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Lion
Decadent Flower Magnate


Registered: 09/20/05
Posts: 8,775
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Addiction to unhealthy food and overeating
#7843721 - 01/07/08 02:07 PM (16 years, 25 days ago) |
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So I've definitely posted about this before, but I still wonder about it a lot.
I eat a lot of unhealthy food, despite having access to a ridiculously varied assortment of healthy foods by most people's standards. Often my over-eating leaves me in not a small amount of pain for the rest of the day and when I woke up the next morning.
I've noticed that whenever I meet people whom I intuit have awakened to some high degree (most of whom are Buddhist practitioners, but definitely not all), they are able to indulge in amounts and kinds of food and drinks that would leave me reeling for a day or two after indulging in. I often conclude that they must in some way be taking on my karma and that of others living in the psychological realm of hungry ghosts. Sometimes they seem to deliberately encourage me to eat more than I otherwise would have, I guess in order to transmit a teaching.
I feel that this all has to do with desire as the cause for psychological death and rebirth. I'm trying to work patiently with my cravings, be they sexual or orality-related (definitely both deeply related and intertwined in the lower chakras) but as Ram Dass says, 'the higher you go the harder you fall'.
What are your thoughts on this? Where you are now, how do you go about dancing with desire?
Thank you very much.
-------------------- “Strengthened by contemplation and study, I will not fear my passions like a coward. My body I will give to pleasures, to diversions that I’ve dreamed of, to the most daring erotic desires, to the lustful impulses of my blood, without any fear at all, for whenever I will— and I will have the will, strengthened as I’ll be with contemplation and study— at the crucial moments I’ll recover my spirit as was before: ascetic.”
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crumblebum
The Guy Who's Really Bad At Sex


Registered: 04/24/07
Posts: 1,459
Last seen: 3 years, 2 months
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Re: Addiction to unhealthy food and overeating [Re: Lion]
#7844065 - 01/07/08 03:23 PM (16 years, 25 days ago) |
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From an evolutionary standpoint, we spent a long, long time where it was nearly impossible to overeat, given that food was sometimes sparse. Dogs and cats, especially adopted strays, will often eat however much food you give them, because their instincts tell them to get it while they can. It can be the same with us. If food is available, the older parts of your brain that don't know about caloric intake as opposed to expenditure, refridgeration, and heart disease, tell you to eat what you can before it spoils or a competitor eats it.
From a spiritual standpoint, desire is suffering. Taoism says eat till you're not hungry anymore, not till you are full. It's just one of many desires of it's type that are difficult to overcome. If desire was easy to overcome, everyone would be doing it. In my personal experience, there's a frightening period in attempting to shed oneself of any desire or addiction. To not eat evokes in me the same fear I have of dying. The same fear wells up in my when I think about qutting smoking (cigarettes), or shedding myself of any desire. Honestly, the exact same feeling of fear and dread as when I contemplate on my own mortality. As time has gone on, I've attached a pretty straightforward correlation, that the fear involved in overcoming and desire or addiction is the same as the fear of death, because the addictions and desires are the bondage of the body and ego. To shed these things is to die, to enter formless bliss. Enlightenment is terrifying.
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Huehuecoyotl
Fading Slowly


Registered: 06/13/04
Posts: 10,685
Loc: On the Border
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Re: Addiction to unhealthy food and overeating [Re: Lion]
#7844316 - 01/07/08 04:08 PM (16 years, 25 days ago) |
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Quote:
I've noticed that whenever I meet people whom I intuit have awakened to some high degree (most of whom are Buddhist practitioners, but definitely not all), they are able to indulge in amounts and kinds of food and drinks that would leave me reeling for a day or two after indulging in.
That is pure bullshit. I am the most enlightened person on this forum, and I have to choose my diet very carefully.
-------------------- "A warrior is a hunter. He calculates everything. That's control. Once his calculations are over, he acts. He lets go. That's abandon. A warrior is not a leaf at the mercy of the wind. No one can push him; no one can make him do things against himself or against his better judgment. A warrior is tuned to survive, and he survives in the best of all possible fashions." ― Carlos Castaneda
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crumblebum
The Guy Who's Really Bad At Sex


Registered: 04/24/07
Posts: 1,459
Last seen: 3 years, 2 months
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Re: Addiction to unhealthy food and overeating [Re: Huehuecoyotl]
#7844513 - 01/07/08 04:55 PM (16 years, 25 days ago) |
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Well that's just Buddhists, ya know? I mean, look at the guy. Shedding your desire for food probably makes it taste better, and Indian food is pretty damned good to start with. And plus, once you've fully realized the illusory nature of the world, what's it matter if you get a little husky?
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Epigallo
Stranger
Registered: 09/17/06
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Re: Addiction to unhealthy food and overeating [Re: Lion]
#7845049 - 01/07/08 06:49 PM (16 years, 25 days ago) |
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I've found diligent hatha yoga practice effective in modulating the habit. Poses that work on the digestive system help expel excess fecal matter and/or gas stored in your system, which should help lesson the fluctuations in your digestive system and decrease hunger pangs etcetera. Plus, yoga is good for calming the mind and decreasing cravings in general. Knowing that over eating will just make the practice harder makes it a non-viscious cycle. If you already practice yoga, maybe consider more torso/abdomen focused poses.
Above all, have something to do each day that is important enough to you to not let stomach pains get in the way.
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xFrockx



Registered: 09/17/06
Posts: 10,455
Loc: Northeast
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Re: Addiction to unhealthy food and overeating [Re: Huehuecoyotl]
#7845071 - 01/07/08 06:55 PM (16 years, 25 days ago) |
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"That is pure bullshit. I am the most enlightened person on this forum, and I have to choose my diet very carefully."
Umm, joking?
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MushroomTrip
Dr. Teasy Thighs



Registered: 12/02/05
Posts: 14,794
Loc: red panda village
Last seen: 2 years, 10 months
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Re: Addiction to unhealthy food and overeating [Re: xFrockx]
#7845093 - 01/07/08 06:59 PM (16 years, 25 days ago) |
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No no, everybody knows that Huehue is the spiritual leader.
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   All this time I've loved you And never known your face All this time I've missed you And searched this human race Here is true peace Here my heart knows calm Safe in your soul Bathed in your sighs
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xFrockx



Registered: 09/17/06
Posts: 10,455
Loc: Northeast
Last seen: 11 days, 13 hours
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Re: Addiction to unhealthy food and overeating [Re: MushroomTrip]
#7845222 - 01/07/08 07:26 PM (16 years, 25 days ago) |
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Yes, but isn't it an extremely unenlightened thing to say "I am the most enlightened person here"?
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crumblebum
The Guy Who's Really Bad At Sex


Registered: 04/24/07
Posts: 1,459
Last seen: 3 years, 2 months
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Re: Addiction to unhealthy food and overeating [Re: xFrockx]
#7845320 - 01/07/08 07:46 PM (16 years, 25 days ago) |
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Who can tell? To know exactly how an enlightened person acts, I'd have to be enlightened myself, and I'm not. But I'm comfortable accepting that Hue is. You can't prove a negative, so when faced with a proposition I don't have a frame of reference for, the better bet is to just believe. I mean, he does have a cool avatar, AND cool sig quotes. So Just run with it, dude.
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NiamhNyx
I'm NOT a 'he'


Registered: 09/01/02
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Re: Addiction to unhealthy food and overeating [Re: xFrockx]
#7845352 - 01/07/08 07:53 PM (16 years, 25 days ago) |
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Of course it is, so long as it's hue our guru saying it. He can say no wrong! 
As for me, I usually eat junk food when I've been on a cycle of undereating. I often get in the habit of eating too little and waiting too long to do it which eventually causes my body to crave fast, fatty, carby, quickly digested food pretty intensely. I'm in that zone right now and it's gross. For dinner I just finished eating fried chicken and pork fried rice from the chinese fast food counter at my neighbourhood grocery store. For lunch I had fries and a single serving box of mocha soy milk. I'm really tired too - which could also be due to it being the first day back to school and the fact that I started the morning with a mistakenly giant americano. It's crazy because I know I always feel great when I eat healthier food, and it's not hard to make... it's just a psychological issue I haven't been able to transcend I suppose.
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Lion
Decadent Flower Magnate


Registered: 09/20/05
Posts: 8,775
Last seen: 3 days, 17 hours
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Re: Addiction to unhealthy food and overeating [Re: Epigallo]
#7845406 - 01/07/08 08:07 PM (16 years, 25 days ago) |
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Quote:
bradley said: I've found diligent hatha yoga practice effective in modulating the habit. Poses that work on the digestive system help expel excess fecal matter and/or gas stored in your system, which should help lesson the fluctuations in your digestive system and decrease hunger pangs etcetera. Plus, yoga is good for calming the mind and decreasing cravings in general. Knowing that over eating will just make the practice harder makes it a non-viscious cycle. If you already practice yoga, maybe consider more torso/abdomen focused poses.
Above all, have something to do each day that is important enough to you to not let stomach pains get in the way.
Yeah, I do hatha yoga myself. Actually, sometimes I don't do it when I have a craving for sugar or something just because it greatly heightens my sensitivity to unhealthy foods. It's a very good practice, though, and definitely helps curb desires. 
Niamh, I really resonate with what you're saying about the cyclical eating thing.
-------------------- “Strengthened by contemplation and study, I will not fear my passions like a coward. My body I will give to pleasures, to diversions that I’ve dreamed of, to the most daring erotic desires, to the lustful impulses of my blood, without any fear at all, for whenever I will— and I will have the will, strengthened as I’ll be with contemplation and study— at the crucial moments I’ll recover my spirit as was before: ascetic.”
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crumblebum
The Guy Who's Really Bad At Sex


Registered: 04/24/07
Posts: 1,459
Last seen: 3 years, 2 months
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Re: Addiction to unhealthy food and overeating [Re: Lion]
#7845669 - 01/07/08 08:55 PM (16 years, 25 days ago) |
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I've started back on zoloft and it utterly kills my appetite. Having hunger pains but not really being interested in food is a weird sensation.
What's often crazy is that my sleep med, seraquil, makes me really hungry RIGHT before I go to sleep, which blows cause it's the worst time to eat, compounded by the fact that I usually go with some thing quick because I'm so tired, and quick isn't often healthy, especially if you shop like I do.
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WhiskeyClone
Not here


Registered: 06/25/01
Posts: 16,509
Loc: Longitudinal Center of Canada ...
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Re: Addiction to unhealthy food and overeating [Re: Huehuecoyotl]
#7847108 - 01/08/08 08:52 AM (16 years, 24 days ago) |
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Quote:
Huehuecoyotl said: That is pure bullshit. I am the most enlightened person on this forum, and I have to choose my diet very carefully.
LOL
-------------------- Welcome evermore to gods and men is the self-helping man. For him all doors are flung wide: him all tongues greet, all honors crown, all eyes follow with desire. Our love goes out to him and embraces him, because he did not need it. ~ R.W. Emerson, "Self-Reliance"
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Icelander
The Minstrel in the Gallery



Registered: 03/15/05
Posts: 95,368
Loc: underbelly
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Re: Addiction to unhealthy food and overeating [Re: crumblebum]
#7847509 - 01/08/08 11:37 AM (16 years, 24 days ago) |
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when faced with a proposition I don't have a frame of reference for, the better bet is to just believe.
Sounds oh so dangerous.
-------------------- "Don't believe everything you think". -Anom. " All that lives was born to die"-Anom. With much wisdom comes much sorrow, The more knowledge, the more grief. Ecclesiastes circa 350 BC
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OrgoneConclusion
Blue Fish Group



Registered: 04/01/07
Posts: 45,414
Loc: Under the C
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Re: Addiction to unhealthy food and overeating [Re: Icelander]
#7847532 - 01/08/08 11:45 AM (16 years, 24 days ago) |
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You BELIEVE it is oh so dangerous.
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Icelander
The Minstrel in the Gallery



Registered: 03/15/05
Posts: 95,368
Loc: underbelly
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Re: Addiction to unhealthy food and overeating [Re: OrgoneConclusion]
#7847540 - 01/08/08 11:49 AM (16 years, 24 days ago) |
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No I said just the very sound of it is oh so dangerous.
-------------------- "Don't believe everything you think". -Anom. " All that lives was born to die"-Anom. With much wisdom comes much sorrow, The more knowledge, the more grief. Ecclesiastes circa 350 BC
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justamonkey
Stranger



Registered: 10/26/05
Posts: 292
Loc: Upstairs
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Re: Addiction to unhealthy food and overeating [Re: Icelander]
#7848136 - 01/08/08 02:06 PM (16 years, 24 days ago) |
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As someone of absolute authority and total enlightenment, I can tell you, and you can definitely trust me when I say that Huehuecoyotl is enlightened.
He's practically a florescent bulb compared to most of you mag-lights out there.
-------------------- [quote]We don't need anyone to teach us sorcery, because there is really nothing to learn. What we need is a teacher to convince us that there is incalculable power at our fingertips. What a strange paradox! Every warrior on the path of knowledge thinks, at one time or another, that he's learning sorcery, but all he's doing is allowing himself to be convinced of the power hidden in his being, and that he can reach it. [/quote]-Carlos Casteneda
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Icelander
The Minstrel in the Gallery



Registered: 03/15/05
Posts: 95,368
Loc: underbelly
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Re: Addiction to unhealthy food and overeating [Re: justamonkey]
#7848206 - 01/08/08 02:19 PM (16 years, 24 days ago) |
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Gee you're mean.
-------------------- "Don't believe everything you think". -Anom. " All that lives was born to die"-Anom. With much wisdom comes much sorrow, The more knowledge, the more grief. Ecclesiastes circa 350 BC
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justamonkey
Stranger



Registered: 10/26/05
Posts: 292
Loc: Upstairs
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Re: Addiction to unhealthy food and overeating [Re: Icelander]
#7848239 - 01/08/08 02:25 PM (16 years, 24 days ago) |
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Sometimes the truth hurts. (Note that this saying is meant for those below Grand Master Enlightened Nearing Godhood Status for everyone else, keep reading.)
If you take it personally.
-------------------- [quote]We don't need anyone to teach us sorcery, because there is really nothing to learn. What we need is a teacher to convince us that there is incalculable power at our fingertips. What a strange paradox! Every warrior on the path of knowledge thinks, at one time or another, that he's learning sorcery, but all he's doing is allowing himself to be convinced of the power hidden in his being, and that he can reach it. [/quote]-Carlos Casteneda
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Icelander
The Minstrel in the Gallery



Registered: 03/15/05
Posts: 95,368
Loc: underbelly
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Re: Addiction to unhealthy food and overeating [Re: justamonkey]
#7848275 - 01/08/08 02:33 PM (16 years, 24 days ago) |
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Is that meant to make me feel better?
-------------------- "Don't believe everything you think". -Anom. " All that lives was born to die"-Anom. With much wisdom comes much sorrow, The more knowledge, the more grief. Ecclesiastes circa 350 BC
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