Week 5 of the Slow Down Diet: Pleasure

It is impossible to live pleasurably without living wisely, well, and justly, and it is impossible to live wisely, well, and justly without living pleasurably.” -Epicurus

Week five is all about pleasure — why it’s so important to enjoy and delight in what you are eating.  First let’s talk a bit about week four — rhythm.

Notes from Week Four

Frankly, I’m losing steam.  I notice my desire for something more tangible than “awareness”, “rhythm”, and “pleasure”.  I want a formula that I don’t have to think about too hard — like week two, focusing on whole foods and minimizing anti-nutrients.  I can get behind that.  But I’m fundamentally resisting paying attention and it feels like a failure.


And I really hate to admit it.


This week, what I did right, was that I managed to pay closer attention to eating less at dinner time and more at lunch and breakfast.  My blood sugar thanked me with more steady energy.  I’m still experiencing ADD when I eat, so I made zero progress on that front (I think I managed, oh, 3 mindful meals??).  I would like to think that in three weeks I will have had some sort of breakthrough with this that will wrap it up nicely, but at this moment, I fear not.


This week, as I focus on pleasure, I would like a resurgence of commitment – to get to the bottom of this weight I’ve put on — without going on a “diet” or punishing myself. Because I cannot stand the thought of going on a traditional diet.  As I’ve mentioned before, if it doesn’t feel like love (true, sustaining, love) I want nothing to do with it.  And traditional diets never feel like love.  At least not to me.

The Power of Pleasure

“Health is inherently a deeply pleasurable experience.  When you eat a food that’s truly healthy for you, the body responds with a big biological “yes”…” -Marc David

Enjoying food and taking pleasure in what we eat is, it seems to me, fundamental to stopping the war we wage with ourselves.


I remember a period of time — one of my thinnest, in fact — when I ate ice cream every day after lunch.  I worked at a bank and I would eat my lunch, take a short nap in the breakroom, and then walk down the street to the ice cream shop for a cone.  It was pure pleasure. I was in my early 20′s and I remember the older women I worked with just shaking their heads in astonishment — they couldn’t believe the napping and the ice cream.  I had never been on a diet at that point in my life and was CERTAIN that these women were all insane for being so intensely focused on counting calories.  I remember thinking to myself if they only ate what their bodies wanted when they were hungry and stopped when satisfied, what would be the big problem?


Uh, yeah. Where did that girl go?


Not too many years after that, when life started getting more stressful I started the cycle of dieting – punishment alternating with indulgence.  Now, it seems I’ve almost forgotten what it feels like to truly celebrate my body and nourishing it.


Back to pleasure.  I’ve come to the realization that I’m best at work and with my family when I am doing the things that I love.  Yes, of course, there are tasks I do that wouldn’t be my preference and there is learning in that, but always, I do these tasks with the caveat, “Someday, this won’t be mine to do.”  And then I give it my all.  I strive to hire and work with people who are in love with what they do as well, because I think it’s so important that people play to their strengths and proclivities– to maximize the pleasure that they get from their choices in life.  Not to mention they just tend to be way better at what they do, because they love it.


But food?  And pleasure?  Good heavens.  It’s been beaten out of us, as women, hasn’t it?  God forbid we eat full-fat ice cream or if we do, we can’t enjoy it because that will definitely lead to hedonism.  Our desires have to be reigned in and controlled, right?


But really, is that true?


I know for me, if I eat too much sweet, fatty food, my body longs for greens, veggies, and brown rice.  I know when I really pay attention and tune in, my body prefers “healthy” foods — yes, I love gelato, but so what? (interesting, I don’t want it every day but man, it is delicious.)  And why not eat gelato if it makes my body sing?  If it doesn’t, then why WOULD I eat it?


I just want to throw off this mantle of “this is okay” and “this is bad” and “oooh, I’m going to get fat just LOOKING at it” or, “I’m going to have to workout for hours to burn this off….”  It doesn’t mean I want to gorge myself, it doesn’t mean I want to be hedonistic.  It does mean I want to honor my body and enjoy the hell out of whatever I decide to eat.


One important piece of evidence that Marc David gives in his book for enjoying whatever you eat is that when we are afraid to eat — when we’re anxious about gaining weight when we eat, we produce more cortisol, which numbs us to pleasure and then we eat more, since we have more difficulty sensing satisfaction.


Fascinating, eh?


So this week, I will continue to eat whole, clean foods, continue to eat slowly and breathe, work to incorporate greater awareness into my meals, tune into the rhythm of my days and my body, and reconnect with the deep pleasures of eating.


Now, I’m going to go get some dark chocolate gelato to start the week off right.

Want the whole story?

Me and the Slow Down Diet
Week 1 of The Slow Down Diet: Breathe
Week 2 of the Slow Down Diet: Quality
Week 3 of the Slow Down Diet: Awake at the Plate
Week 4 of the Slow Down Diet: Rhythm

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