coaching, prayer, etc. Personally, I’ve found that the ultimate tool in this work is mindfulness.
You may have heard the term mindfulness many times. Usually its associated with meditation, especially Buddhist meditation. You may believe that the purpose of mindfulness is relaxation and stress relief. You may even resist this idea, conjuring images in your mind of zoned-out, chanting hippie, sitting in lotus position and escaping reality. And many people do use meditation for precisely this goal. However, true practice of mindfulness is about facing the TRUTH of reality in its most basic form, and is one of the most profound and transformative practices you can engage it. This has tremendous implications for many aspects of your life, including weight loss.
If you’re not meditating now, I urge you to start! Just 10 minutes a day can have a huge transformative effect, if you are willing to stick with it. At first it will be hard, it will be boring, it will seem annoying. You may find yourself getting more stressed out while meditating because you can’t seem to do it right. If you keep practicing with patience, gentleness, and compassion, you will find your mental state starting to change. Mindfulness meditation trains your mind to focus, to let go of distractions, to compassionately accept yourself as you are in the moment. This kind of training lies at the root of habit formation. You’ll think more clearly, you’ll let go of annoyances more easily, you won’t get distracted as quickly by momentary desires and emotions. When you fall off the wagon, you’ll be quicker to forgive yourself and also quicker to get back on! You’ll also develop greater awareness of your hidden motivations behind eating and exercise behaviors and discover greater control. I’ll blog more about this topic soon!
Be careful about choosing an appropriate instructional resource. Don’t just do a Google search for meditation and follow the first set of instructions you read. Many of the so-called experts on the web offer advice that is counter-productive. Seek out a true expert. I highly recommend Pema Chodron’s course “How to Meditate” Her approach to meditation is simple, easy to follow, and very effective.
October 7th, 2010 at 6:40 pm
Meditation or any practices that aimed to increase your awareness of your body are definitely very important. I think many people who are overweight have lost a sense of their own body, and as a result, they don’t feel how heavy that greasy piece of fast food they are about to eat is. Though, on a rational level, they still might realize that it is bad and punish themselves for having a desire to eat it.
October 8th, 2010 at 4:17 pm
Polina, I think this is a great point. I can say from personal experience that being obese was definitely linked with a loss of sense of my own body. Its funny, the more I pay attention to how I really FEEL when I eat foods, the less I want to eat junk foods.
As for punishing themselves, I think this is one of the darkest aspects of losing a sense of our bodies. By punishing ourselves, we just separate ourselves further. The answer is the opposite – gentleness and compassion with ourselves and building up our body awareness. Or that’s what I’ve found for myself at least!