Savor: Mindful Eating, Mindful Life

312 Pages·2011·1.83 MB·English

by  Thich Nhat Hanh

SAVOR
Mindful Eating, Mindful Life
Thich Nhat Hanh
and
Lilian Cheung D.Sc., R.D.
CONTENTS
FOREWORD
INTRODUCTION
PART 1
A Buddhist Perspective on Weight Control
CHAPTER 1 Ending Your Struggle with Weight
CHAPTER 2 Are You Really Appreciating the Apple?
An Apple Meditation
CHAPTER 3 You Are More Than What You Eat
CHAPTER 4 Stop and Look: The Present Moment
PART 2
Mindful Action Plans
CHAPTER 5 Mindful Eating
CHAPTER 6 Mindful Moving
CHAPTER 7 Mindful Living Plan
PART 3
Individual and Collective Effort
CHAPTER 8 A Mindful World
NOTES
INDEX
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
APPENDIX A Integrating Mindfulness into Your Daily Life
APPENDIX B Discourse on the Four Kinds of Nutriments
APPENDIX C Total Relaxation
APPENDIX C Total Relaxation
APPENDIX D Screen-Time Alternatives
APPENDIX E Community-Based Strategies to Prevent and Control
Obesity
APPENDIX F Resources
Copyright
About the Publisher

FOREWORD
Most books about nutrition and diet stress the calorie content of foods,
saturated fats, trans fats, carbohydrates, portion size, and the balance between
energy intake and energy expended. This book is di(cid:34)erent. This book is not
only about what to eat. This book also teaches how to eat.
If you are someone who is concerned about your weight, perhaps you have
tried dieting in the past. Maybe you have gone from cutting calories, to
excluding fats, to avoiding “carbs,” to taking a chance on the grapefruit diet or
some other fad. Perhaps you have even lost weight—only to gain it right back
within a few months. You know something is wrong and you feel not in
control of your own body. You are convinced that something has to change,
but where do you begin?
The answer, provided in this book, is not to begin with what you put on
your plate. Rather, you begin with what is already inside you, with your
awareness and experience of every moment you live—what the authors call
mindfulness. While the concept of mindfulness derives from Buddhist teaching,
anyone can become more mindful in nourishing our bodies. Many distractions
in daily life reinforce the mindless ingestion of food, and mindless eating is a
strong driver of weight gain and obesity. With awareness and practice, it is
possible to become more mindful in our eating—and in our lives. This book
tells you how to do it.
Authored by an eminent spiritual leader and a renowned nutritionist, this
work infuses science into wisdom and wisdom into science. It is a practical
guide to eating mindfully and points the way to attain a healthier weight and a
more satisfying life.
Harvey V. Fineberg, M.D., Ph.D.
President
Institute of Medicine
The National Academies
Washington, D.C.

INTRODUCTION
IF YOU HAVE PICKED up Savor because you want more peace and happiness in
everyday life, then you are in the right place. If you have picked up Savor because
you or someone you love is struggling with weight and in need of practical
solutions, then this book is for you also.
Learning to eat and live mindfully is the key to experiencing health and peace.
This vision brought us, a Zen Buddhist Master and a nutritionist, together to take a
fresh look at mindfulness and the problem of obesity that is spreading across the
globe. It is clear that standard approaches are not working to stem the tide of
weight gain and the burden it creates for people and communities. More than a
billion people worldwide are overweight—so many, in fact, that scientists call it an
obesity epidemic. And while this is certainly an apt description of the outcome of
eating too much and not moving enough, it does not fully describe what is going
on. It is also a worldwide crisis largely brought on by social trends that distract
and prevent us from doing the things that keep us in balance, healthy, and
connected with our inner selves and our place in the world. Savor is a guide to
help us all reconnect with these di(cid:49)erent aspects of our lives that together can
improve our weight, our well-being, and the well-being of our world.
Common sense tells us that to lose weight, we must eat less and exercise more.
That is easier said than done, however. Many of us know that we need to eat less,
and we need to be more active. But somehow we get stuck. We start on a weight-
loss program with only good intentions, but when we cannot stay on track, we feel
disappointed and discouraged. We become pessimistic, more and more unhappy
with our weight. We spend hours worrying about our future, blaming ourselves for
what we’ve eaten or how inactive we’ve been in the past, and completely missing
the present moment—the moment in which we actually have the power to make
real change in our lives.
To end our struggle, we must learn to not let regret, worry, or fear dominate our
life in the present moment. Each minute we spend worrying about the future and
regretting the past is a minute we miss in our appointment with life—a missed
opportunity to engage life and to see that each moment gives us the chance to
change for the better, to experience peace and joy. The practice of being fully
present in each moment is called mindfulness. It is an ancient Buddhist approach
to living that helps us to be in the here and now—and to end our struggle with
weight.
To be mindful is to be completely aware of what is happening in the present, to
be fully aware of all that is going on within ourselves and all that is happening
around us, from moment to moment, without judgment or preconceived notions.
Although mindfulness has been taught in Eastern meditation trainings, it is not
some mystical or esoteric practice that is hard to learn. People in all walks of life
have followed this set of age-old practices on their path to health, well-being,
peace, and happiness for over twenty-five hundred years.
When we walk and our mind is aware of each step that we plant (cid:54)rmly on the
ground, we are already practicing mindfulness. When we eat and our mind is aware
of each bite, savoring the taste and the nourishment it gives us, we are already
practicing mindfulness. To be mindful of something, we need to learn to be fully
present for an instant and look deeply into that something. We must (cid:54)rst stop our
wandering mind in order to begin to engage it in what is there in the present
moment. When we are mindful of what we are doing, we learn to keep our
appointment with life. This awareness of the present moment gives us the
opportunity and the tools to touch peace and joy, to see the true nature of who we
are and how we are related to everything else, and to end our struggle with weight.
In Savor we share with you how to live mindfully, and in particular how living
mindfully can help you take care of your weight problem in a peaceful and
sustainable way. Throughout the book, we show you how to easily adopt the
practice of mindfulness and integrate it into eating, physical activity, and all other
facets of your daily life so that mindful-ness gradually becomes a core part of your
being.
Dealing with our overweight—or with any of our life’s difficulties, for that matter
—is not a battle to be fought. Instead, we must learn how to make friends with our
hardships and challenges. They are there to help us; they are natural opportunities
for deeper understanding and transformation, bringing us more joy and peace as
we learn to work with them. With mindfulness practice, we gain insight into the
roots of our difficulties.
You will learn to observe and be more aware of your motivations for and
obstacles to staying healthy. Why do you eat what you eat? How do you eat, and
how do you feel after you eat? What attitudes do you have toward physical
activity? What are the barriers—physical, psychological, cultural, and
environmental—that prevent you from eating well and staying active? As you
become more aware of your body and of the feelings, thoughts, and realities that
prevent you from taking health-enhancing actions, you will realize what you need
to do individually and what types of community and social support you need in
order to change your behavior. With these insights, you will be better equipped to
break through your barriers to a healthy lifestyle and weight control. You can start
to make changes step-by-step, establishing healthier habits and instilling more and
more peace within yourself.
With the hectic pace of modern living, we recognize that it is very challenging
for people to add more tasks to their “to do” list. As you will see, mindfulness
practice does not need to be another “add-on.” Its beauty lies in the fact that it can
be fully and easily integrated into every act of our daily living, reminding us to live
the present moment fully.
With mindfulness, we can choose how to live our lives now. We can seize any
moment and begin anew. It is as simple as taking a few in-breaths and out-breaths
here and there throughout the day—while answering e-mails, waiting in line, or
sitting in tra(cid:61)c. It is absolutely within anyone’s reach. Take small steps every day,
and be persistent. Small steps will add up over time. With the constant practice of
mindfulness, you will feel more alive and in the (cid:62)ow of life. You will (cid:54)nd more
stillness amid the chaos. You will have a better understanding of yourself and all
that is around you. The fog that veils your well-being will gradually dissipate,
allowing you to touch the joy and peace that have always been inside you. The
Buddha did not foresee many of the modern-day problems that we face, including
the obesity epidemic, but his teachings are timeless. They are foundations for
understanding and processes for gaining insight. As people have found over many
generations, solidity, freedom, calm, and joy are the fruits of mindful living.
By combining the sage Buddhist philosophy with the science of nutrition, we can
contribute to a better understanding of our bodies and minds. We invite you to
embark on this mindfulness journey, just as others have over many generations, to
help you end your struggle with weight and improve your health, the health of
those around you, and the well-being of the world in which we live.