Stage 1: Three small changes

 Small change #1

Before any food is cooked or eaten or anything else is had to drink, have yourself some water. It can be straight from the tap, room temperature, stirred or sunned, distilled, purified or spring water. Not flavored, unless you want to switch to lemon water or a beneficial tea after you have some straight up water that is not cold.  Only have it cold, if you can't find it any other way and you have no way to heat it. Then, hold it in your mouth a little longer to let it warm before swallowing. You can swish it around. 

This step should begin your day, about 15 minutes or so after you get out of b ed. Before grooming, including before brushing your teeth. You do not gulp, swill, chug or sip your water. You take it in as a drink which is vital to your health. There is no specific amount to aim for, except as much as you think you can handle that works toward the majority of what you are going to need for the day. If you get it wrong, your body will tell you and you can do better the next day.

The exceptions to this rule is if you are too ill in the morning or if you are fasting. 

Small change #2

Eat fruit before you eat anything else. It can be canned, fresh, frozen, baked or heated on the stove top if desired.  Make it only fruit. If you buy canned, buy the kind that is in water or in its own juice. If it is in syrup, rinse the syrup off. It does not have to be a full meal, but it can be.  You can have more than one kind of fruit. If you have bananas, dates, figs, durian or anything else that is not a juicy fruit, eat it as the last part of the fruit you will have before eating anything else.. If you have melon, eat it before any other fruit. Preferably, don't mix fruits.

Small change # 3: 

Begin the practice of eating in a more mindful manner. You may hear mindful eating spoken of in many ways, some of which sound like a mystic voyage. It needn't be any such thing. Mindful eating is about getting to know yourself better and feel more at home in your own skin, being aware of where your food has come from and how it has been prepared and taking the time to really enjoy what you are eating. Good food, like good drink, is a joy to plan out, shop for, prepare and savor, whether alone or with friends or family. 

Ask yourself, when you feel drawn to eating, why you want to or are eating. "Am I hungry?" , "Am I tired?" , "Do I feel pressured to eat as much as everyone else?" , "Am I eating just to make sure I get my share?" "Why am I eating this, when I know it actually makes me ill to do so?" Those are all questions you might ask yourself. 

Eating more mindfully, or Mindful Eating if you prefer, is a practice by which to learn to think more of your needs versus your possible impulse-driven, fear-based or possibly brainwashed into politeness that often supersedes common sense and health needs.

It is not just for people who feel they need to or want to lose weight, who know from doctors that they are outside the usual healthful norms of people of their gender and height. It can also be for people who are told they are too thin or are in danger as a result. In that case, at least some of the questions are different. Maybe. They may be more centered around, "Why don't I want to eat?"  "Why do other people see me as different than I see me?"  "Why do I see myself as different than other people see me?"  "Is it a good idea to have people in my life that shame me for having the ability to store fat, like every other human being has?"  "If I am pregnant, why should I stay the same weight as when I am not pregnant when the baby and placenta weigh something and it is easier to get bloated?" 
 
There are probably times when someone is going to need to ask themself every question I listened and probably more than that. For instance, "Why do I go to lunch with this person when they make me feel ashamed to eat?"  "Why am I ordering out when I have a nice kitchen and food that can be prepared at home?  "Why am I here, paying for the meals of people who are only here because I am paying for their meal?"  "Why am I afraid to be me?"   "What is wrong with being different and not always going to the same place to take in the same empty calories?"   "What is something I would enjoy spending my money on more, which would be fun and different, instead of always making my pleasures food based?" 

When you do eat or drink, pray in thankfulness for the food you have. Even if it is not your favorite food, you have it and it is better than not having food. Appreciate the one who created food and appetite.  If you are not ready to do that, then at least appreciate the natural things that occur that cause food to be and the workers who helped get it to market and into your home. Appreciate the person who went shopping, who paid for the food, who prepared the food or the ambience of the place and time in which the meal will be eaten. Appreciate the food. 

Appreciate the food so much that you take it in with your eyes. Smell it. Be sure and wash your hands, because: touch it. That's right. Whenever possible, take a little piece up with your fingertips and feel the texture. If it is appropriate, hold it in the palm of your hand and admire it.  I mean, don't freak your boss out at a company dinner or make your first date with a stranger into an event that's going to have them thinking you are sexually fond of pasta, but, within reason, touch the food. 

How? If it is not appropriate to hold with your fingers or cup in the palm of your hand or roll with your fingertips, it still might be possible to at least surreptitiously touch your tongue against it before taking more into your mouth, such as when you are eating a piece of fruit and have taken the first bite and the flesh that is exposed looks all colorful and sweet and smooth. It is almost always appropriate to simply take a very small bite of food, such as just part of a strand of pasta or pulling a little piece of pepperoni off the pizza and eating it separate; from a piece on your own plate, of course. 

Take small pieces of easily separated ingredients out with your fork or spoon and savor them individually. Taste each bite as thoroughly as possible, as often as time allows. Chew it well and if you don't need to chew it, at least swirl it so that every taste bud you have can understand what is being taken in. Let your tongue have the time to calculate the enzymes your body will need to make to harvest the nutrition from your meals. 

All that, in the last paragraph, is vital for a few reasons, some of which have already been expressed. One big one which has not been expressed is that it helps you begin to really appreciate the difference between a homemade treat made by actually putting together a small list of known ingredients versus buying a box or plastic-wrapped tray of what seems to be a similar treat, but which has many chemicals and hyper-processed foods in its ingredients list. If you slow down and really taste what you are eating, you begin to appreciate the natural foods and simpler meal more. 

Another is that you will begin to notice more how your body responds to different foods, especially when you take the time to enjoy one or a few ingredients at a time. This may bring on a host of changes that are based on your own findings.

You may find yourself considering the price of organic over GMO foods and realizing that because organic foods give you so much more pep in your step, so that you can eat so much less of them for that price, that it is worth paying it.

You may find that you are having reactions to certain foods or food combinations that cause rashes or other irritations.

You may find that you do not, after all, hate a food that you thought you did, but you do hate eating it with some other foods; and that food combining charts make sense.

You may find that you love a certain person's signature dish, but do not love eating it with them or paying the exorbitant price to order it and decide to learn to cook it for yourself. 

You might find out you love to cook and that there are so many healthful ways to cook variations of foods that might not be healthful for you in the usual form that you have had them. 

That's it.  Do these three things and, as a result, enjoy eating and not eating, and probably life in general, more than you did without them.  When you are ready, move on to Stage Two. 
 
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NOTICE: Everything written here, on this page, in this blog for that matter, is my own intellectual property for the purpose of writing a book or helping myself. I am not giving medical advice and I am not offering this as free writing for someone else to take and make a profit from. However, if you are a person who has read it, finds the advice solid and your healthcare practitioner(s) recommend trying any or all of it, you are welcome to follow whatever I write on this blog without pay. When and if I get the book made, I will provide a link. 

I intend to make a book mainly so that I will have something that is my plan of things I found have worked or are currently working for me, as a reminder.  So, if I make a mistake and get all ADHD, I don't find myself lost in a world of cupcakes and takeout orders, wondering how to get started on doiong health things again.