Eating Less

Health and Wellness Bits and Bites…

The Practice of Eating Less

When Rumi’s Four Essential Practices: Ecstatic Body, Awakened Soul, by Will Johnson, came across my path, I decided to see if any of his practices would be particularly beneficial for me!

From the book:
From its range of tastes, smells, and the flavors that ensue, to its ability to transform the discomforting signals of hunger into sensations of satiety, food gives us pleasure. The preparation of food, the sharing of it with others, the sitting down to eat it – all of it gives us pleasure. After all, we don’t eat to be sad; we eat and drink to be merry, and so whenever humans gather together to celebrate, they most often do so around a table of delicious and carefully prepared food and drink. Food gives us pleasure, but it also gives us problems. Rumi would never ask us to forego the pleasure of the food we eat . . . Beyond the pleasure of the chocolate in the mouth (and yes, it is pleasurable), there’s an even greater pleasure to be found, Rumi tells us, and that pleasure arises though fasting.

Johnson shares with us that Rumi’s practice of fasting can include making the choice to eat less. Recent studies have shown that lower caloric intake on a regular, daily basis results in a longer, healthier life – and weight loss. Eating less, or conscious eating, can also mean less time spent preparing meals, less indigestion, and more time for contemplation on the abundance and supply the Universe has given us.

In our home, besides continuing to make thoughtful choices about what we eat, we decided to try a new way of eating. We prepare enough food for two meals at a time and divide it up, putting enough for the second meal into attractive glass storage containers. We beautifully arrange the remaining food on dessert plates rather than dinner plates, and have found the quantity to be enough to satisfy our appetites, especially if we take our time eating. After one or two meals in this fashion, we’ve become accustomed to the smaller servings. I have greater joy than ever in preparing these meals, and gratitude for the abundance we enjoy – while eating less. (Maybe I’ll lose some excess weight over time, too!) Whether as a spiritual discipline or as a weight control strategy, consciously eating less can be very good for you!

This article came from the Health & Spirituality e-newletter. For fun, take the weight-loss Self Test at Spirituality-Health.com

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