Yesterday I felt very sad because of my niece's illness and her decline. I also learned that my aunt who will be 101 years old in December and who has been leading a Sr's exercise class this year (she's amazing!) has also been very ill.

So last night I wanted to get out of my house. When I feel upset, I bolt! I head to one of my favorite restaurants where I am surrounded by people and a warm environment. I use the food to comfort me. I've been able to pretty easily stay home this week during those times and to be very satisfied to serve myself a little meal in my lovely bowl.

Last night the pressure built to the point I needed to get out. So I went to a quiet place nearby and had a small salad, a reasonable dessert and some decaf. A little meal. When I got home I felt bad (I often do when I go out from habit), but this time it was not because of the food I had chosen, but for the over the top difference in cost of having a small meal for dinner instead of lunch.

Then suddenly I felt better, because that's a positive shift, too: to move my habitual uncomfortable reflection to the money instead of to the food.

Changing one's perception rocks!

Monday morning, first thing, has been my weigh in day for many years. Last week, getting on the scale was such a treat. I had found that in four days I had lost five pounds. Today one more. A total of six pounds in ten days? Happy me!

These ten days have been an adventure in perception and in getting to know myself better. I see a change in my face and feel change in the fit of my clothing. I have gone out to eat several times, having been invited out by one friend and another. Ordering food has been from a more mindful place. One evening a friend and I shared a sandwich and salad, so I ate half the amount I usually do. One morning, my best friend and I shared a veggie scramble, so again I ended up eating half of my ordinary amount. Another morning I saw that it was possible to order one serving instead of two of the huevos rancheros, so I did that. I took myself out to lunch one day and took half my meal home. Nearly always I eat the other half on the same day, meaning to wait until the next. This time, I waited gladly until the next day.

All the above accounts are new behaviors and all of them are because I held the image of my little bowl in mind. My bowl gave me boundaries I didn't keep for myself in the past. It's a measuring tool I now use to gauge how much to serve myself.

For ten days now it has worked very well!

Two evenings ago I had 3.6 ounces of ice cream after dinner. In the night I woke feeling discomfort with a blocked sinus. I've always thought it was chocolate that did that to me (and maybe it does, also), but now I have a new piece of information. Perhaps it was ice cream (and other dairy?) all along. More reasons to like using the One Bowl way of eating. It makes it easier to search for foods that don't agree well with me.

Then yesterday afternoon I met a friend in town for lunch and had talapia, rice and veggies. I usually eat the entire meal, but this time I brought half of it home with me. When I do that I often eat the rest of the meal later in the day (in addition to dinner). It's part of my problem with not being able to stop myself. Again, the image of one bowl made it so easy to leave it in the refrigerator overnight. I had oatmeal ready to cook in the morning, but I decided to have the rest
of the talapia instead. I love having lunch or dinner types of meals for breakfast. Lunch was a roasted veggie salad with a T. of dressing. I had one tiny piece of french bread with about 1/4 tsp of butter. All much less than I ordinarily have. Then for dinner (can you guess?) I had the oatmeal that I skipped this morning. I had a latte late morning and then a splurge of a second latte a little later. Two lattes in one day might happen only 2 or 3 times a year. Today was one of them.

I feel good about the meals I've had and the amounts this week. The slow cooker beans that didn't quite get done yesterday are on the stove right now cooking so that I can have them for both lunch and dinner tomorrow. I'll have a large salad, too.

Tonight, while I was eating the last half of my oatmeal, I stepped outside and ate the rest of it standing as I watched a dramatic sunset. Yes, standing, if the spot is beautiful and serence is recommended also while eating. This approach makes me happy.

So much of what I am hoping to accomplish is to break my addiction to going out to eat instead of preparing food for myself at home. Yesterday evening when it came time for dinner, I was prepared to have the curried meal that was in the slow cooker. There were beans in the pot and I discovered that they were far from done. My first thought was to go out instead and nine times out of ten that's what I would have done. But, then I really listened to myself and got that, no, I wanted to stay home. So I made myself the most delicious veggieburger for the second day in a row and enjoyed it thoroughly. It felt so good to know I wasn't making myself eat at home, but rather I truly wanted to. That has been happening more and more frequently lately. I have a feeling that it will become my new and very welcome habit.

It is one week today that I've been following the One Bowl Method. Its image when I am away from home is creating as much change in the way I think about food as when I actually eat from it. I ate at a restaurant yesterday afternoon and with my little bowl in mind, I ordered the smallest and lightest meal on the menu. In observing the food on my plate I gauged that it would fill my bowl twice which is most likely the amount that I would eat if I were at home. In addition I had enough guacamole to fill one bowl. Even though the meal was fairly calorie laden, it worked, because breakfast and dinner were each one bowl and both very low in calories.

The memory of the bowl not only made me aware of how much food I was choosing to have, but it caused me to reflect on the kinds of considerations I had in the above paragraph. For me, a chosen image is powerful when I use it to positively influence my thoughts, decisions and actions. It is the simplest and easiest method I've discovered for myself so far in the effort toward eating healthier and lighter. This is how it looks after having followed it for one week.

I have a long, full day ahead, so I only have a couple of minutes to post this morning, so I'm announcing this good news:

I am happy to say that the scale recorded that I am five pounds lighter than I was when I began this new adventure last week.

Today, because I'm working hard to establish a new routine for myself, I am posting several times.
From my list below, I dressed, wrote up a grocery list, shopped at Whole Foods, put the food away and had 2 small bowls of soup. I have now reached the last item on my list which is to make myself a big cup of tea and put my feet up. I am so ready to do that.

This evening when I heat up my soup I will cut up fresh, organic swiss chard and let it cook in the soup a few minutes. It's good now. It will even be better then.

Okay (and it was fun!), the timer is set and my soup is cooking on the stove.

As I cut up veggies and poured in the broth, I thought about how cooking also means planning, grocery lists, shopping and putting groceries away. Those will need to be priorities, too. My tummy is in mild knots and my heart center is pretty anxious...it all seems huge, even though it's really not. But, it is for me, because since those are not part of my regular routine, each of them must be established. Okay, since my decision when I first woke up was that today is completely given over to this, then...

Next I get to:

* shower, dress
* choose one of the two recipes on my kitchen table
* turn off stove, let soup cool
* write grocery list for recipe and for salad ingredients and a few staples that are getting low
* go to WF, shop
* bring home, put away
* make myself a big travel mug of tea and recuperate with my feet up :)

It's almost hard to believe how enormous and longstanding this has been for me. It makes me pretty emotional to be this up front about it.

A few minutes later: Yum!! I just took a taste of my soup. I make really good improv soups!

One thing I'm noticing is that ordinarily I would fill a big bowl with a soup I had just made and have it right then and there. Because of the one bowl method I am observing myself struggle which is good. I want that bowl of soup and I want it right now. However, I just had breakfast a couple of hours ago and I am not hungry yet. Or am I? There's a feeling in my stomach, but is it
real hunger or emotional hunger? See? I'm stopping to ask the right questions now. I know it's mostly nervousness and I know I can wait until after I've done my shopping. That's exactly what I'm going to do!

Thinking of that little bowl each time I think of eating is triggering healthy responses.

Okay. Here's the deal. I rarely prepare food for myself. It's a problem and has been for years. Since it's not part of my daily routine I just don't make time for it and when I put it on my daily to do list, most of the time it doesn't happen. It's a time thing. When I've tried to correct it, it might work for awhile, but then I go back to eating out or getting food to go. For weight loss, optimum health and finances that doesn't work well for me.

So, I'm going to try something I've never tried before. It's scary, but I'm going to experiment with it and see if it works. It's pretty radical when I think of who I am and of the kinds of priorities I ordinarily have.

Here it is:

I'm going to (scary!!) make it the ONLY thing I HAVE to get done each day. The priority every day. It doesn't mean I can't do anything else. It simply means that everything else is going to be secondary for a period of time.

I don't know how long it will take, but I think I will start with one week, see how it goes and continue from there if I seem to be on the right track.

So, today:

* Make the soup that's been on my list for days and that I haven't made yet.

Once I've done it, I'll be free to add other things to my daily list.

Wish me luck?

One Bowl Method: Container

In One Bowl, Don Gerrard writes (page 36):

"As you set off on your One Bowl food exploration, I want you to choose a single bowl from which to eat. This means temporarily giving up eating from a plate in your normal manner. Instead, you will eat your meals only from the bowl you've chosen for the quest. You will use your bowl extensively during this initial learning period, to help you learn to keep your attention focused on your internal food messages.

Eating from your bowl in this way will both enclose and personalize your food experience. One person told me that by always eating from a single bowl, she found a way of 'containing' her eating experience."

I identify with this notion. I am someone who tends to be more spaced out than most. I have worked to find metaphorical "containers" for myself in order to be able to focus and accomplish things in the world. So, over these past couple of days using my small bowl, this is one of the concepts I keep in mind. Containing my food in a little space imparts information to me about myself and my experience that I wouldn't have otherwise. One example is to actually see how this small amount of food satisfies me and in more ways than I would have imagined.

Today, as I sat in the sun room eating my oatmeal, I, who already chews my food many times, chose to chew it even longer to enjoy the textures and flavors and to get in more intimate touch with the process that takes place once the food has been swallowed. While paying closer attention I thought of how containment plays such an essential role in my life. I look for and use
ways to channel my thoughts, actions and plans into self-fabricated mental structures in which to facilitate moving in a linear direction instead of feeling like I'm simply suspended in space unsure of where to direct myself next. With food, it's similar. My boundaries are too expansive. My choices, limitless.

All this is to say that this little bowl, this small container affords me much relief. The boundaries are set for me. I can put whatever food I want into the bowl, but because of its size, my choices are limited. More, I have procedures to follow while I eat that give me additional ways to gauge amounts and the kinds of food I want. I can take the time to ask myself what will nourish me most. I am the receiver of a welcome gift of new perception, another range of ways to look at what I've done with food, what I'm doing now and what I can do with a future filled with fresh possibilities. This approach is compatible with who I am. This is an approach from which I have already learned so much.

I'm reading a book I've heard about for years and I'm loving it. It's called One bowl: a guide to eating for body and spirit by Don Gerrard.

His method is so aligned with who I am, what is important to me, how I eat when I'm at home and how I see things. It's an evolved form of what I already do. It feels like the steps he takes one through are exactly what I need for myself to gain the control that has been eluding me for years.

Yesterday I went to the Plaza to my favorite kitchen supply place and chose my small bowl which is amber colored glass and fits snugly and comfortably in my hand. The bowl is to hold about one cup, not more than a cup and a half.

I came home and washed it and then filled it with Pad Se ew (thai broad noodles with veggies), selected a wonderful spot (not at the table) in which to enjoy my little bowl of food. I sat in my loveseat in the living room, holding the bowl in one hand while holding my fork in the other. It looked like so little food, but as I ate, slowly savoring every bite and feeling happy in my surroundings, it took quite some time to finish. I could have filled the bowl again, as many times as I wanted, but I was surprisingly satisfied. The key is to focus on all the inner physical and emotional processes that one goes through while one eats. One usually stops at the neck and doesn't pay much attention to what happens below. This process trains one to become very, very familiar with all the associated feelings until one, over time, eats the way we were meant to eat, naturally.

I'm pursuing this. It's something that fits me. I invite you to join me. I'd love to have company!

One Bowl: a guide to eating for body and spirit (book)

Greetings,

I have just read the first half of the book "One Bowl: a guide to eating for body and spirit" by Don Gerrard. Has anyone else read it? I am more than impressed with this approach and would love to hear from others.

I'll write more as I progress.

Thanks for checking in.