Meditation for Weight loss

So...i'm still in love with Deepak's book..."Perfect Health".

something beautiful (get your barf bag out, Danielle :-).

He has an entire chapter on Freedom from Addictions, and in that chapter he addresses the use of meditation to treat them.
Some addictions are a way to "treat" ourselves and/or medicate ourselves from misery and pain. We use the cigarettes, alcohol to provide some kind of relief and then continually turn to them.
When using meditation, most addictions/self abuse problems just "fall away" because they are consistently connecting to their own source of calm, serenity, and joy.

By reconnecting to your personal center of joy, you shift your outlook and lose the "need" to use a drug, drink, or food to make your world brighter...the meditation automatically makes the world a brighter place.

My major addictions were nicotine, caffeine, and still food. When i'm tired, agitated, or emotional i turn to food and television to help ease myself out of my funk. Heavy food helps to drown out the anxiety i often feel in the pit of my stomach, and tv turns my worry away from myself and to other people's problems.

And he's definitely right! When i quit smoking, i started life. I started doing yoga, playing volleyball and softball regularly and really connecting with the world in a new way.

Trying meditation is not hard. It's as simple as breathing and sitting still. Let me know if you want to try it!

My rant and plea against artificial sweeteners.

My frustration with this has been building for a while. And while I will continue to refrain (mostly. sorry, Murphy) from maligning your soft drinks in front of you, i've got to say something.

When on earth did we decide that aspartame, NutraSweet, Splenda, Sweet n' Low, and a bevy of other shitty products were tasty, delicious, and something we wanted to put in our mouths 2-20 times per day?

Everyone i know drinks Diet soda, and they don't just have one. At work I see people keep a bottle of diet coke next to their desks all day. In the Cult of Diet Coke a woman states that she drinks her first D.C of the day in the shower. She would drink 10-15 a day if she could...another woman said that when she dines, if the restaurant doesn't have Diet Coke, she drinks water, but then crosses that place off of her list of acceptable places to go.

I used to drink at least 5 diet sodas in any given meal in a restaurant. I have a friend, whom I won't name, who once almost walked out of a very nice restaurant because they served their Diet Cokes one can at a time. No Free Refills...she was very upset, and it was going to mess up her whole day.

To me it's enough objective proof, at least, that diet soda is an addictive substance. I define those as anything that you feel you need to ingest, but gain nothing nutrition-wise from taking it in. Sugar is on that list too...along with white carbs...yum..er, i mean ADDICTIVE SUBSTANCE!.

I invite you to take a test. Sit down somewhere quiet. Taste diet soda a like you would wine. It tastes sweet at first, but then there's a bitter part to it, and it tastes metallic.

Gross.

Skerred...

My friend, Heather, always liked to say "I ain't skerred!". Well, I am.
I'm skerred of a lot of crap. I lost 4 lbs. I didn't want to tell anyone...because I might ditch it all and gain 10.
I've been coming across a lot of talk about food as a kind of addiction. And it kind of is. Some of the things I'm experiencing right now are very similar to the feelings I had when I quit smoking/coffee/diet coke.

I'm scared that I'm going to fall into a huge pizza and never crawl back out of it.
I'm scared that in order to get and stay fit, I can never eat pizza again. You and I know that it's not true.
But try telling a fear that it's crazy, and it will reward you...with more fears.

I'm scared that I'll find more excuses to quit exercising...and just be miserable.
I'm scared that my weight is a fixed thing...and i'll never be able to lose it
I'm scared that worrying about weight is all I'll ever do with my life.
I'm scared that Britney Spears will show up @ the Super Bowl with Bruce Springsteen.

And it's cyclical. I wake up full of energy and feel great! Then by the end of the day...I'm exhausted.

Tonight I've been sneaking cheese cubes...CHEESE CUBES. Seriously. They are made out of 2% milk, and I'm getting hungry just thinking about them. (PS. They are only sort of tasty in a desert island, no food, kind of way.)
And it's only when I'm sitting in front of a screen. Here or the TV. When I wash dishes, I feel full.

There is no justice in this world. I love the internet and I love TV. They both go better with cheese cubes.
Know what I hate? Washing the dishes, folding the laundry.

blech.

Oh ya, good news.

• Lost 4 lbs.
• Successfully finished 9 days of a veggie/no bad carb/no alchol/no sugar diet.
• Noticed a definite firming up of body areas.
• Had a nice eHarmony date.
• Exercise is going well, and it's much less of a chore. The lack of swimming tonight probably has something to do with my crankiness.
• Feel really good in the morning and right after evening workouts

Still need more yoga and meditation...but i'm getting there. I do love me some meditation.

Stay warm, all!!