Starling Fitness: Daily writings on Fitness, Diet, and Health

I saw the trailer to this new movie, Lucy, and it really got me to thinking.

I really believe that the spiritual side of weight loss is what I have been missing since the beginning and I REALLY believe that spirituality is merely accessing part of my brain that I have allowed to become dormant my whole life. Watching this preview makes me wonder how my life would be different if I had been able to access the entirety of my spiritual potential.

I especially love this visual image from the movie trailer:

She says,

I can feel every living thing.

What if it were like that? What if I could feel the life-force of every living thing on the planet? Would I be a better person? Would I be overwhelmed by the sheer volume of feelings and emotions? Part of me thinks that this extra input wouldn’t create the superhero that they are showing in the trailer. It would create someone so awash with emotions that she wouldn’t be able to react properly. Perhaps she would retreat into her inner world.

If you could access all of the world’s knowledge at your fingertips, would it make you a better person? From just my daily meditations, trying to access that slim part of my brain that has been left stagnant for my entire life, I have found a peace and calm that I never had before. I only wish I had been able to nurture this part of my mind earlier. I might be a better person today.

Or, I might have retreated into my own mind, never to surface…

This postcard from PostSecret reminded me of how I white-knuckled my way down to 150 pounds.

It reads:

My diet makes me obsess about food to the point where I google image search my cravings in an attempt to stave them off…

Just a note to this person and anyone else in this situation: IT DOESN’T WORK. I have done many crazy things to keep myself from eating food, which just fed my obsession.

• Looking at food on the Internet.
• Smelling food, but not eating it.
• Getting scratch and sniff stickers and smelling them instead of eating.
• Eating too much healthy food instead.
• Planning how I would binge as soon as I got thin enough.
• Trying to distract myself with something else.

Once I realized that I had no control over food, I saw how silly all these activities were and how they actually made my food obsession worse. I also felt a huge wave of grief and self-pity because I felt completely and utterly doomed. I was fully aware that there was nothing I could do to control the biological urge to overeat. My hunger response was so broken and I felt as if I could never get past this.

And then I found this awesome other part of my brain. It had been there all along, but I never had been able to access it before. Now, I let it control all my eating and it does a better job than I have ever been able to do on my own.

If you are feeling hopeless over your eating behaviors, there is a way out. Get yourself into an OA meeting. Get a sponsor, do what your sponsor tells you to do, and learn to access that powerful part of your brain that can handle your hunger more than you could ever do it.

PostSecret‘s beneficiary is the National Hopeline Network. It is a 24-hour hotline (1 (800) SUICIDE) for anyone who is thinking about suicide or knows someone who is considering it.

I HATE the name. I just want to say right up front that I absolutely HATE the name. My sponsor told me to make a God Box. She said she used a lock box, but I could make mine out of anything. I told her I would do it because I decided that I would just do whatever my sponsor said because obviously I had NO idea how to keep my eating under control. If she said I needed to make a God Box, I would.

But I procrastinated. Instead of just making my God Box like she asked me to, I looked at God Boxes on the Internet.

They all turned my stomach a bit until I realized I didn’t like the name. It’s supposed to be a box for things that you just can’t change. You write on a tiny slip of paper the problem that you have no control over and put it into the box to let “God” take care of it. I don’t believe in God, but “Higher Power Box” sounded stupid. “Part of my brain that I haven’t used for so long that it feels like it’s another presence box” sounds stupid, too. So I clung to the name God Box just because it was two syllables.

And I finally made one.

As much as I railed against the name and even the idea of it, it has been incredibly helpful. Every time I feel myself ruminating about something that I can’t control, I just write it on a post-it-note and put it into the box. Somehow, just stuffing it away in that Pringles can helps me.

I hate the name, but the concept and the execution has been something I’ve quickly become thankful for. Every time something irritating or upsetting crosses my mind, I can just stuff it into that can instead of stuffing my face with food. I can’t stress enough how grateful I am for that simple Pringles can.

If you have found yourself ruminating about things or felt the need to eat in order to ease your feelings about something, make yourself a God Box. Create a place to contain your worries and fears so they don’t consume you and, in turn, make you consume more food than you should.

I saw this motivational quote on Fit Facts the other day and it really hit home for me.

It reads:

One day this pain will make sense to you

This is such a good thought for EVERYTHING. Sure, it explains away the muscle soreness with an eye on the final outcome, but the truth is, there is a lot more pain in this world than simple muscle soreness.

How about the pangs of hunger? Feeling hungry is worth the benefit of eating less in the long run. As long as I am eating three healthy meals a day and 2-3 snacks, there is NO risk that I am starving myself, so if I feel hungry, that means it’s not real hunger. Suffering through the pain of hedonic hunger is definitely worth the outcome and it will all make sense when I am at goal weight.

How about emotional pain? It’s never wise to go searching for relationships that hurt your feelings, but after experiencing heartbreaking pain, I can sincerely say that it was worth it. I can look back on those heart-wrenching moments and I now know that each one was worth it. It hurt when it happened, but the perspective of now has shown me that it was all to my benefit. Does that emotional pain of my past make sense now? You betcha!

Even the spiritual pain that I experienced makes sense to me now. The years of feeling no connection to that spiritual part of my brain showed me that I didn’t want to live that way. I didn’t know it then, but that feeling that said to me, “I want to go home,” was trying to tell me that something was missing. It wasn’t home. It was accessing that part of my brain that gives me all those feel-good spiritual chemicals I was missing. Once I started meditating regularly again, I had full access to that part of my own physiology. All the pain of isolation from it for years sincerely makes sense to me now.

The next time you are suffering, whether it’s physically, emotionally or spiritually, remember that one day this pain will make sense to you. Do what you must to relieve the pain. Don’t go searching for it, but if you are in pain, it will become a pristine and clear moment of clarity some day in the future.

I’ve talked before about meditation and how it has helped me in my weight loss journey, but after reading The God Gene, I now know WHY it’s so helpful.

Just as I suspected, there are aspects of our brains that can cause the feeling of “Other” or a presence. When we access these parts of our brains, it feels good. The crux of all twelve step programs is recreating a spiritual awakening. For many people, that feels like God, but no matter what it feels like, it is actually our brains producing chemicals. How able our brains can do that for us is partially dependent on our genetic makeup, but it’s not an all-or-nothing genetic roll of the dice. It’s more like height. Some people are tall. Some people are extremely sensitive to those chemicals that create spiritual experiences.

No matter where your brain is on the continuum, it is within your best interest to cultivate and strengthen this long-neglected part of your mind. That feeling of self-transcendence is what has kept alcoholics away from the bottle since the beginning of Alcoholics Anonymous. And having a spiritual awakening is your first step toward eating healthy every single day with no binges, purges or starving.

Overeaters Anonymous and Alcoholics Anonymous do not endorse anything on this entry or blog.

I was doing a Google image search for humility and weight loss and this comic came up.

It reads:

Amazing new weight loss program! No pills. No books. Just two easy steps.

Step 1: Remove hand from bag of chips.

Step 2: Remove rear end from couch and take a walk

It seems simple enough. Eat less. Move more. Why did it never work for me? Why was it bad weight loss advice?

The truth of the matter is far more complicated than that two-step process. It wasn’t what I was eating. It was the REASONS I wanted to eat.

Overeaters Anonymous says that this problem is not just physical (the eat less move more advice). It’s emotional and spiritual as well. I ran away from the spiritual side of this disorder until I was so desperate that I couldn’t run anymore.

Every time I work on the emotional and spiritual aspects of my problem, the physical aspects take care of themselves. Eat less and move more is a LOT more easy when I have my resentments and guilty thoughts dealt with. It also helps that I have a Higher Power to just pass off my weak moments to, even though I am an atheist.

I think I consider that comic bad weight loss advice because it has only a SMALL piece of the picture. It’s NOT just eat less and move more. That’s a minuscule part of the problem.

Overeaters Anonymous does not endorse anything on this entry or blog.

Sharee from Funeral For My Fat recorded this great video about how to stay positive on your weight loss journey.

She’s right. Comparing pictures from your beginning to your current state can be very inspiring as long as you’ve made progress. There were many times when I tried, couldn’t follow the program and kept trying day in and day out and failing over and over. I didn’t HAVE any progress to look at in pictures. Staying positive and continuing to try was very difficult back then.

The calendar showing the workouts you complete is a very good idea. It’s something Benjamin Franklin did when he tried to better himself. It’s something that Jerry Seinfeld did to better himself. It’s something that I do as well.

When you start seeing the marks for each day, you don’t want to break the cycle. You want to keep up the streak.

Try these two tips and see if you are able to stay positive on this journey because we need all the help we can get.

Sometimes there is a haunting beauty on the Internet that is just waiting to be seen. This post from chaos is exactly that:

Chaos wrote:

I have been having a very hard time being ok with my body tonight.

I have been wanting to have no body at all.

I have been wishing to be small and hidden.

I have been feeling the need to disappear.

I got into bed and was going to take pictures of my body to be negative towards it…

but then I clicked this image and looked at it.

I saw sand dunes.

I saw nature.

I saw myself.

I am the Earth.

I am the Earth.

I am the Earth.

It’s not cellulite. It’s the natural shape of your body. It is the same as the sand dunes and it was MEANT to be there. You are a woman and your are supposed to have those curves.

Via: Fitness, Health, And Confidence , on-my-own-journey: dreamsludge: I have been…

This song popped up on my Workout playlist and I realized that I had forgotten to tell you about it. It’s called “It’s Okay, Try Again” by Yo Gabba Gabba and The Shins [iTunes link].

Sometimes I just need to hear positive songs like this to make myself feel better.

I don’t know why, but I really needed this video from Kid President today.

I really liked this part:

“We all mess up sometimes. The biggest mess up? Not forgiving each other’s mess ups.”

Something about this kid just makes me feel like it’s going to be alright.

“You’re gonna need a pep talk sometimes. That’s okay. For now, remember this: You’re awake. You’re awesome. Live like it.”

Via WIL WHEATON dot TUMBLR — “You’re gonna need a pep talk sometimes. That’s….