Be Like Buddah

Now there's some over exposed photos if you ever did see them. 

You may be wondering what's brought on the sudden mention of spirituality in the title; many that know me, know that I am an atheist through and through. However, there is something so strangely appealing about Buddhism that has always intrigued me and piqued an interest.  

So when I was browsing NetGalley looking for a new read - preferably diet/ food based as the chub is real - I stumbled across a book called "Buddahs Diet" By Tara Cottrell & Dan Zigmond. 

Now I was totally convinced that this was the read for me. I love reading about diets (even if I don't follow them) and something that seemed to combine Buddhism with healthy lifestyle sounded really interesting. 

For two nights I sat and read this book and... I loved it. 

Don't get me wrong, I'm not going to convert to Buddhism and become super spiritual, but I can appreciate many of suggestions in the book. For instance the idea of Buddah that we typically see is the fat cheerful guy, however, that isn't actually The Buddah, but instead is one of his Chinese followers (I believe). The real Buddah is actually the skinny version that we less often see- but personally I've always preferred for some reason! 

The main concept of this "diet" is that you reduce the amount of hours you eat to allow your body more time to digest the food, it's actually pretty common sense and there's no restrictions on what you eat, other than to be mindful. The idea is to reduce your eating hours from the usual to 12 hours, then 11, then 10 and eventually the aim is to be eating in a 9 hour window. 

I have been following this 9 hour gap with relative ease (truth be told, I didn't bother slowly reducing the hours as I'm horrific at following plans and tend to go from 0-100 in 3 seconds but that's just me). Although.... I have been waking up at around 10-11am on average as my sleeping pattern has gone to shit with this new lack of routine, so really it's just meant that I make a concerted effort to not eat after 8-9pm, which is pretty easy. 

So far I've managed to lose 3lbs which isn't set the world alight style weight loss, but eh, better than gaining 3lbs right? 

I feel like this post has been a huge ramble but I have a point honest! 

So the reason for the over-exposed photos? Well, the other day I went for a stroll in Dedham with my lovely best mate who agreed to take a couple of photos of me as I felt vaguely confident in my outfit choice that day. I went home and got out the memory card, excited to review the photos of the day, and when I first saw them on my laptop I recoiled in horror. That dress that I felt really nice in, had a tonne of compliments in, made me look huge. 

I've never had great self-confidence and I'm not someone that can proudly shout from the rooftops about body positivity, but in that moment I've never felt worse about myself. 

It made me kick myself up the bum and do something... AGAIN. 

Yes, I know this isn't the first time I've chatted about weight and health on my blog and I'm not going to say this is the last moany self-indulgent post of this nature I will write as heck... I'm a human and I live in a world that's over-saturated with the perfect lives and perfect bodies to match.  

So following some of the simple teachings of "Buddahs Diet" I'm planning to overhaul my eating, curb the cravings and eat mindfully for my body... not my emotions! 

As the book says "Changing a vicious cycle into a virtuous one" 

So take these over-exposed photos that I couldn't bare to correct as a promise from me, to me, to sort out my diet and live a healthier life. Don't think I posted them with ease, as I've been in turmoil over whether to show them or not due to my own humiliation. This post alone for me is a big step. 

The aim of this post was only really to vent some of my weight related frustrations and to share a really really good book. It gave me a kick up the bum, but equally I found it a really comforting and eye-opening read. I highly recommend you hunt for it on either NetGalley where it's currently available to read and review, or when it comes out on sale in September 2016. 

I hope this hasn't been too rambling, as I probably wont proof-read this. I just wanted to keep it as an out pour of thoughts as I think it's important to share the shit parts of life along with the glossy fun of normal blogging. 

What are your thoughts on Buddhism? Would you consider this style of "diet"? 

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this one!

UPDATE: 2 Months No Scales!

I'm quite enjoying writing these update posts so I hope you're enjoying reading them too! 

How am I feeling?

This past month has been a breeze for me. Gone are the days of the first month where I felt tempted to weight myself. Once you've detached yourself away from the scales for long enough the temptation and need to know what that number is slowly diminishes. I've been able to be completely clueless as to what I weight and truly not care. 

I'm thinking that in the next month as my exercise increases (she says hopefully) that I will start to measure my body with a tape measure around the areas that I want to tone and loose weight from. I think this will be a more accurate representation of my achievements rather than weighing myself. 

The Verdict

Today was meant to be my planned weight day but to be honest I have absolutely no desire to do so. I know I've not eaten fantastically recently and I've been ill for the past week so I'm aware that my weight wouldn't be accurate. I may choose to weigh myself next month and If I do I will be sure to share my results. Overall I'm just feeling really happy that I'm not reliant on those scales and I'm at a point where I can value myself regardless of whatever number may show up. 

UPDATE: One Month Without The Scales

As you may already know in January I made it my mission to ditch the scales for the good of my mind and body image. I wrote a post about why here so if you've not read that then go and do that first and then come back...