This is where I think it comes from: For 99.9% of human existence (and prior i.e. Neanderthals) we didn’t have enough. We didn’t have enough food, safety, warmth, shelter and certainly control of much of anything. Basically, scarcity was the modus operandi. Back then wealth could be defined as having some or all of that stuff in abundance. So, there is no argument that being wealthy back then was intricately linked to survival and propagation of our species. So, wanting wealth may be in our DNA. So even though a middle-class income will provide for us all the necessities mentioned above our DNA is driving us endlessly to have more, creating an obsession toward wealth and an envy of those who have achieved it. Anyways that’s what I could come up with. But as I said why it exists doesn’t really matter, dealing with it and it’s absurdity is what matters so let’s do that. After all extreme wealth doesn’t make our problems go away it just distracts us from many of them while creating a whole host of new problems.

As mentioned above a modest income is all that’s needed for security. What is a modest income? Well, that’s subjective but it ain’t going to allow you two multimillion dollar homes or more, Rolls Royces, private planes and $5000 per day exclusive vacations multiple times per year, etc…. BUT what a modest income does allow is something the super wealthy cannot buy but so desperately want and is under appreciated in our culture. What a modest income forces us to have is the things that without them leave a great emptiness and disconnection. Let’s have a good look and appreciate the special gift of not having too much so we can end this obsession with wealth.

A modest income allows us to put the focus on family and friends instead of on materialism and accumulating more. It allows us or forces us to live in neighborhoods where kids run up and down the streets, lovers stroll hand in hand, neighbors not only know each other but look out for each other. It supports community. As opposed to walled off mansions with security gates. It allows us the time to talk to the mailman or neighbor, to trust that the people in our life want nothing more from us than our friendship. A modest income allows us to appreciate the little things like a new television or a new coating of paint on our house or a rare visit to a fancy restaurant or family ski vacation. A modest income forces us to do our own gardening and get our hands dirty and connect with the earth. A modest income allows us to be less busy, less employees, less obligations, less stuff to maintain, less drama and less stress! It forces us to deal with who we are and what we have done and to care for what we have, as it doesn’t allow us to buy our way out of situations. It promotes humility instead of arrogance, as our self worth is not measured on how much we have it’s measured on how well we are liked. Is it so crazy to see that after our basic needs are met, money and materialism becomes a distraction from what’s really important and valuable? This is a concept lost in our culture. This doesn’t mean middle-class people don’t have problems. It means they can deal with their problems and overcome them instead of distracting themselves with a busier more materialistic life or paying for those problems to be gone.

Absurd wealth is like stress on steroids not only because the more you have the more you have to take care of, and the more you have the more people want and expect from you, and the more you have the less honest the people in your life will be. But also, the more you have the greater the illusion that you are in control, the more attached you become to being in control. This means the more you suffer when you are confronted with situations you can’t control. These are issues that are either non-existent or minimal to someone of modest income.

Lastly, I’d like to add here how when I was a young boy I used to idolize and desire the big muscles of a bodybuilder. I learned through my culture this type of man was respected. I used to feel like the more muscles the better and bodybuilders were the epitome of masculinity. Now that I am less influence by my cultural perspective I can see more clearly and I understand what real strength is as well as what real health and wellness are. Now I look at those type of bodies as grotesque almost like a deformation of the human body completely unnatural. That’s kind of the way I feel about wealth. Up to a certain point wealth is important but beyond that it becomes grotesque! I just read a story of a super rich person who spent $500 million on a new yacht and it’s so big it requires a $75 million second yacht as a support ship to travel with it wherever it goes. For me this is beyond absurd it’s grotesque!

This all may seem like an essay attacking the rich but that’s inaccurate. This is an essay attacking materialism. Materialism is not a disease of the rich it’s a disease of our culture. It’s just that if you’re rich the disease has a greater chance of metastasizing. The goal of this essay was to help people realize what they have is most likely enough and having more is not necessarily more fulfilling and most likely more detrimental. I actually heard a study a long time back that says after we have enough money to lift us from poverty that money contributes to happiness nothing.

sincerely, bryan

The post The Absurdity of Wealth appeared first on Power Yoga.

It’s not uncommon for marketers to implement psychological tactics to make perspective customers feel so inadequate about themselves they have an urge to purchase their products. Trying to convince them that there is something wrong with them or something wrong with what they are experiencing and what’s being sold will make everything better or fix the problem.

Capitalizing on peoples’ fears, insecurities and desires. Using sex, youthfulness, happiness and even particular colors that arouse feelings and emotions that are pleasant or unpleasant depending on whether they want to push you towards something or away from something. With the objective being the customer buying the product or service being marketed. Morals and ethics are not a consideration other than to not be obvious about the fact that morals and ethics are not a consideration. The long-term harm, psychological harm, society to harm and planetary harm is not a consideration it’s someone else’s problem. Like a horse with blinders on there is only one objective which is the consumer purchasing their product or service. Or I guess you could simplify it by saying “making money”. As a marketer there is not a greater success than getting people to purchase something they didn’t need.

The purpose of this article is to bring awareness to what’s happening so people have a choice, so people can see that businesses and corporations are trying to manipulate us and they’re doing this out of fear and greed. They don’t care if they hurt us, they don’t care about the health and vibrancy of our people, our culture and our planet. They only care about money because they’ve been brainwashed by the marketing that they have been subjected to that has them convinced that happiness and success lies within money and materialism instead of integrity, morality, ethics, family and community. I wrote this article not only so people could see that they are being manipulated but also that they could see the harm and when they go to advertise and market their own businesses that they are aware of the consequences to their actions so to hopefully choose a more benevolent approach to marketing.

sincerely, bryan

The post The Absurdity of Marketing appeared first on Power Yoga.

Measuring progress is incredibly detrimental to your health as you have nothing rational to
measure against as this moment is unique, and your experience is being influenced by so many
tangible and intangible things. To try to do as much as you did the last time or to try to do more
or even to get happy or excited when you notice you can do more is just taking you down the
wrong path. Because some days you shouldn’t do more you should do less and forcing yourself
to do more is damaging! Ultimately you will do less as you age and change and dealing with that
will be much more difficult the more attached you are to your physical prowess.
This doesn’t mean that you won’t get stronger or more flexible or have more endurance then
previously (at least initially) as you exercise, it just means that you don’t get attached to that and
you realize that that’s not important for health. What’s important is that you’re activating your
body.  This activation is a natural by-product of your participation in any exercise or activity. See
the quantity of your action is not important and should only be a by-product of the quality of
your action. In other words, it doesn’t matter how much you do what matters is that you do the
right amount. I like to say it's not the quantity of the touch it's the quality of the touch.
Everything that’s good for you becomes harmful when it’s done in excess (except love).
  
This right amount is always changing as your body is incessantly changing. Just like your mind
has moods so does your body. Sometimes you feel strong and sometimes weak, sometimes you
feel loose and sometimes tight, sometimes you’re energetic and sometimes lethargic. Your body
is responding to a whole host of obvious and not so obvious conditions. Our actions should
reflect our mood just as our actions take into consideration the mood of those around you. What
makes a workout healing is our ability to tune into our experience (what we are feeling) and
decide what is appropriate. Not worrying about how much we are doing or how much we did last
time or how much you want to do, mindlessly pushing your body to a greater and greater degree
in the name of health, simply to fulfill some misguided desire that more is better! Ultimately this
pushing takes an adverse toll on our bodies. After all the universal law states “the harder you are
on anything the faster you destroy it”. This is why walking is considered the healthiest exercise.
   
We have been conditioned to want more stuff! Whether it’s food, money, beauty, youth, strength,
flexibility, cardio, stamina, friends, likes, comments, cars, houses, adoration, etc…
This is the rat race internalized. It’s like we are all running around trying to fill a hole within us
that’s not there, we have just been told it’s there so much we believe them.
   
Instead of trying to make gains, how about trying to care for oneself? If you didn’t know the only
way you can care for anything is to touch it gently.

The post The Absurdity of Measuring Gains appeared first on Power Yoga.

You could say Modern advancements (technology) are taking human ignorance and malfeasance to new heights. Generally speaking, prior to the industrial and then digital age stress levels, toxicity, social discord, etc. were barely issues or non-issues. Yet it would be all too convenient and lazy to blame science and technology. They are not at fault they are just simply a catalyst. We need to blame ourselves!

A knife can heal or hurt depending on how it’s used! The knife is simply a tool subject to the quality of mind attached to the hand that wields the knife. Technology is the knife, it’s simply a tool. We can benefit from technology or be harmed depending on the ratio of benevolence/malevolence in the mind wielding the technology.

A benevolent mind state is glaringly absent in school curriculum where the emphasis is on intellectual prowess. Yet it was taught by word and example by all great beings who all basically said the same thing which is to “develop the benevolent qualities of our mind”. This is all too obviously important when noticing how much these benevolent qualities are missing throughout humankind and the current problems and devastation that its absence has produced.

Anyone who thinks modern advancements have made life easier is blind. Honestly, it’s impossible to make life easier but that’s another article. Modern achievements ceased making life easier about a century or so ago. Yet modern achievements are not responsible for the current situation. Modern achievements are simply the knife. The cause of our current situation is the same cause that has always created prolific suffering throughout humanity which is the ratio of benevolence/malevolence within our mind state. Due to our over emphasis and even worship of intellectual prowess and our almost total absence of societal emphasis on ethical and moral prowess we get the state of things as they are today.

I know we have been told so often that we don’t even question the idea of material wealth producing contentment, yet after you have enough to lift you from poverty it’s not true! Our true desire which lies behind all other desires is peace and contentment. This peace and contentment which is behind all human desires can only come from one place. Unsurprisingly this place is the place emphasized by all great beings. We all know this is true, which is why we consider all great beings to be great! i.e., Jesus, buddha, Gandhi, Mandela, Mother Teresa, etc. Wouldn’t it be weird to put Bill Gates and Elon Musk in this category???

We need to be aware that the fulfillment of our deepest desire will not be produced by technology and materialism. This awareness will be the impetus of developing the strength and making the effort necessary to step out of this swift cultural current. A current quickly turning into white water rapids heading towards the waterfall of devastation to our health and ecosystem. With enough of us we can create a new current heading to true prosperity which is peace and harmony through a benevolent mind-state and cultural emphasis.

Remember all these great beings stepped out of the swift current of their cultures to remind us of the path to our true desire. They set the example and implored us to do the same. This is the objective of Power Yoga and the path of yoga!

Sincerely,
bk

PS Even Albert Einstein commonly considered to be one of the greatest intellects to ever walk on planet earth considered benevolent qualities to be the pinnacle of human achievement!

The post The Absurdity of Humanity – Part 3 appeared first on Power Yoga.

So, what are those problems?
War
Crime
Disease
Poverty
Pollution (toxicity)
Loneliness
Ignorance

What are the causes of these problems?
War – Greed, Fear
Crime – Greed, Poverty
Disease – Stress, Fear, & Toxicity
Poverty – Greed, Fear
Pollution -Greed, fear
Loneliness – Technology, Fear
Ignorance – Ignorance

Some of our problems are new to humanity like pollution, loneliness, and mass widespread physical and mental disease.
What is the solution? One thing the solution isn’t is technology. Technology is the same as fire. It is a tool that can be harmful or helpful depending on the mental state of the person using it. For example, social media is a technological wonder that tends to be incredibly harmful, and many new chemicals seem to be incredibly toxic. Yet lasers and robotics can facilitate lifesaving medical procedures. Technology, like many other tools, can be used for good or harm. Until, within our minds benevolent qualities supersede malevolent qualities, humanity will not be able to overcome its issues and new discoveries will have a malevolent effect.

Did you notice that all great beings basically said the same thing which is “develop the benevolent qualities of your mind”? Did you notice Jesus said do not judge and Buddha taught moderation and Mother Theresa compassion, Martin Luther King equality and Gandhi nonviolence? It seems we put these people on a pedestal, but we discard their message within our mind state on a moment-to-moment basis. In other words, it matters where your mind is dwelling right now. It doesn’t help to do your morning prayers and then spend your day letting your mind run wild or meditating in the morning or evening yet outside of meditation allows your mind to run wild. Malevolent and benevolent mental qualities are like muscles. As you use them, they develop if you don’t use them, they atrophy. The reason the goal of yoga is enlightenment or awareness is because we need to be incessantly aware of where our mind is dwelling to make sure we are not dwelling, indulging, and strengthening a mind state that exacerbates our issues and problems.

Gandhi said “be the change that you’d like to see” because it can’t shift in the world if it doesn’t shift within me. Now quantum physics has discovered the law of attraction which means like attracts like this means that we draw to us that of which we are. So, if we want to see more benevolence in our own lives and experiences, we must develop more benevolence within ourselves. It’s kind of like your reality reflects your mind state. And humanity’s reality reflects where most of humanity’s minds dwell. In other words, we can’t make the problems in this world go away until the problems in our mind go away. Notice as the light shines from all directions the shadow disappears. One crazy revelation that our medical community is having is the discovery that most of the physical diseases are coming from our mind state (mental stress). So even on the most basic personal level of physical health cultivating a benevolent mind state is a prerequisite for physical well-being and so much more :-).

As more and more people embrace a benevolent mentality the cultural issues stemming from a malevolent mind state start to weaken and disintegrate. This is why the great ones did not emphasize mathematics or science or athletics, philosophy, or wealth. All the great ones emphasized one thing, a benevolent mind state. The crazy thing is this is the one thing that is not taught in schools. Sure, we are expected to be moral and ethical and to some small degree that may be emphasized in school curriculums. Yet it is not emphasized enough and there is no emphasis on the moment to moment place our minds are dwelling. Again, this is why the emphasis in yoga is awareness or enlightenment. The yogis want you to be aware of where your mind is dwelling this way you can decide whether your mind is dwelling in a malevolent or benevolent place. Without this awareness you have no choice. Without choice the mind will naturally dwell in a malevolent place because that will be the learned behavior it acquires from our culture.
Spending time in meditation is spending time cultivating awareness and as that awareness is cultivated it starts to spread throughout every moment of one’s life. This awareness is the prerequisite to keeping our mind in a benevolent place and the impetus for healing.

See I told you it’s simple even though it’s not easy. Although as more and more of us attempt to do this it does become easier as each one of us get caught in the slipstream of our community’s benevolent mentality :-).

Sincerely,
bk

The post The Absurdity of Humanity – Part 4 appeared first on Power Yoga.

An actor may have comedic talent and laughter can be very healthy, yet the performance you are laughing about is not indicative of the person that is making you laugh. After all, criminals can have comedic talents. Whatever career you would deem most important to society’s well-being it certainly isn’t going to be an actor, singer, politician, or new-age industrialist. It seems our values are misplaced, and it signifies a broader societal sickness.

Because celebrities have an outsized influence on our culture and since 99% of the celebrities the media focuses on rarely display spiritual depth or moral character, they contribute to a society that’s lacking spiritual depth and moral character. This is to be expected as the entertainment industry is simply a reflection of our culture but still, why should celebrities be admired or privileged?

There are Gandhi’s and Mother Theresa’s and Martin Luther King’s living among us, but they are not getting the attention that a Kardashian gets. It’s true that usually celebrities are seeking attention and these people are not, but why are we giving our attention to them? If we want our young men to become true gentlemen, wouldn’t we want to focus on people who display gentlemen’s qualities? If we want our young women to feel beautiful from the inside out, wouldn’t we want women with all different types of faces and figures loved and deemed beautiful, without the need for cosmetics, plastic surgery, cleavage, promiscuity, or youthful appearances? If we want a society that admires morality, ethical behavior, integrity, dignity, and compassion, shouldn’t those things be demonstrated more often in the movies, shows, and characters that children are watching as opposed to the Machismo, vanity, violence, betrayal, deceit, jealousy, materialism and sexuality etc…?

What’s not befuddling is what has become of us and our culture. The need men have to be dominant physically, financially, and sexually at all costs in order to feel successful and the confusion and self-distain young girls suffer from pertaining to their bodies, beauty, and self-worth. We have become so superficial, lazy, selfish, materialistic, and completely gluttonous! We measure success on money and fame, we’ve become numb to societal ills and completely disconnected from nature as our priorities are elsewhere. Meanwhile, our ship is f**king sinking and few can be bothered!

People should be respected for their dedication to their craft and hard work no doubt. People should be admired and followed because of their contribution to the well-being of their communities! Only the young, old, and sick should be privileged.

How we truly become successful is by helping others! Should a doctor be admired, who will not even see you if you can’t afford to pay them for that office visit? Sure, the doctor worked hard to become a doctor so is hard work enough? Hard work doesn’t require compassion or integrity. I remember reading that for the Native Americans success was measured on the number of horses a tribe member had which required great effort but the admiration was measured on the amount of horses one gives away which requires love and compassion.

In this world the best seats are saved for the rich and famous, they also don’t have to wait in lines. F**k that! In my studio, all are treated equally because in my eyes all are equal and the celebrities that come to my studio understand and appreciate that!

sincerely, bryan

The post The Absurdity of Celebrity appeared first on Power Yoga.

Solution: The solution to these problems has been given to us through yogic teachings as well as the teachings and examples of all great beings who have come to this planet to uplift humanity.

 What do the teachings of yoga and the teachings and examples of all great beings have in common? Each one emphasizes the development of benevolent qualities and the eradication of malevolent qualities. For example, Yoga teaches ahimsa, which means nonviolence, and states the goal of yoga is to quiet one’s mind, which is the opposite of mental stress which according to our medical community is responsible for up to 95% of all physical disease. Yoga also emphasizes non-attachment understanding that the law of our lives is called change so the more one is attached to anything the more one will suffer (stress) when the thing to which they are attached, changes. Jesus Christ taught us to not judge, Buddha taught us moderation, Mother Teresa showed us an example of compassion, Gandhi taught nonviolence, and Martin Luther King equality. None of them emphasized riches or materialism, fame, beauty, or any type of physical prowess. It seems like we honor these great beings in word, we make statues out of their likeness but we discard their message!

The post The Absurdity of The Woke-ism appeared first on Power Yoga.

In my culture health is constantly associated with an aesthetically pleasing body. For women, this means a slim and preferably hourglass figure and for men a V shape with obvious and hopefully striking muscularity. The body of an athlete is often associated with health (yet has nothing to do with health). Walking will not get me that body or into that outfit two sizes too small and walking will not grow my bicep bigger than my head so it looks like I can crush people with my bare hands, so what is the benefit of walking? Walking is not cardio, it’s not dynamic and it doesn’t produce any sweat. There’s no exhaustion or fatigue or even much of a challenge, what the heck? How will I measure my progress? My culture taught me “no pain no gain” and “more is better” and progress means more! Walking offers none of that! If I were to embrace the benefits of walking I would need to be more dominated by my wisdom than my vanity and there is nowhere in my culture that supports that! 

 It’s been said there is not an opinion you can have that is yours. Our opinions and judgments come from our parents, media and culture. Like most everything else my opinions and ideas about health and fitness have been shaped by all that I’ve witnessed. As a matter of fact, modern psychology states the more one sees something, the more one believes it even if it is false and absurd. So, in the case of health, my ideas and opinions have been programmed into me by my culture. Unfortunately, due to the capitalist nature of my culture, my culture does not always have my best interest at heart. Even when my culture does have my best interest at heart, it can make mistakes. A culture is simply a sum of its parts and those parts are evolving incessantly learning and growing as more information is acquired.

 Maybe these cultural messages have been well meaning but they are partially if not totally wrong! Let’s have a look: We’ve been told “no pain no gain”. Have you considered that pain is your body asking you (in the language of sensation) to please stop? Maybe we should have been told “no pain no injury”! We have been told “more is better.” This is probably why my culture leads the world in destroying the world. Have you considered “more” is unsustainable and is also the same as “not enough” as they are both extremes? How about instead of “more” we look for the “right amount” which actually could be less and certainly is personal. The right amount will always be personal as our bodies are a unique by-product of our genetic lineage and life experiences. Have you considered that “progress” is made not by acquiring more but by discovering the “right amount” which will always be changing according to the multiplicity of things that are affecting us.

The benefits of walking are it doesn’t satiate our vanity, it satiates our body. Walking is not sitting doing nothing and it’s not beating ourselves up running. It is a moderate and gentle activity. Have you noticed the universal law that states “the harder you are on anything the faster you destroy it”? All healthy relationships thrive within gentleness including the relationship we have with our bodies.

It’s easy to get excited about the latest and greatest trends, from Cross training to CrossFit to Circuit training to high-intensity interval training to ultramarathons to triathlons to powerlifting. But at the end of the day, regular brisk walking gets you most, if not all of the way there—“there” meaning a long and healthy life. This is the main conclusion from the June volume of the prestigious British Journal of Sports Medicine (BJSM), a special edition dedicated exclusively to walking.

Another study, published earlier this year in the American Journal of Preventative Medicine, examined nearly 140,000 men and women in the United States and came to the same conclusion of the benefits of walking. Engaging in at least 150 minutes per week of brisk walking was linked to a 20 percent reduction in all-cause mortality. 

Thanks for reading! Check out the other articles in our Absurdity Series.

The post The Absurdity of Walking appeared first on Power Yoga.

 Food as Comfort, Not Fuel 

What got me thinking about this was when I recently stopped into a trendy new gourmet health-conscious pizzeria that just opened on the main street of the town I live in. It was lunchtime and I was out with my five-year-old kid on a bike ride and he was hungry. The thick fresh doughy pizzas on display were a feast for my eyes and had me drooling. They also had fresh bakery items including an all-time favorite of mine, a big fat doughy German salted pretzel with other sumptuous baked goods beautifully displayed in a shelved glass case on the counter. It all looked so yummy I don’t know which I should choose. The Pretzel, or the doughnut looking thing with poppy seeds, or the twisted pastry with pink frosting? I think I will get one or maybe two slices of pizza for now and the pretzel for later and still I will need to come back to try the other stuff. This would have been my mentality a few years back. I didn’t purchase anything for me and unless I visit the restaurant in the early evening when I eat my only daily meal, I probably will not get to sample any of these. Not that there would be anything wrong with having a meal here, it’s just that my fridge is stocked with food from my latest excursion to the farmers market and I need to prepare all that food soon while it is still fresh. Besides, I have grown to love cooking and preparing my own meals and those for my family. Even so, resisting the pizza and that bakery case full of mouthwatering items was quite challenging. It’s meant to be challenging because the restaurant wants me to buy something! How else will they pay their rent? This goes for all food purveyors and what’s done to get us to buy their food gets more and more alluring and considering eating is human’s most basic instinct most of us succumb. Thus, the obesity epidemic and most of us are overweight. People are not just using food for nourishment they are using it for comfort. They are using it to “feel good” and to temporarily distract them from their problems. Food is being used like a drug. This is another topic within this same vein.

Quality and Quantity 

The quantity of food humans eat is a major health issue, possibly only 2nd to stress and just ahead of food quality (additives, GMOs, other manipulations, and the simple fact that some food isn’t even food, i.e., Twinkies and such). The combination of quantity of food available combined with the seeming desperate need for seed companies, farmers, food distributors, restaurants, bakeries, supermarkets, and other food purveyors to make money by getting us to purchase their product creates a sick food culture. Sick not only in the sense of “too much”, but sick in the sense of unethical and harmful and the psychological tactics used by the food industry to manipulate us into buying (and eating) their products. They use psychological tactics to manipulate us into desiring their product. All this makes things much more difficult to EAT LESS!  

  We need to change our consumption tendencies, habits, and rituals. We need to eat less. What we really need is to spend more time hungry. There is plenty of science on this and this is the idea behind intermittent fasting. I have read more than one study that shows the calorie restriction diets the subjects were put on lived 30% longer and had 80% less age-related disease. Those numbers really blew me away! There are some other cool and positive things I’d like to share with you about being hungry. I didn’t say starving or famished so don’t be afraid of this.

 The quality of our life, which means the enjoyment of our health, relationships, careers, adventures, arts, hobbies, passions, pastimes, etc…do not involve eating. Okay. You may say cooking is your passion and the conversations around the dinner table are fulfilling. I get that yet we can still have these things! The only time eating is truly important to us is when we need to eat, and when you do need to eat you can have all that and you can eat whatever you want! So let us not confuse eating less with any type of detraction of the qualities that make our life meaningful. 

Is Eating Less a Solution?

In other words, eating less will not lessen the qualities that enhance our lives so don’t be afraid of this concept. Believe it or not this is about enriching and enhancing our lives. This is not about torture, suffering, denial, and misery. As we get into this, you will see how eating less actually enhances life. You will have more time which is our most valuable asset, more energy, more health, and you will save loads of money. You will be happier, and you can eat whatever you want, and you will enjoy it more than you ever had. But like everything in life, there is a price to pay for all this. This price is a price everyone can afford yet it truly helps at least initially to have a support system. It’s kind of like the healthiest exercise is walking which only requires a little time and energy and is even enjoyable; yet, in order to walk, it helps to have a supporting team who carves and maintains the trails or builds and maintains the roads or how about a friend who encourages you to walk with them. 

  The biggest problem with eating less is we don’t have that supporting team! Our culture doesn’t support this concept, doesn’t want to acknowledge this concept, and makes almost every effort to promote the antithesis to this concept. Two reasons for this: Firstly, eating less involves initial discomfort as change usually does and we are not that good at discomfort even though everything in our lives meaningful requires discomfort and effort, i.e., marriage, children, education, work even yoga and meditation. Secondly, eating less will also cost the food industry a lot of money so they would not be supportive of that. Without support almost every endeavor is more difficult.

What is the advice you would give to a dear friend who drinks too much? Would it be: Drink less? Would that advice create some initial discomfort? That discomfort is called withdrawal symptoms which are temporary. This is a similar discomfort yet probably much less intense as we change our eating habits. During this time having that support system or team is very helpful. This initial discomfort is the price you pay for a lifetime of more health, energy, clarity, and strength!

My Journey with Food 

I want to share with you a personal experience. Before I do, please know this: The caloric intake that’s working best for ME is not a prescription for YOU! You may want to go from 3 meals a day plus snacking to simply removing the snacking. You may want to go from 3 meals a day and snacking to 2 meals per day and snacking. You may want to go from 3 meals a day to 2 meals and no snacking, etc…Eating less can look endless in different ways. So don’t compare me as a male at the age of 56 expending the energy that I expend daily doing the work and activities I happen to do (right now) with the unique metabolism I have, I have found what works for ME. If I get older or expend more energy or maybe less energy my diet may shift somewhat. We all need to figure out what works best for us. 

 The other day I was taking a shower and I felt an emptiness or hollowness in my stomach. It wasn’t hunger pains, but my brain was interpreting it as such, and this is certainly when I would head to the kitchen and get me some food. I looked down at my belly and it was flat which felt good. Yet much more than that I felt physically and mentally great. I felt great because I felt energetic, alert, I felt a lightness and ease within my body I hadn’t felt for a long time, I even felt stronger. Mostly I felt empowered! This empowerment was also psychological as I was not being dominated and controlled anymore, I was making decisions instead of addictions and habit patterns making decisions for me. I was observing the emptiness, but I was not reacting to it. I don’t know if I am articulating this correctly and I’m not sure if you all who are reading this understand what I’m saying because it’s hard for me to articulate this sense of well-being.

The skeletal issues I’ve been having in my lower back, hips, and knees which are a result of a lifetime of physical abuse have decreased tremendously. I’m in much less pain. When I decided to go from the two meals per day which I had been doing for years to one meal per day and no snacking I lost 26 lbs. I went from 180 lbs. to 154 lbs. (my high school weight) where I leveled off. Not sure when the last time you lifted a 25-30 pound dumbbell but it’s heavy!  That’s a lot less weight my skeleton needs to support and my muscles need to drag around. I’m also spending much less time in the burdensome digestion process which takes lots of energy. All this is leaving me feeling much lighter and more energetic which with a 5-year-old kid at my age of 56 has been great.

What I’ve Learned From Reducing my Food Intake

I am about to write as if all our bodies are the same which they’re not, yet we are all similar in many ways and I’m assuming in these ways we are similar. 

1. Plain and simple: initially I felt hungry when reducing meals! Although it wasn’t that I needed food. Our bodies are creatures of habit. If you eat at a certain time every day the body becomes accustomed to eating at that time. It will expect food. The stomach may even growl a little letting you know it’s time to eat. This doesn’t mean you need food, it means your body wants food. The longer you ignore the growling the louder and more frequent the growls become. The feelings of hunger will grow stronger and initially they are hard to resist. These are the withdrawal symptoms I had mentioned earlier. I am in the toughest part of this process where support and fortitude will help. I am someone who doesn’t mind discomfort if it’s for a valid objective. This persisted for about one month at which point the intensity of the hunger sensations began to decrease and I was more comfortably able to make it until my chosen mealtime. I made it more difficult for myself as my chosen mealtime was dinner at about 6:00pm. Things would have been easier for me and more optimal if my chosen mealtime would’ve been midday. The length of my waking state broke up with a meal midway instead of waiting all the way until close to bedtime. I go to bed around 9:00pm and wake up around 5:00am. The reason I waited until dinner to eat was because I wanted to eat dinner with my family. This is the time we are all together and it’s usually a delicious and nutritious meal cooked by yours truly. Eventually as my body became accustomed to this schedule, I was able to make it to 6:00pm more easily. 
2.  I noticed I was more irritable as I became hungrier. This is common as irritability and hunger go hand in hand, but this also dissipated after the first month or so as my body adjusted to my new schedule.
3. Overeating. This would have not been such an issue if I would have taken my one meal midday. Yet by the time I got to dinner I was so hungry I overate. This issue was obvious to me, and it took about another month or so for me to stop eating so much and so fast. One thing that helped me here was either taking a sip of my drink in between each bite and/or putting my fork down in between each bite and not picking my fork up again until I had chewed and swallowed my food. This gave my body a chance to register how full I felt before I overate. When eating less, the stomach will shrink slightly and you will become full faster.

 Nowadays I feel great throughout the day and although I am hungry by dinner, I can more easily and patiently wait for dinner, and I don’t feel the rush to stuff food down my throat. Throughout the day I am aware of the emptiness in my stomach, but I don’t react to it and as I said earlier, I feel light, strong, crystal clear, energized and empowered. I enjoy the one meal I eat more than I have ever enjoyed eating. I also enjoy cooking more than ever before. Because I am eating only one meal per day, I try to make that meal as nutritious as possible because obviously along with taking in less food I am taking in less nutrients. I also supplement my diet with blue-green algae tablets for an added kick of nourishment.

 I mentioned earlier that there is a price to pay, and the above-mentioned issues was that price. Now that I’ve paid the price, I just enjoy the dividends of my investment in myself by feeling amazing and I spend 60% less money on food! 

Nowadays when walking through the bakery section of the supermarket or maybe it’s the deli and I see all that beautiful looking food with my stomach so empty I still feel the desire to eat that stuff and my mind will try to convince me that I shouldn’t have to deny myself. I realize this is exactly what the supermarket and food purveyors want. They want me to buy and eat their food. Yet it has become much easier for me to not react to this desire. None of this would be an issue if we didn’t see so much food, such beautiful food, food everywhere! Our relationship with food has become sick and unnatural.  

Lastly, Since my only meal per day is dinner it would seem I cannot eat my favorite meal of the day which is breakfast. Breakfast is not my favorite meal because of the time that I eat it, it’s my favorite meal because of what I eat. I love my bacon/sausage, eggs, and hash browns. So, now and then, that’s what I eat for dinner and it’s just as delicious as ever

I wish for all of you the strength and support needed to care for yourself optimally! If you’d like us to support you, check out poweryoga.com‘s “Weight Loss and Wellness Program ”, a 5 week kick start into the world of wellness.

Sincerely, Bryan Kest

The post The Absurdity of Food & The Journey of Reducing My Food Intake appeared first on Power Yoga.