read to understand your eating habits from a deeper level, This is definitely a much more spiritual take on eating than I expected, Learning to listen to and trust your body seems like a relatively simple thing to do but there are definitely times when my sweet tooth is warring with common sense.
The author focuses on delighting in food rather than resisting what you think you should or shouldnt be eating,
Since finishing the book, I have been paying much more attention to not only what I eat but also the way I eat being mindful about actually tasting and savouring each bite, chewing my food more than a few times before swallowing a big lump and slowing down and taking the time to prepare meals that I know will nourish my body.
I like his idea that the body is always doing its valiant best with what it has rather than believing that there is something wrong with me and my cravings that needs fixing.
Its a much more empowering way to think about food,
I suspect that I liked this book because I took it with a rather large grain of salt npi, Eisenstein sometimes careens rather quickly from sensible Why yes, raw vegan diets make plenty of sense for hermits with minimal physical activityoh, you say you live in the world With people And a job Perhaps rethink the celery.
. . to odd I understood his logic around the point, but I think he's probably the first person ever to claim that tea is bad for you, and I just can't get on board with that idea.
He's best when he talks about the actual practice of the yoga of eatingeat slowly enough to be able to actually taste your food, and trust that your sense of taste can guide you quite effectively towards what you want and need and away from what you don't.
At any rate, the book is pleasantly short enough that you can avoid actually overdosing on the woowoo perhaps the best testament I can make to his good ideas is that writing this review has alerted me to the fact that I'm thirsty.
The worst book I have ever read, There are no respect for the life of other species, Really enjoyed this book, it has lots of useful ways to view our relationship with food on a more mindful way, these are the ideas I took from it:
Greater sensitivity to the body, its cravings and tastes
Eating relates to feelings of security and safety the food of the universe
Craving for security through food, healing the wound of separation from childhood and past trauma will relinquish this search for security through food
Fruits are best of all in terms of less effect on the ecosystem it also has highest vibrations topped by algae and sprouts and water
Raise vibration of food raises your own vibration
Diet must harmonise with our presence in the world
Entire history of food is bound up within it.
Vibration of broccoli grown in different circumstances will vary vastly
If you follow a monastic diet but not a monastic lifestyle, you will crave more
If you follow a fast food diet but a monastic lifestyle, you will abhor your diet and seek change
If you're strongly involved in the world, child barers or career driven a fleshy or rooted diet will benefit this
Karma of food: When you eat food you are subscribing to the conditions from which it was brought to you
Enjoy each bite of food.
Full attention to the sensations you feel as you eat
If you do something else whilst eating, you are not actually eating the food
If you read while you eat, you are eating the words, if you watch television while you eat, you are eating the show
Without distractions, focused interactions with others become too intense, this is why we tend to eat/drink during interactions i.
e on dates
Appetites vs cravings: Food to escape the situation at hand, substitute for other forms of pleasure missing from the life, The hunger is for something else, The problem is engaging in work that is not the true soul's work
Overeating there is something wrong in your life, Authentic need for a certain nutrient but fast food tends to be for the below:
Sugar life's sweetness
Msg excitement and zest for life
Overeating Nourishment in general
When you are sure you are hungry, eat slowly and with intention.
Do I really want this food Understand what food your body wants food that suits your lifestyle
Shallow breathing comes with gorging
Deep breathing helps mindfulness of hunger
Lose your self control and willpower, choose the foods you want, mindfulness allows moderation and this will come easily, let your choices be okay, enjoy what you want to enjoy
Connect to feelings after food, acknowledge the present situation i.
e bloating
Fasting: when there's imbalance in the body, the body can force fasting by suppressing appetite or through illness in order to cleanse the body I relate this to heartbreak or adrenaline usually suppressing hunger
Weight gain is the body's reaction to the physical and emotional conditions that surround it.
We should honour and trust the body's messages, It's the body's response to who you are and how you live
Let it be okay, whatever your choices are, and change will come naturally
Exercise: do something you enjoy and have fun doing, don't set goals, it doesn't need to feel "challenging" and "hard"
If you enjoy your diet and enjoy your exercise, that's all you need, you wouldn't stray from them
Sugar: A desire for life's sweetness dessert viewed as a treat or reward.
Used as a comfort or medicine,
Drinking water: people have an insensitive view of the body and thirst, thirst tends to come when the body's need for water becomes acute.
Learn to identify the subtle symptoms of thirst
Supplementing: removes having to taste the food, the taste is part of the way the body reads the potent substances
Processing: Includes foods that we were never meant to eat, genetic mutation, cooking.
Cooking denies raw, wild animalty, we are adapted for this, We are able to revert back to these primitive ways by going raw
Many people find eating problems stem from underlying conditions from which is arises such as life partners, job, calling
Food is part of the microcosm of the whole, changing your diet won't often fix larger life
problems, but fixing larger life problems will fix a poor diet Wow! This book was, and perhaps still is, years ahead of its time.
An inspiring, wise, beautiful, gentle read which unflinchingly looks at the ideologies that lead us to brutalize the planet and its creatures, and to brutalize our own bodies even as we think we are helping the planet and its creatures.
This book resonated with me in so many ways, It came to me aboutyears after I had an eating epiphany with me, my Self and my body when I first discovered my own path to 'Transcending Diets and Dogma to Nourish the Natural Self'.
Each chapter is a gem, filled with sharp and gentle knowledge and wisdom, even when looking at the brutal methods we have of farming and of animal husbandry.
At the core is the deeply grounded understanding that each body is unique, living in unique circumstances and requiring unique diets, To arbitrarily decide to become a vegetarian or a vegan, for example, because you want to show how humane you are, or conscientious of the planet, may be in fact exercising the equivalent dogma to you body that our current profit maximizing dogma is doing to the earth and its creatures: harming it.
When we fall into dogmatic eating ideology, even good intentioned ones, we can create very serious health consequences, Eisenstein asks the question: are we making manifest within our own mind/body system the very same brutal behaviour on our body with diet as the weapon that our poor farming practices are doing to the earth
"Dietary goal" is the nub: is our ethically minded diet that is meant to help the planet doing so at the expense of our own health If it is, we are just as out balance as the people we are protesting against, and we are not practicing the yoga of eating: we are in fact out of balance, and fully integrated balance is the goal of true yoga.
If your body is asking you to eat meat, are you able to honour that request, even if you can hear your body's plea and then follow though on its ask while honouring the earth by buying from ethical suppliers or ethically creating your own supply And are you careful with your food, not wasting it needlessly To hurt your health to help the planet is not the yoga of eating.
I found it particularly interesting that Eisenstein discusses the idea that as we spiritually evolve our need for food will naturally change, For some, it may be eliminated altogether, This rang true with me, InI had a significant spiritual awaking during an intense five day course, I left that course having become a vegetarian and stopped alcohol, Up until then I was a resolute omnivore because of my own experiences with having been a strict vegetarian decades earlier, Without effort, and with a very clearly understood but unspoken 'language', my body has made it crystal clear that it does not want me to ingest either meat or alcohol.
A truly yogic, balanced discussion and examination of eating: what we eat, why we eat, and the importance of balance and of listening to what our body/mind/spirit is saying.
Gentle, thoughtprovoking, and inspiring. Eisenstein goes far beyond diet, and illustrates how our beliefs and actions in any one area of life simultaneously affect all other areas, I appreciate the clear and almost conversational writing style that is easy to digest, Loved this book! A great little book that looks at food and diet in a very realistic way, It is not a diet or nutrition book but helps one to look at food in a different way and gives insights into food as energy and helps one listen to what their body actually needs for health.
I really enjoyed this fresh take on diet and dispelling the dogma that goes along with so many nutritional fads, In so many ways this open minded approach could really do a lot of go, If you are looking for an instructional on what to eat this isn't it, This is a holistic look at food and how food fits into lifestyle, If you, however, suffer with a proper relationship to food this may just be what you are looking for, Curious antidiet book. Lots of enlightening content. The author takes time to dispel some of the magic and myths associated with current diet culture, "Change your diet, change your life!" Maybe not, But if you change the way that you view your diet, then your life will probably change in response, Check out the footnotes many of them are super interesting!,