Mindful Eating Week Six – the Power of Mindfulness
This week has seen my lowest weight loss to date at 0.8 kg (about 1.8 pounds); my weight now is 76.2 kg by my scales at home. I’m getting to near my target so I’m not too concerned with the fact that I’m slowing down; ideally I hope to start levelling out. I actually got a bit of a surprise when I went to my Muay Thai class on Saturday; they have a professional weighing scales and this put me as over 1kg lighter than my home scales.
Since starting this attempt at eating more mindfully six weeks ago I’ve managed to lose over 8kg (17 pounds) so I’m a happy camper. I don’t intend to post as frequently about mindful eating once I get below 75kg; maybe once a month to update my progress.
The Power of Mindfulness
I am not surprised with the results of mindful eating. I already knew that this technique is perfect for dealing with cravings. I used mindfulness to deal with an alcohol addiction and could see then its effectiveness. The really good news about any type of mindfulness training is that we can apply it to other areas of our life. We discover that we don’t have to just be at the mercy of the mind and that we can choose to not react to our whims and cravings.
Many of my problems in life have occurred because I’ve mistaking something that has arisen in my mind as being me. So during my years of drinking when the craving to use alcohol would arise and I’d just respond; I mistook this craving as being who I was. What I’d miss was that these alcohol cravings just arise in the mind and naturally disappear; they would only hang around because I’d entertain them. In order words – for cravings to disappear all I have to do is get out of the way. Being mindful means that I can see cravings rise up and disappear again; they are not who I am no more than an itch is who I am. The more I see these mental objects arise and disappear the less they are able to derail me.
This same logic applies to food. The thought of going to the fridge can arise in my mind. If I’m mindless I’ll just go and stuff my face. I’m assuming that this craving means that I need food. I fail to realise that there can be any number of reasons why a food craving arises; I often associate food with comfort. This means that the craving could be there because I’m tired or angry. If I examine my body I can tell if I’m hungry or not; if the body isn’t hungry why eat? Once I can see the craving for what it is then it just disappears.
Once we see how mindfulness works we can apply it to all areas of our life. We stop being like a pinball machine; just reacting all the time to our emotions and cravings. We get to taste real freedom. There is a wonderful saying; the mind is a great servant but a terrible master.
The other amazing thing about mindfulness is that it extends our life; not because it adds years but because we get to live in every moment. In the past I spent a lot of time daydreaming and this meant that life just whizzed by; when I’m mindful though I can appreciate every second. As John Lennon once said, “life is what happens to you when you’re busy making other plans”.
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
One Month of Mindful Eating
Week Five of Mindful Eating – Worries about the Future
Coming Soon
I have been considering a new series about mindfully learning Thai (or indeed any language). My own Thai studies have been a bit lax of late and this could be a way of rejuvenating that part of my life. For the first four hundred years after the Buddha his words weren’t written down; instead monks would learn the tens of thousands of suttas (stories/lessons) by heart using mindfulness type techniques. I want to see if it is possible to use these techniques as a way to increase my ability to learn languages. Anyway this series might start in a few weeks; I’d be interested in hearing what others think.
If you enjoyed this post you can subscribe to the RSS feed here
Hi Paul,
Really impressed with your dieting efforts – nicely done. As for the language learning style…I for one would love to hear more about – becoming a wee obsession of mine!
Thanks Jon, I’ve noticed that you have been putting a bit of effort into learning Thai recently. I have been doing the opposite. I need a new approach that will allow me to start moving in my Thai studies again even though I don’t have much time. I believe that higher levels of concentration can make learning a lot easier; I’ll see how it works in practice.
So true the descriptions of how people react… and a very interesting take on how to deal with such temptations… Still, I don’t think you should lose too much weight Paul, 75-80kg sounds like a perfectly healthy weight to me! Ben
Hi Ben, I think you’re right and I don’t want to lose much more weight. My main aim now is to stabilise and maintain this long-term.
Full of great quotes. I particularly like the second paragraph of the mindfulness part.
I mistook this craving as being who I was.
So many times thoughts slide and slither into our heads and we do mistake those thoughts as being REAL. Thanks for the reminder. I don’t think I can ever be reminded enough of this!
Shalom.
Hi Lani, this is so important for me to remember this too. If we really are our thoughts and feelings then we would probably all need to be locked up for our own and other people’s safety 🙂
Great posts, very inspiring! And a pleasure to read. Thanks for sharing this.
I never really thought about applying mindfulness to eating, even though I’ve been practicing mindfulness techniques for many years now (mainly meditation, or when walking). I know, I should, though, because I eat way too fast and too much at a time. Weight is not a problem for me, but stuffing myself without tasting the food is.
I’ve just applied mindfulness to weaning myself off coffee, very much in the same way as you describe it with food cravings. Just observing the cravings and allowing them to come and be part of my reality is often enough to make them go after a short while. And even if they don’t go easily, observing helps me to realize that I don’t need to act on them. Same for withdrawal syndromes.
I’m very interested in your thoughts about mindful Thai learning. I try to apply Buddhist ideas to my own learning of Thai, mainly ‘being in the present moment’ and ‘not trying to hold on/control’. But your focus might be completely different, so I’m looking forward to your thoughts.
Hi Bakunin, thanks for reminding me about that post; hopefully I’ll get to it soon. I did write something similar for Women Learning Thai a while back ( here) , but I hope to elaborate on these thoughts