How to lose weight naturally and permanently without exercising and dieting: the third natural way

For many who gain weight due to regular overeating for psychological reasons, I wish to introduce five natural ways to lose weight. If you stumble upon this episode, please also visit the first episode, in which I discussed why we are not our mind and why our regular overeating has nothing to do with our body’s needs but with our identification with the overeating habit of the mind. In this episode, I am going to discuss the third natural way to lose weight; that is, eating what we love and loving what we eat. You may agree that, in most cases, it is not what we eat but our frequent overindulging that causes us to gain weight. This is a good news, for to lose weight and maintain it, we cannot restrict ourselves from the foods we love. Any restriction is an effort and the effort is of the mind. Our mind is created to help us live in this physical world through efforts such as remembering, judging, attaching, resisting, etc. The moment we deprive ourselves of our favorite foods, we are trapped in the effort of the mind and hence also in its overeating habit. Our weight-loss journey will be a short one, for anything requiring effort demands constant exertion and determination which the mind cannot offer. It’s our own experience that our mind ceaselessly debates with itself; for example, we make rules for ourselves today and then find reasons to ignore them tomorrow. In addition, the more we deny ourselves the foods we love, the stronger we crave them. That is why restriction often leads to revengeful binging. The wisdom here is this: if we truly allow ourselves to eat what we love and love what we eat, it is impossible for us to overeat. Let me explain why. First, when we eat what we love without restriction, we know we are the freedom of the moment. The mind cannot function in freedom because it needs bondage or resistance to operate. You may remember that, in any moment you feel free, you feel light and happy. This is because the past unpleasant memories and future worries of the mind are not there. And, when we love what we eat, we give ourselves permission to enjoy what we love wholeheartedly. The mind is always relaxed in its natural quietude when there is heart-felt love. For example, we become thoughtless and do not know what to say when we are deeply touched and feel immense love within. When the mind is silent, gone are its cravings for foods and reasons for overindulging. Second, when we allow our love to flow out to our foods, it is not possible to feel lack, shame, resentment, etc. at the same time. Thus, there is no need to continue eating to escape from our negative emotions. Third, when we love what we are eating, we are present in that moment, not in the overeating habit of the mind. And, when our awareness is not obscured by the noise of the mind, we are attuned to our body and spontaneously operate on its intelligence. We eat when we are hungry, and we stop eating when we are full. Or, since joy and love go hand in hand with contentment and fulfillment, we may find ourselves no longer eating after an adequate portion. Some of us like certain so-called “junk food”. Usually, a small amount of it does not harm our body. And it is very likely that, as we are not ensnared in our mind’s old habits but being the freedom of our own passion in each moment, one day we may find ourselves enjoying some healthier food instead. To summarize, when we eat what we love and love what we eat, we naturally free ourselves from the mind and its overeating conditioning. We then eat only for eating with our senses.