Eating less - Does it help one regain focus?

Nick-H

After a day before and a few days after a 'nil-by-mouth' regime for an operation I was left with two utterly conflicting felings: raging hunger and a complete disinterest in eating!

I had to treat myself like a reluctant baby... OK, now, Just One more spoonfull...

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Wanderer22

I'm of the opinion that quality of food counts for a lot as well.

When I retired seven years ago my health was in the dumps and the future was looking pretty grim. With a lot of extra time I started growing much of my own food. My garden is a mini-farm on a double lot and produces enough to feed several families. It has 19 raised beds with micro-drip irrigation plus 19 fruit trees in various stages of production. Anything I can't use gets given away, waste vegetation goes to compost heap or a friends goats. It's a good deal as I get goat manure back to fuel the garden.

The way I eat has changed as well. When working for the Man, it was an early breakfast, 12:00 o,clock lunch, and a full dinner.
Now it's a leisurely breakfast usually with something fresh from the garden. Today it was huevous rancheros with a bowl of fresh figs and curd on the side. A cup of expresso of course..
During the day my snacks come from the garden, a ripe apple off the tree or a plump strawberry the birds missed. Dinner will be something from the garden and a small piece of meat or a few local prawns. Have noticed that my health has improved immensely... As much as the diet has helped, am sure that growing a garden has also been good medicine for the soul/mind.


Gotta go... A good harvest of pears this year and am busy trying to get some canned. Eat what you can, and what you can't, Can. Just have to remember to save some empty jars for the plum chutney that's coming next.....

Papaji

but for me it had happened that the so called answers i got while i was eating less were no longer relevant once i went back to my usual pattern of eating... maybe those answers were in answer to a crisis which my body was going through due to my eating less.

Papaji

...had i worked on those answers i might have accomplished something in the near future... had just started walking a path-substantial..something made me give it up too soon (2 weeks).. and the question haunts me since... could have i made those answers work for me...

i am off that path now... but am not straying far...(am not even ready to talk about anything else) for i think its just a matter of time before i would walk it again..

Brisso

For me, fasting gives energy and confidence, clearer thinking and a sense of lightness ... but maybe that was the cocaine I was taking at the time ...

Papaji

Brisso..in answer to you..

under the cover of fasting what i'm hinting at is self-discipline and how it could work for a guy who's uptill now lived his life at leisure..

maybe not for everybody is it as important as it is for me... ihope you understand

Baba

Instead of fasting you might like to try mindful eating. Donald Altman's book "Meal by Meal" is an interesting read.

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icetea

You should ask women and students, some of them often live on a yoghurt and some biscuits/vegies a day! (just that for different reasons)

I've dieted quite a few times earlier, sometimes even for 1-2 months. Sometimes it was for losing some weight, but generaly just to see how little food I can get away with, for a sense of self-discipline, as you say.

The hunger does go away after a while, and for someone who's normally spending a lot of time craving for food or rummaging through the fridge, that means a lot of thinking space freed. So there's more clarity, if you wish, and a sense of lightness. There's also the satisfaction that you can control yourself so well, a feeling that you master your own universe. That can get you reasonably high!

As long as you don't jeopardize your health by eating less, and as long as whatever you still eat is balanced, it's not a bad thing. Problem is, once you've indulged in more food even once, you bounce back to your old craving self. And in case you're looking for any "answers", sure, maybe you'll get some; but then they'll stop being relevant as soon as you switch back to your good old self, so...

To take Gandhi as an example, he was living on some meager boiled saltless vegetables for years, and was pretty focused, I'd say. Was it the food? He'd say yes, but I'm not that sure. But dieting certainly helps a lot with self-discipline.

dhans

Falling back to your old craving is a risk, but if you use your diettime to form a new food pattern, that is not always necessary.

It's interesting that it normally takes a wee or six (40 days) to change such a pattern. I've read comments that these 40 days are applicable to a lot of changes. Some scientists even relate it to the 40 days that saints of all kind of relegios had to stay in the deesrt to find enlightment (or whatvere).

Hans

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Nick-H

It's time for a favourite quote of mine from Lennon...

Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans

shashank.aggarwal

I haven't heard of it before...but this actually is my belief as well...

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Random Reviews

Buck

Did he say that before or after the revolution to overthrow the Tsarist regime?

icetea

In other words, truth is what goes on around you while you're busy searching for the truth.

shashank.aggarwal

This one becomes too philosophical

Papaji

i think...we've known the truth all along... we're too busy escaping it cause the truth is not all sweet