The skeptic stoic

It is all empty and meaningless and the universe has absolute no purpose. We are at a time of great personal danger form the world. The universe has no purpose, and we individuals are insignificant. But we organic identities have a purpose; to reproduce to overpopulation and then die off to half the population. That is where we are headed. China with there one child policy may be have the right idea.   

Culture and the governance of the food industry is corrupt, and are headed in the wrong direction. We are on our own, but many of us now see the danger in sugar, grains, O6 oils, processed foods, and wrong medical advice. It is money driven advice. Watch Sharma words and do the opposite of some of his advice. Use him and a counter mentor, see what he does and avoid doing that.

Now that we know that it is all empty and meaningless, and the at the universe has no purpose, we are free to create one, any purpose to get us out of bed. On the other hand, we are free to stay in bed, if we are willing to accept whatever that lifestyle brings.

I can say that what the purpose is is irrelevant to most but ourselves. There may be dependents that care, and few that are interested, but our purpose does not impact them. It does not matter anyway, the universe has no purpose and the individual is insignificant, just an ant in the big picture, or the view from above.

Now we can paint on a purpose, since the purpose may be meaningless anyway. Obesity is a chain problem, a circular problem, and a complex problem. It has elements of physical, psychological, philosophical and spiritual. We need to understand ourselves to understand this problem. Now there is a field of  confusion. We are walking habits at the core, or maybe not the core, it may just be a another layer or dimension of us. Habit drives much. Habit is not rational. That is why diet alone is not sufficient for some of us, we are bundles of habit.

We must not satisfy desires, but rather eliminate desire, squash desires. But what do I know?

Is Overeating Just a Habit?

This is a troubling question. If none of the other seven groups( http://philosophyofweightmanagement.blogspot.ca/2014/11/what-is-normal.html ) of causes apply, is overeating just a habit?

Now how do we separate out habit from all the other causes? It is in the attitude just before overeating occurs, perhaps. Is it an automatic response to walking past the refrigerator? It it a automatic desire to eat something in front of the TV? Is it the pull of habit or one of those other drives?

I will need to watch a bit more, watch my thoughts, and see if I can pick out the difference.

Now how does one overcome a habit? displace it with something else. So what am I to do as a replacement activity?

Why do we overeat?

The question is why do we overeat?

Useless answers... We have either a physical or mental problem. We should head directly for a doctor or a psychologist....

There are three reasons we overeat:
uncontrolled hunger, uncontrolled cravings, uncontrolled desires

Hunger, cravings and desires. OK.

We don't realize why we're eating it and why we can't control our appetite for it.

Zoe Harcombe: Candida, Food Intolerance ,Hypoglycaemia  

Ah yes, these are real problems, I do not have any of these beyond food induced hyperinsulinemia, the other half of hypoglycaemia, but often when I am craving my BG=5.2 or 5.3. Not the problem. 

Food Intolerance, the body dumps on a bunch or adrenalin, and we are off to the races. Not the problem.

Learned behavior, habit.  OK

Fight or flight,  Comfort eating, Numbing out, Frustration, Self attack

 Social Influence, Mindless Eating, Visual Cues as Guides, Convenience

and then there is my list of 8 groups that includes most of the above.http://philosophyofweightmanagement.blogspot.ca/2014/11/what-is-normal.html

So the only thing new out of this bunch of searching is desire, but wait, excessive desire is there.

So how does one get rid of a unwanted desire?

Sharma's Video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q53Gr2oKPIs&feature=youtu.be

It is a bit long and nothing new... for someone who has been fighting the obesity problem for as long as I have been... but contains a lot of basic stuff... that the new to the battle can learn from. A few things were said that I know are right, but I have never heard expressed.

In my opinion though, the first thing we need to do is remove all the appetite stimulus from our diet. Those are sugar, wheat, and processed foods. These may vary between people.

Ok so here some of the answers, once we get beyond the physical, psychological, and philosophical issues.

http://thelowcarbdiabetic.blogspot.ca/2014/11/latest-catalyst-film-low-carb-diet-fat_14.html

butwhatdoIknow?

Cure Willful Overeating

So what does one need to do to overcome willful overeating? If we were computers, reboot. But we are not, so we need to take Socrates advise and come to know ourselves, and develop a concept of how we think, and how we ought to think, and make the switch.

This is an overview of what I have learned. It is a bit radical and briefly explained, but I have changed much of my personality. We were brain washed unconsciously to get to this point, now we can do it consciously and intentionally with logic.

I have stared into the abyss of my psyche and it was empty and meaningless, and even that was meaningless and empty. I need to apply a meaning and a purpose and build a new character clear of these little annoying characteristics like overeating. But how is this possible? It is but it is a multi-step process, and required a leap of faith into a thought experiment. The result is a clear, well, slightly foggy, trail to rebooting in effect. It is circular logic, circular reprogramming, gone through many times, one conception at a time.

Some things are up to us and some are not. That which is up to us includes our beliefs, our values, our opinions, and little else.There a few thing more we have influence over. See Epictetus for fuller description. We can control some of our personality, the upper functions.

There is a model of the human mind processing that divides the mind into three types of activities. There are more, but we will deal with three this time through. All we need to do is slow down, step back and watch our mind at work. This is a neat trick, and many talk of this process. Micheal Brown, in the Presence Process explains this the best, but also several old shrinks, Arron Beck and Victor Frankel talk about what seems to be the same process. We can make the brain into a three black boxes with a space between each process that we can consciously intervene in.

The first is an observation black box*. It forms an 'adequate impression'. There is space there where we can have the conscious mind intercede and put in a test; like 'is this any of my concern' or 'is real or bullshit' or 'should I care about this'. We hand that adequate expression* off to what I will call the conversion matrix* part of the mind, where the unconscious stored conversion analogs examine the adequate impression. This automatic conversion matrix of the unconscious mind is where many of our problem arise. It may need an overhaul, as mine certainly did. It is part of our belief system and under our control enough to be able to be altered. We can add things like 'sugar and grains should not be eaten'. 'Processed food should not be eaten.'   'He is just an idiot beating this gums' and thereby deal with all the opinion of others. Withholding any input is freeing, we do not need to process anything that is not from a reliable source. It is just noise. This stops a lot of activity.

The third part is where we form a volition, if one is required. A zero alternative*, do nothing, think nothing, must be considered. It is just useful for me to blank out idiots in traffic and elsewhere. This is a freeing step for there is much that is none of my concern or does not need a response. Through this process I can hold the stoic big picture attitude, gratitude for what I have and know, and a sense of wonder. The stoic big picture is different from humility, defined as not being greater than anyone, which mathematically is being less than every one, but rather we are all equal and insignificant.

It is the gratitude for what I know, and know is right, that allows me the confidence to go through life knowing that I am right in my process, following virtue, and logic. There is much bullshit in this world and I must not let myself get drawn in to that vortex and get sucked down the drain into problems again. All one need do is smile and carry on in my process.

My logic of weight loss plan is to set carbohydrates and protein where they need to be, and as low as possible, and lower fat as far as satiation will allow. Now I just need to do that. But what do I know?




* terms that may need more explanation
   

Willful Overeating

What is willful overeating?

It is that rotten six year old in us coming out.  FU, I am just going to sit here and eat this cherry pie all by my self. Bugger off and leave me alone.

The first time I saw this outside of my self was in a young lady, maybe 20. "I am not gonna move until this jug of wine is gone". I did not know what to make of that. I was about the same age. But that is the same thing that I feel occasionally, but with food. It starts with a bit of sugar, and a bit of boredom, indecision, depression and the available food. It is not a logical event, it just happens. The insulin goes up, and eating occurs. It always involves a sugar, the only thing that can be absorbed at 20 calories per minute, 1200 calories per hour. A couple of hours, we are ready to eat again. The sugar runs out, we get a insulin high, which drives craving for more. The cycle has begun. We get away with this behavior a few time, maybe quite a bit; it become a way of eating; binge and fast.  There may be a bit of starches and fats involved in this, but it is the fructose that drive the sweetness and the desire for more. The desire is a strong primal desire, and we must resist it with a weak conscious impulse not to eat. When the food is present, our weight loss plan loses.

The ability of we humans to put away fructose, sugar mix is likely a genetic adaption from the time when fruit occurred in the fall, and was in excess for a short period of time. This fattened us up for winter when food was less available. Now we have excess of fruit and it's processed counterparts 365 days each year. There is no seasonal availability.

We must be taught at a young age to moderate the intake else we will end up with an obese population. Weight, (pun) we have an obese population. This by it's self is not enough, it is just one factor in the process. We must learn to eat regular small meals, not binge and fast life style, or one large meal each day.

Genetically, we are programed to overeat on fruits;  sugar rich products are a modern extension of the fruits. A bit of fruit occasionally is not a big item, but the marketing of fruit, and processed sugar eatable products is just too much.

Perhaps we need to become militant against the purveyors of sugar and related products, there marketing, and agents. They are not the cause, but they are necessary for the problem to exist. For some people, sugar is sufficient to cause the problem, and many people think it tastes divine. That is not a concept that I can support. It is poison. With the ongoing temptation, it become torture for those of us who have sugar addiction like or similar problems.  We want, that is the problem. The want is stronger than our resistance.   

     

What is normal?

http://gardengirlkp.blogspot.ca/2014/11/the-stairs-vs-elevator-from-weighty.html got me thinking about the changes that I have made in my life during this recovery process. First what is normal? Most of the people that I know that have lost a great deal of weight, 1/3 of there original body mass, go back out and regain it and more. I did that 7 or 8 time in my first 55 years of obesity. That is normal, according to Dr. Sharma. OK. Those who have lost and are keeping it off are not therfore normal.

Half the people are of below average intelligence. That is the numeral normal. But when we speak of normal behavior, how do we define that? Are speaking of expected behavior? Are we speaking of the individual or of the population? Normality is seen as good while abnormality is seen as bad, within a population. But hold on now, 1/3 of the population is obese, 1/3 overweight, so are we talking good vs bad, or by number?

What has changed in my recovery is the way that I think. It has put me at odds with the extended family, society, and their food pushing obeseogenic ways. It has made me aware of the bullshit in our modern society, Hollywood concepts of reality, of how people live, and has instilled a passion for deeper understanding of the obese human psyche, and it's change to the recovered human psyche. In that passion lies the true nature of recovery. It may be just the passion that makes the difference. I see all these doctors talking about the problem, but none, well few, talk about the change in thinking required for recovery. It is that change in psyche that is the switch in the mind that get thrown to go into recovery. How to throw that switch is the key, the hidden secret, that is recovery.

For me, that switch is passion, desire, motivation, to do the next right thing, regardless of what I may feel like. It may be in defining a purpose in life, a change in priorities, a reason to get up in the morning and do the work of a human this day. Others may have that already, but that feeling of purpose is not (was not) present each day that I am not in recovery.

I have seen the abyss, the empty and meaningless center of  the human psyche, and realized that first layer over the empty and meaningless life is purpose or meaning, be that unconscious or conscious.  What that purpose is is irrelevant, whether it be to fatten the people you care about, and thereby shorten there lives, or to struggle against the food and nutrition ignorance, or the expansion of the understanding of the human psyche, and in particular, this humans psyche.

We have a health industry that does not care about nutrition, and a food industry that does not care about health. (quote from somewhere) Each in fact do better financially if they work against what should be part of there respective industries. We are each alone in a fight for our lives, whether we realize that or not. We also have a recovery industry in which each group is stuck in there own process, treating what ever part they treat. They sell the processes, not recovery. Each works for there own special group of victim, client. We are self selecting through recovery, it works if we recover, or it helps. Some do not recover, and they must go elsewhere or not recover. It is their choice.

IMO there are about 8 groups of causes of overeating. Each group has similar characteristics, and similar solutions. I suffer from all 8 groups. These groups I have currently labeled:

1. willful overeating, 
2. excessive desire, 
3. habit and conditioning, 
4. spiritual disease ( lack of right knowledge),  
5. physical issues, 
6. environment and temptation, 
7. maladaptive behaviors (eating disorders, stress, boredom, frustration, indecision), and 
8. food addictions.

But then, what do I know?

  

On Passion, On Teachability

Passion is a drive that provide the energy to keep on doing a thing, pursuing an idea, when we have no clear rational reason to pursue. Well we may have a reason. It may be a belief that the subject is worth pursuing. I may just need to pursue it, I do not know why. Many religions are that way. There are forms of logical argument that are that way, they are just compelling.

We need a definition that all agree on before an philosophical argument can be conducted. God requires an definition. If we consider it to be something that conduct super-national things, since it is supernatural it can only exist as a concept, not in reality. It is therefore a belief that may make you feel better, but will not make you better by intervention, but make make you correct your own life. That is better than nothing. What would be even better is the truth and your own self correction. These are passion driven subjects for many people. Understanding this may be the foundation to unity of peaceful people who 'accept you can believe whatever you want, but you may not force it onto anyone, even your children.' We need to cooperate to survive. That is the starting point of making peace in this world. It is those who think their beliefs are more important than survival that are the problem.

It is probable that there is no supernatural, and therefore no god. All religions people must tolerate my (our) beliefs if there is to be world peace, just as we must tolerate their beliefs in the supernatural. There is nothing after death, the mind probably stops on death. I am no more, but I cannot know death. For when I am, there is no death; when death occurs, there is no me, we cannot coexist. Simple. All that I learn in this lifetime must be written to be transferred to others and the next generation, when they are ready to learn and they have become teachable.

Teachability requires the prerequisite knowledge, the interest to understand the subject, and the tolerance of the language to drag out the underlying meaning, if there is one. It is my opinion that the underlying concept is the important part, not the words. To illustrate this point, consider that in Stoicism, Buddhism, Islam, Christianity, Hinduism, and likely others the same group of concepts can be found, explained so differently that until the effect of the concepts are explored, these concepts appear different. It is only the effect that is the same. It is the effect that we humans need to survive. So which concept is right? Likely the simplest that does not depend on the supernatural.

Teachability also depends on a attitude of 'I may need the knowledge'. Those who's mind is shut cannot hear what is being said. This may be termed humility; however that word is defined as a modest or low view of one's own importance, not greater than others. That is a negative definition, and the real value should be equality of all peoples.  In Stoic terms, the view from above, distant, where we are ant like.  Equality does not mean right. We can all be balmy on some subjects. Teachability is more about being willing to listen, here and understand. We then need to test the view or concept against our version of reality, our belief system, and either adopt, hold in abeyance, or reject. We may not understand there view or concept either as we may not have the prerequisite knowledge.       

Passion

So what drives passion, or is it the root that drives everything else? Passion includes enthusiasm and a strong drive toward something. 

Passion seems to arise from the unconscious mind, but it also appears to seeded from rational mind. It is from the same general part of the mind that drives emotions, yet not exactly. It is passion that utilizes the conscious mind as a tool, but does not control it. The conscious mind is therefore a slave to the passion, but with a lot of room for skunkworks. So what does this have to do with food/eating/overeating? That is a good question. Diet can change from a diet that I was able to loose 5 kg/month on for more than a year, to driven craving to eat at an extreme rate overnight. This has all the hallmarks of a change in passions without any intent to change those passions.

Passion may the root of motivation, of desire, and hence the reason we do what we do. It seems that desire is founded on passion. William B Irving has done a nice book On Desire, so what about Passion?

GW Shaw     "insists that there are passions far more exciting than the physical ones...'intellectual passion, mathematical passion, passion for discovery and exploration: the mightiest of all passions'."

I did quite liked exploring what no human had ever seen before, the subsoil on particular sites. It gave a sense of discovery to provide information to build foundations of buildings on.

Exploring the food problem has given me a sense of the state of disrepair, of ignorance, of assumption, of the dietary industry. They seem to know to much to help the individual with overeating issues. Each one holding that only they know how to recover, as the world get fatter. They collectively have only parts of the solution; it is my opinion that even the combined knowledge, although it could help many could not help all.

There is a missing component, the desire to recover, the passion to recover, the motivation to recover. Some talk about it in passing, but I have not found any that get down into the trenches, but leave that up to the individual. There is no school that studies passion, desire, motivation, the drive to volition, that I have yet found. That must be the next pursuit.