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Should I want to lose weight?
TheEccentric
Hampshire, UK Veteran
I have read that in Buddhism you should not desire a perfect body or to be more attractive because it brings no permanent happiness and may cause suffering instead, I agree with that but I feel I have to lose weight. I am borederline overweight and not happy about it, not only beacuse I want to look better and to feel better but for health reasons such as it being a well known fact that just being slightly overweight can lead to long term health conditions and aso out of the fear that if I do not take control of my weight now it could worsen
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Comments
Try to be mindful of what you eat and don't over indulge.
Do you have an understanding of the type of foods you should and shouldn't eat regularly? I know you're young so you may not have that education. As Oprah says "When you know better, you do better". Cheesy yes, but it's true.
I can PM you some information if you want it.
Add a little exercise into your day. Walk upstairs whenever the opportunity arises instead of taking the lift. Walk to the shops instead of driving.
Forget the goal and just make these small changes. The weight will fall away naturally.
Good luck young man! Keep posting your progress if that helps. You'll find plenty of encouragement on this site!
Prolonging your life will give more time to practice.
If we simply eat real food and get a reasonable amount of physical activity our weigh should be under control, and we'll be much healthier.
I partake in this food with mindful reflection, not out of enjoyment nor intoxication or gluttony, nor to make the body attractive, but for the continued health and maintenance of this body.
I'd say you can apply that mindset directly to losing weight. Do you want to do it to have a healthy body which can allow you to live longer and practice better? or is the intention to get better chicks and a raise?
Always Eat as healthy as possible, keep your numbers good (cholesterol, glucose, triglycerides, etc), be as active as possible with exercise and fun activities (walking, swimming, cycling, etc) and allow your body to settle into it's 'natural' balanced state of healthy weight and strength.
Don't let society, or fashion dictate what that 'natural' weight (or look) should be.
After Buddha left the palace, he became an ascetic. Like true ascetic, he lived life to the extreme. He punished his body severely and went without food and became very thin and nearly died even until one day, when he saw a musician tuning his guitar. When the string is tuned too tight, it breaks; when it is tuned too loose; the guitar will not play. Following this, Buddha started to take care of his body.
Go for six-packs, TheEccentric!
One book I read, and really enjoyed, was "Savor" which is written with Thich Nhat Hahn. It has a lot of practices for mindful eating which I found quite helpful in bringing more mindfulness to my eating. The book was written by someone else, and I actually skipped over parts, because some of it was very basic beginner Buddhism and some of it was too much "if you are fat you should feel bad." But I left that stuff alone and used what I could and really enjoyed those things. Mindful eating is something very against the nature of how most of us in the western world have lived our whole lives. It's a struggle to implement it and you learn quickly how bad your eating habits are, even if you aren't eating a ton of junk food. It was an eye opening practice.
The same could be applied to losing weight. Maybe if you lost weight with the intention that a healthier body would make you more useful and able to practise compassion for others, I think that would give you more 'power' than using will power alone. I know that will power only ever gets me so far, I need more.
Another idea would be to lose weight for a charity of your choice, that would be a motivating thing; I've a friend who only kept up his marathon training because he was getting donations for a cancer charity. He says he wouldn't have completed the training or the marathon if it wasn't for the thought of letting other people down.
And saying all that, I lost 20 lbs last year, and I can't say that my intentions were wholly because I wanted to practise compassion for others; but it was certainly in with the mix of reasons for doing so.
BTW: carrots + hummous are a delicious combination for snacking.
But even though Buddhism discourages attachment to the body, being health =/= attachment IMO. If you're obsessed with working out everyday and taking pics of yourself in the bathroom mirror all the time, that's problematic. If you just want to be healthier/happier, that's a totally different story.