Eat less, eat better

There is not much that we have control of in our lives and you can probably boil it down to things:

1. What we put into our minds
2. What we put into our mouths

Eating is a complex business. It is mixed up with pleasure, satisfaction, avoidance behaviours, craving, habits, subconscious urges and so on. Perhaps we are not so far removed from Pavlovian dogs as we might think.

Anyway, enough rambling. There is a lot of evidence to suggest that eating less is good for you (I'm assuming that, like me, it is easy to eat too much) - you feel more energised, your body works better, you reach a healthy weight, you eat less fatty high energy food and so on. You might like to read out about intermittent fasting - it seems to produce interesting results.

One benefit of eating less is that you can pick out more interesting food to eat since you won't be needing a 12oz steak every week. This is when a diet can become interesting - you take care of what food you'll be putting into your mouth and, in a round about way, this is a form of compassion for yourself. This turns a lettuce leaf into a loving moment.

Comments

E said…
I've been glad to see your posts again lately. I've been struggling with energy issues myself for the past few months and I often bring to mind your wise words about how to manage.

I also wholeheartedly agree with this post about food. I need (we all need) proper nourishment, body and soul, and treating food as a source of nourishment rather than just fuel makes a big difference to my approach. I don't always choose different food, but it makes a bowl of muesli or a cup of herbal tea into a loving moment for myself, indeed.
Lightfoot said…
Thanks again for your encouraging comments - I'm glad some of the blog is useful. Sorry to hear about your lack of energy - it's not very pleasant and even more difficult when you have responsibilities to care of - seems like modern life doesn't give us an easy pause button.