I’ve decided to change my diet, and cut out everything that stresses me out.
This means that anything with caffeine or alcohol in it has to go, and all the B-vitamine robbers are off limits, too (sugar, etc.).
Does anyone here know of any diets specifically geared toward calming people down and restoring their strength and resourcefulness?
I’ve been through a few mentally exhausting years, and want to make a fresh start.
The process of thinking causes psychological stress: can we explore the cause?
The symptom maybe a psychological focus of attention upon a ”desire to eat”, which in turn leads to ”eating when not hungry”, and ”eating more of one thing in a given time than is healthy”. What is the cause of this symptom?
Enjoyment of any activity tends to get translated into the mental image of pleasure, after the feeling of delight has passed. This translation process turns our sensual experience into a neural pattern: this is the process of identification.
Enjoyment is quite natural, but the worship of a lingering image in memory leads to the psychological desire to re-enjoy that pattern, unconnected with any physical need.
Like any mental image (such as brushing ones teeth in the morning), the image of pleasure can become associated with daily routine, to the extent that certain associations will always illicit attention to that mental image of pleasure. That’s why advertisers spend so much money on TV ads.
All foods and drinks are toxic at the wrong dose, including water.
Your body knows when it is hungry and thirsty, as it will grumble.
So the next thing ones psyche opts to try is: "not eating till you get hungry" and "not drinking till you get thirsty". This ”try” thing is a reaction to ones existing habit, so trying is an academic concept to the human mind, and as such it becomes a mental image in conflict with your other habit patterns which you’ve long cultivated. Ones brain tries to strive toward the ideal concept, whilst trying to escape from the vicefull resident habit.
So you’ll no doubt find (or have already found) that whatever method or approach you try, at some point, your vicefull habitual patterns will take over when your concentration is spent for whatever reason. That is why replacing old habits with new habits only works temporarily.
What ever path you try to adopt to change (even the path of ignoring all habits) will eventually fail: why? There is some friction in attempting to conform to an ideal habit, which saps ones energy. It is akin to stretching elastic: the longer your brain attempts to conform to an ideal desire, the more tension grows until your brain has no energy to maintain that stretch any longer. The recoil just sends you back into the reverse of that ideal, the pattern of vice.
So the question arises: is there a state of mind in which habits don’t operate at all (even thought the machinery exists); a state of being which is born only of the bodies natural needs?
Normal human psychological approaches intend to remove unnatural patterns/habits by: 1) changing them into a good habit (creating ideals) 2) attempting to destroy the pattern by attacking our old habits with criticism (self denial) 3) to replace our old habit with another bad habit (sublimation).
All that "trying to change" sustains the habitual pattern in our attention; those approaches are therefore doomed to fail.
So is there a state of mind which ones brain does not attempt to: fulfill, attack, mutate or replace the desire/habit when our attention flows into that neural pattern?
We can watch a sunset, but never give attention to the desire to see one every night: can we be like that with our other enjoyments, detached?
Any effort to achieve detachment is doomed to fail, for detachment is the absence of any mental agitation of any kind. A state of effortlessness cannot be reached by effort.
The question is: can you live with your desires without trying to change them or fulfill them? Can you live with yourself without judging/criticizing or priding/condoning your habits, desires or fears? Can you live with your questions without attempting to synthesize a solution?
January 26th, 2010 at 6:55 pm
Food doesnt stress you out. the way you take life stresses you out. Just take it easy on life and eat less. work more.
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January 26th, 2010 at 7:45 pm
Whenever I am stressed I usually eat something like yogurt.
References :
January 26th, 2010 at 8:18 pm
i quit caffeine and sugar once for an entire yr and i can tell you that it was by far the best i ever felt in my life. i still had a few beers on the weekend. in fact i started it again this very yr.and already feel pretty great. also, think you have to watch out for possible food allergies that might drag you down like dairy and wheat.if there is any foods or drinks that you consume excessively you might consider eliminating or cutting way back on them to see how you feel.
References :
January 26th, 2010 at 8:28 pm
Whole grains are the best way to obtain the B vitamins that your diet has been depleting. That means breads like Eziekiel, or any cracked whole wheat bread. Rye and corn breads are also B vitamin rich. Buy brown rice, instead of white, and whole wheat pasta. Lots of fruits and vegetables, five servings a day, are the complex carbohydrates you need to include in your diet. Salmon, even canned, is an excellent source of protein, and will give you energy,
Green tea, all berries (especially blueberries) are packed with high levels of antioxidants, which will strengthen your immune system. And for a sweetener, I highly recommend stevia, which is an intense sweetener you can add to your tea or coffee, cereals, etc. Stevia is low glycemic, which will help keep your blood sugar at steady levels for hours. And dark chocolate is also another anti-oxident food. Make sure it is about 70% cocoa. The best way to enjoy this chocolate is to suck on it, instead of chewing and swallowing it quickly. Sucking on it allows you to savor the chocolate and is a more enjoyable way to eat it.
Avoid high fructose corn syrup and processed foods, like packaged deli meats. This type of food will put you at risk for certain types of diseases like diabetes.
Adopting this kind of diet will make a real difference in your energy level.
References :
I have been eating this kind of diet for many years. I can go for many hours, even past a meal time, without becoming hungry, because my blood sugar levels remain steady. And when your blood sugar levels remain steady, you have more energy.
January 26th, 2010 at 9:08 pm
You’re certainly right to avoid sugar – not just as a B-vitamin robber, but because it means your blood sugar goes through huge highs and lows, putting pressure on your pancreas/insulin production cycle.
In general, a ‘good’ diet, i.e. one high in real foods, especially fruit and vegetables and low in processed foods of any sort (that includes all the low-fat stuff with additives) is going to be helpful. If you’re not vegetarian, eat real meat and fish, not packaged/processed stuff. If you can source meat that has been home-killed it’s likely to have less adrenaline in the meat – I am not sure of the truth of this, but some people say that the stress hormones produced in the animal by a journey and smelling dead animals means that the stress hormones are absorbed by the human eating the meat. But you do need some good solid protein – if it’s not meat, then fish, eggs, pulses and cheese are essential, as a complement to the fruit and veg.
What is absolutely essential alongside diet is exercise. The ideal is walking – just getting out and walking at a good pace so as to raise your respiration and pulse rates – for about 30 minutes every day. You’d be amazed at how effective this is at reducing stress levels.
I wouldn’t worry over-much about whether you’re getting B vitamins or anything like that. What is becoming increasingly obvious is that eating a good variety of real food will bring in the nutrients you need in a balanced way – much more useful than isolating individual ones. However, you might find a short-term supplement of high quality, with the full range of vitamins and minerals, might be helpful to get you a bit more balanced again.
References :
January 26th, 2010 at 9:42 pm
"It is not what goes into a man’s mouth which defiles him but what comes out"
-Jesus-(allegedly)
http://altmedicine.about.com/od/popularhealthdiets/a/Macrobiotic.htm
http://www.webmd.com/diet/features/macrobiotic-diet
http://www.macrobioticcooking.com/
References :
January 26th, 2010 at 9:55 pm
The process of thinking causes psychological stress: can we explore the cause?
The symptom maybe a psychological focus of attention upon a ”desire to eat”, which in turn leads to ”eating when not hungry”, and ”eating more of one thing in a given time than is healthy”. What is the cause of this symptom?
Enjoyment of any activity tends to get translated into the mental image of pleasure, after the feeling of delight has passed. This translation process turns our sensual experience into a neural pattern: this is the process of identification.
Enjoyment is quite natural, but the worship of a lingering image in memory leads to the psychological desire to re-enjoy that pattern, unconnected with any physical need.
Like any mental image (such as brushing ones teeth in the morning), the image of pleasure can become associated with daily routine, to the extent that certain associations will always illicit attention to that mental image of pleasure. That’s why advertisers spend so much money on TV ads.
All foods and drinks are toxic at the wrong dose, including water.
Your body knows when it is hungry and thirsty, as it will grumble.
So the next thing ones psyche opts to try is: "not eating till you get hungry" and "not drinking till you get thirsty". This ”try” thing is a reaction to ones existing habit, so trying is an academic concept to the human mind, and as such it becomes a mental image in conflict with your other habit patterns which you’ve long cultivated. Ones brain tries to strive toward the ideal concept, whilst trying to escape from the vicefull resident habit.
So you’ll no doubt find (or have already found) that whatever method or approach you try, at some point, your vicefull habitual patterns will take over when your concentration is spent for whatever reason. That is why replacing old habits with new habits only works temporarily.
What ever path you try to adopt to change (even the path of ignoring all habits) will eventually fail: why? There is some friction in attempting to conform to an ideal habit, which saps ones energy. It is akin to stretching elastic: the longer your brain attempts to conform to an ideal desire, the more tension grows until your brain has no energy to maintain that stretch any longer. The recoil just sends you back into the reverse of that ideal, the pattern of vice.
So the question arises: is there a state of mind in which habits don’t operate at all (even thought the machinery exists); a state of being which is born only of the bodies natural needs?
Normal human psychological approaches intend to remove unnatural patterns/habits by: 1) changing them into a good habit (creating ideals) 2) attempting to destroy the pattern by attacking our old habits with criticism (self denial) 3) to replace our old habit with another bad habit (sublimation).
All that "trying to change" sustains the habitual pattern in our attention; those approaches are therefore doomed to fail.
So is there a state of mind which ones brain does not attempt to: fulfill, attack, mutate or replace the desire/habit when our attention flows into that neural pattern?
We can watch a sunset, but never give attention to the desire to see one every night: can we be like that with our other enjoyments, detached?
Any effort to achieve detachment is doomed to fail, for detachment is the absence of any mental agitation of any kind. A state of effortlessness cannot be reached by effort.
The question is: can you live with your desires without trying to change them or fulfill them? Can you live with yourself without judging/criticizing or priding/condoning your habits, desires or fears? Can you live with your questions without attempting to synthesize a solution?
References :