What's My Hurry?

Why do I want to swallow my food so fast? All of the taste and enjoyment of the food happens in my mouth. If I swallow quickly, then I just have to shove another bite of food into my mouth. Why do I do that?

During the last several weeks, I've been trying to slow it down. It makes so much difference. It really does two things for me. First, it lets me get full on much less food. Because I am eating slow, and chewing my food much more, it takes me a lot longer to eat. So, I am getting full with much less food.

Eating slowly does something else for me. It helps me with my fear that the food will be gone, and that I will be left hungry. If I eat slow, I can never finish all the food on my plate. It brings me a great deal of peace knowing that I have enough to eat, and not having to worry that there wont be enough. It also helps to put the left-overs away in the fridge, knowing that I can have them at another time.

Don't Eat Until You're Full

There is a big difference between eating until you're not hungry, and eating until you're full. Wallace Wattles writes that perfect health is achieved by eating until your hunger begins to fade, or until you are not hungry. If you stop eating at that point, you will finish your meal feeling satisfied and content. You will also finish your meal having eating an appropriate amount of food. You should not eat until you are full. Paraphrasing Jerry Seinfeld, people just aren't supposed to eat all they can eat. Packing the food in, until you can't fit any more, is just not healthy.

I've been trying to apply these principles for the last week or so, and it's not as easy as it sounds. Honestly, I think I'm addicted to that over-stuffed feeling that comes from over-eating. I have been paying attention to my body while I've been eating. I get to the point of being full, and I deliberately choose to continue eating. I want to eat, even though I know I'm full. Why do I do that?

Do Not Eat When You Are Not Hungry

Some things from a Hundred years ago, are a little out of date today, like the corset, or the hand-cart. However, some truths never change. For instance, take Wallace Wattles' instruction on when to eat. Eat when you are hungry, and do not eat when you are not hungry. He insists that this is the most healthy and natural way to eat.

Do not eat unless you are hungry. Then, stop eating as soon as the sensation of hunger begins to fade. Do not eat until you are full, just till your hungers begins to go away. Wattles writes that this is the way to eat "scientifically."

Stop and think for a minute about the implications of this one simple idea. I can only guess what my life will be like a year from now if I can just adhere to this one idea. It is both simple and profound, all at once.

When to Eat

To have the faith to be perfectly healthy, I must eat, drink, breath and sleep correctly. To eat correctly, I must master the when, how and what of eating. One hundred years ago, when Wattles wrote his book, there were many theories regarding when to eat. It's funny how some things haven't changed in a hundred years. if you read the diet books and blogs of today, there is still a lot of talk and disagreement about when to eat.

Wattles writes that the answer to the question "when should I eat" is very simple. The body knows when it needs energy and raw materials for building and repair. And, the body has a mechanism for alerting the mind when this need arises. It's called hunger. When the body needs food, it becomes hungry. That is how I know when to eat.

Many diets are designed to make sure you are never hungry. There are plenty of pills and plans to make sure that you don't feel hunger. We are told to graze all day, or to eat six times a day to make sure that we are never hungry. Wattles thinks this is a mistake. Hunger is natural and necessary. We need to feel hunger so we know when to eat. Also, Wattles instructs the reader to never eat unless he is hungry. However, he writes that you don't have to eat as soon as you are hungry. It's ok to be hungry for a while, it helps you feel alive.

Acting in the Certain Way

In the first half of Wattle's Book, The Science of Being Well, Wattles talks about "thinking in the certain way."  He writes that this is the most important part of being perfectly well.  One needs to have faith in health, and truly believe that health is the natural state of people.  Sickness is only the result of faulty thinking.

The second half of the book discusses "acting in the certain way."  By this, he means eating, drinking, breathing and sleeping correctly.  He asserts that even if we are thinking correctly, if we are engaging in voluntary actions which are contrary to health, then our faith will not be strong enough for perfect health.

This makes perfect sense to me.  Wattles encourages the reader to profess faith in perfect health, and exercise my will to believe that I am perfectly well.  If I am doing that, and at the same time I am eating food and drinking drinks that I know are poison to my body, my faith and belief will not be sufficient to obtain perfect health.  I would be living in contradiction and confusion, not in faith.

Here I go!

I spend a lot of time in my car, and I like listening to audio books.  I go to the library every few weeks and check out a new stack of CDs. I'm usually not looking for anything in particular, just whatever looks interesting. A few months ago, I happened to listen to a book by Wallace D. Wattles, entitled "The Science of Being Great." I loved it, and did some research to see if he wrote anything else. I found out that he wrote the book about 100 years ago, and that it was the third in a series of books: "The Science of Getting Rich," "The Science of Being Well," and "The Science of Being Great." I have listened to, and I recommend, all three.

I want to be well.  This blog will chronicle my attempt to personally apply the principles he teaches in his second book, "The Science of Being Well." It is fairly short, and only takes a few hours to listen to. His intention is to help the reader obtain and maintain perfect health and wellness. He tells the reader how to think and act to obtain this perfect health.

Today is January 1, 2010. I am a forty-two year old male, and I weigh 253.5 pounds. If I lost 50 pounds of fat, my body fat percentage would be about ten. My blood pressure is a little high. My waist size is 38, and should be 32. My main "wellness" concern is my weight, and this wellness experiment is mainly for that purpose: To see if the principles taught in "The Science of Being Well" are effective weight loss and general wellness tools.

I intend to write three days per week to let you know how it's going. Here I go!