NEvEle

Recently, I succeeded at something that many before me have already attempted. I lost weight! This is not an easy task for anyone, but I was determined.

First, I did my research. I needed a diet plan that wouldn't annoy me too much, and would be easy to remember. This is not an easy task. Elimination diets and calorie counting both leave a sour taste in my mouth. If my diet was going to require too much focus, then it wasn't going to work. Period.

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In the end I turned to Michael Pollan. Michael Pollan isn't a nutritionist or physical trainer, but rather a food anthropologist. He knows more about food, food history, and culinary traditions than most of us. Through his studies, he has made a set of simple recommendations that manages to anger both vegetarians and meat eaters. These recommendations are straightforward and based on his research of how people around the world eat and have eaten through the centuries. Boiled down he is promoting a diet of food that is naturally found in the environment, rather than artificial concoctions. However here is his full recommendation:

"Eat food, not too much, mostly plants."

Now that's a diet that I can remember and follow! Next in my research was the advice that surrounds hacking the process. I know that there is no easy panacea for weight loss, but I am happy to take every shortcut that I can get. The best shortcuts and aids that I could find came from this article appropriately titled "40 no-dieting tips to lose weight." Here is a list of my favorite tips from the list that I regularly use. 

1. food journaling (yes, everyday)

2. getting an online weight loss buddy (I have 33 of them at the free forum I joined!)

3. get a mantra (mine is "I am hungry for water)

4. sniff a banana when you're hungry (I sniff cinnamon sticks)

5. throw your fat clothes away for good (this occurred during my decluttering)

6. make one social outing this week an active one (Aerial yoga, hikes, paddle boarding)

7. eat 90% of your meals at home

8. If you're going to indulge choose fat releasing foods (Dark chocolate for the win!)

9. try hot sauce, or cajun seasoning

10. eat fruit instead of fruit juice

11. drop your milk type- my mom has had me hooked on skim for awhile now

12. snack on a small handful of nuts 

13. get most of your calories before noon

14. close the kitchen for 12 hours

15. put less food out and you'll take less in

Last but not least, I followed the cardinal weight loss advice: Move more and drink more water. I started drinking 8 oz of water as soon as I wake up to perk me up and start me off on the right foot. Then I counted my water intake for the rest of the day. I found that while full on water it's harder to be hungry for food. 64 oz a day is a lot! I felt full! Hence the inspiration for my mantra, "I'm hungry for water." 

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I also got my butt moving. I created a plan that would be too fun for me to fail. This meant two days of Zumba a week, playing dance games at home and running on the other days. Running is the most boring of the three, for me. However, I had a plan. I would listen to audiobooks ONLY when on the treadmill. That way I wouldn't be bored while I was doing it, and I'd be encouraged to keep going to hear the next parts of the story. 

It's quite a large plan, but I wanted to cover my bases. I wanted to succeed. You see, I didn't only attempt this goal to fit into my gorgeous structural Jessica Simpson dress. Losing weight also happens to be a strategy for managing Psuedotumor Cerebrii. Psuedotumor Cerebrii is a mostly innocuous condition that I have, that if untreated can lead to vision loss. I had no choice, I had to lose weight. So, I did. 

xIs

I have officially completed 2 "21 day meditation challenges," 1 "Global Meditation for Compassion," and months of independent meditation. I can now officially say that I have tried meditating.

I can also say that I love it. My heart feels active and uneasy when I look at facebook, or my email, in the morning. When I meditate it slows and levels it's pacing.

At first meditating was downright hard. Apparently, I am no longer used to sitting for 20 minutes straight without being in a chair. I couldn't remember mantras in sanskrit (a language that I and most other people in the 21st century don't speak). I would receive my thoughts, and then rather than stare at them in an out of body manner  and let them go- I would follow them in an out of body manner like Alice and the white rabbit. The time felt long, and as if it weren't elapsing at all. The music felt loud and domineering. Nothing about my experience involved an ease or release.

       

Meditation is a practice, however. So I practiced. I did the meditation experiences, and used the time to concurrently develop better sitting posture. I forgave myself when I would forget a mantra, and would continue with the classic fallback, "om." I brought art into the experience of watching my thoughts without engaging them. When they would come I would imagine them as watercolor bands drifting into a white box just ahead of my vision.

I began to really enjoy my meditation time and look forward to it. The negative space created by an absence of thought produced more ideas. Doing nothing produced a me that was more likely to try new things. I even created this blog. If you're considering meditating this author says, "om."