Part III: We Are What We Eat: Beneath the Icing
Year ago, not long after I met the man who would eventually become my father-in-law, I heard him utter the phra, “I only eat to fill a void.” It had come adapted from a fellow coworker. It would not be the last time that phra would be spoken in my prence. As the years pasd, my initial interpretation was basically a monastic one, in that the calories he took in simply replaced tho that had left, leaving a hollow in his stomach. In many ways, the phra emed to imply that food functioned much as gasoline did for automobiles.
More recently, though, questions about this statement began to surface in my mind. What exactly is the void we are trying to fill? All of us, at different points in our life, u food to fill many different voids to some extent. The voids not only correspond to a physical need, but also our needs expresd through boredom, emotion, re-experiencing, and stress relief. Taken to the extreme, comfort derived through food for the particular states of mind can become harmful in itlf when it creates conditions of unhealthiness and social isolation. Overeating that becomes a long-term prescription for relief ends up creating its own void that needs to be constantly filled.
But if food was there to fill a void, it ems to rve that the opposite could also be true. Digesting this i
dea further, if food can be ud to help fill a chasm, then it should just as well be a tool to build a mountain. But in order for this to occur, the food itlf must become a mechanism to something much deeper, much more important than the calories and instantaneous delight it provides. It also must become more than the bodily image it helps promote, the numbers – in pounds, waist size - it helps to attain, and the newfound prai it may help evoke. One of the biggest challenges with food is that it so often tied to the element of control. Tho who work with obesity patients know the struggle that comes with helping people gain control of their daily habits, in order to regain control over their body. However, clinicians who work with tho who struggle with eating disorders face almost the opposite problem. Food becomes the ultimate means of control over the image they hold for themlves, often as they feel a loss of control over other aspects in their life.单位质量
All of this makes you wonder. What if control over food cead to become the primary issue? What if we looked at the food we eat in a much more hopeful, more productive way? If all of this ems rather abstract, let’s start with an example we already know (e November 2012 edition). We know that we can teach 4-year-olds to look at a pretzel either as an enticing, desirable object or a long, thin branch. In doing this, Mischel and other rearchers in the 1960’s found that the 4-year-olds who e their pretzel as a branch will on average delay eating it by more than eight minutes than tho who simply e it as the tasty object of their desire.
Let’s take this idea a little further in eing how food can take on a whole different meaning. Just what do we want out of our food, beyond the obvious calories we need? Do we want it to enhance the celebration of truly joyous occasions in our life? If so, food can certainly do this for us, but only if the daily edibles we consume are not the same ones that become part of our celebration. If desrts and rich foods are in abundance every day, then our celebration feast will em rather mundane. Do we want foods to help us feel better and have more energy so that we can enjoy
土的笔顺怎么写others more? If so, there are an abundance of foods that can rve this function. But if we fill our body with junk, just as filling a car with stale gasoline or sludgy oil, chances are that we are sabotaging our chance to attain this very goal. What if we want to take on a deeply meaningful, spiritual journey, whether it be a fifty mile run or a trip to a long desired, isolated location? Again, certain foods are designed to help our bodies attain endurance and strength way beyond our current capacity. But if we do not e food in this way, we will only fill our stomachs with tho things that will immobilize us. What if we wanted to be less anxious, so that we could enjoy each moment more? Again, there are foods to eat and ones to delete (especially tho that are procesd). And what if we wanted to gain greater lf-control over our own desires, in the name of religion or health, in ways that would translate into other areas of our life (e.g., curbing negative habits). Guess what - 尤克里里琴弦
词的定义psychological rearch has shown that the discipline of fasting (along with other measures of lf-control) can lead to a greater ability to delay our immediate need for gratification in many areas, beyond what it does for our deep pursuit of faith.
For a cond, grab the clost food nearby. Imagine yourlf as a 4-year-old, and then imagine that the food you e is not the ingredients on the side of the package, and not even a different object, but a portal to a life of which you either desire, admire, or tire. Now put it down, and step away for a few moments. What do you envision on the other end? Do you e your loved ones, your future, your goals, your hopes, or do you e your fears, your incurities, your failures, your traumas, or your broken relationships. Are you trying to fill a void or build a life? Are the calories empty or full of promi?什么是管理学
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This may appear exhausting and strange to many. I am certainly not suggesting that you sit down to dinner every night, and ask each food group on your plate what they mean to you. But what I am suggesting is we take a conscious approach to our eating, and not fool ourlves into thinking that the food we eat is simply a neutral substance. Being conscious should not be confud with obssing and over-analyzing, or not allowing yourlf to simply “let go” at times. Being conscious is not about stressing about each bite, but rather being aware of your patterns of eating so that you can
十月再见genuinely enjoy where food takes you. We must do this for ourlves, but we should teach our children the same thing. Much of the reason that we fail at the goals in our life, whether it relates to food or not, is becau they lack deep meaning tied to the daily habits that can sustain them. If suddenly food stops becoming the enemy, and starts becoming the ally, then a whole new world emerges. And then, a candy bar remains a candy bar, but a sweet potato becomes one more step to a calling that grows deep inside…
Just Thinking…芭蕾舞蹈家
