One Month of Mindful Eating
It is now one month into my attempt at eating more mindfully and things continue to go well. This week my weight fell by another 1kg and I’m now 78.2kg (about 172 pounds). I have been entering the data into my iPod Touch and you can see the graph of my progress in the picture above. My weight actually fell to 78kg last Friday, but climbed up again over the weekend. I’m not quite sure why my weight tends to be lowest on a Friday but it does seem to be that way.
My Weight Loss is Now Obvious to Other People
It is nice when other people notice our efforts and so I was chuffed when my Muay Thai instructor noted my improved waistline. I’m sure he would like to take a lot of the credit for this and I’m not going to disillusion him. He did seem to be taking my failure to lose weight personally and was pushing me harder and harder each session. There did seem to be a noticeable reduction in effort required in my last training session; although this might also be due to being in better physical shape. I can also notice the difference in my body shape, and this is going to mean that I’ll be less self-conscious the next time I go swimming.
It would be nice to lose another 1kg this week, but it does seem that my weight loss is slowing down a bit. If things continue as they are though, I should reach my target weight in a few weeks – then the real work starts.
My meditation practice is going well at the moment and I’m managing about two hours a day between different practices. This is bringing huge improvements to my general level of mindfulness throughout the day; I seem to be reaching deeper states of meditation frequently now. I’m also managing about half an hour of meditation in bed before falling asleep.
The Story So Far
Why I Decided to Lose Weight by Mindful Eating
Mindful Eating is Easy – Day 3
The Embarrassing Photo – Day 4
The Ups and Downs of Mindful Eating – One Week In
2 Weeks of Mindful Eating
Three Weeks of Eating Mindfully- Back Below 80kg
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Paul, congratulations! I’ve always been able to control my eating…it’s the exercise thing I find hard to get around to. As I get older, low fat, low sugar, low carb diets are less effective. I have found eating mainly catabolic foods extremely helpful in later years though. Of course when I found out cinnamon was in this food group/type, the first thing that sprang to mind was a donut.
Do you think the meditation is playing a role in your weight loss?
Hi Snap, mindful eating is considered a meditation practice in itself. I’m not aiming to diet but instead to eat more mindfully – a welcome side effect is that my weight is going down.
Paul, I went back and read your related posts and then delved into more about this process on the internet. It certainly makes sense! Something we all should be trying to do, even if it’s just a little, in our busy lives. I thought I was pretty mindful of what I eat and they way I eat, but this takes it to a whole other level.
Hi Snap, my goal with mindfulness is to apply it to more and more areas of my life. I think that when we are in the moment life is easier and we get to really live to the full. I think many of us waste a lot of our time daydreaming or wishing we were somewhere else – this is just a waste of time in my opinion. John Lennon once said, ‘…life is what happens to you when you’re busy making other plans..” I don’t want to live that type of life anymore and mindful eating is part of an attempt to a more generally mindful.
For me meditation is a practice but mindfulness is where we get to use what we learned. Some people describe it as being similar to learning the piano; formal mediation is like learning the scales, but you only do this so that you can play nice music. Of course the other great benefit of mindful eating is that I’m losing weight; it was this that encouraged my attempt in the first place. Just using mindful eating though as a way to lose weight would be like buying an iPad and only using it as a paperweight.
Congrats Paul! I’m going to bookmark your pages for after the holidays. With the rush I have going on, there is no time to be mindful. I’m just leaping from one fire to the next.
Hi Cat,I could probably do with a bit of your energy. I’ve got a lot of work on but I just procrastinate until the last minute – then I’m rushing to get things finished and complaining because there is too much to do.
Energy? Me too. This drat insomnia is taking a chunk out of the time I do have available.
Hi Catherine, I hope your lack of sleep is remedied soon. It is tempting to offer advice but I’m sure you’ve heard it all before 🙂
Thanks Paul. Yes. I’ve heard it all. This month I’m trying a new tack. I’m throwing out half of what I’ve learned while adding a new twist. Sigh… But thanks to your recent mindful posts, I’ve started listening to Jon Kabat-Zinn again. Mindfulness just might be a part of the fix. That, or being lulled to sleep by Jon (that guy can talk and talk and talk).
He can talk alright. I really do believe that meditation and mindfulness is the answer. Mind you, a lot of advanced meditators only sleep for about four hours a night – that’s all they need. I have found that the more I meditate the less sleep I need.