Contents
To return the weight to normal will help … creativity! So says the author of the famous book about the creative revival “The Way of the Artist” Julia Cameron. She wrote another book, The Writing Diet, Count Words, Not Calories.
Julie Cameron’s new book lacks the exercises, nutritional tables, recipes, and other trappings of most weight loss books. Instead, the author proposes to consider overeating as an opportunity to better understand yourself, your feelings and habits.
“I do art, not diets, but I accidentally discovered the secret to losing weight and I want to share it,” says Julia Cameron in the preface. – Freeing our creative abilities, we change not only internally, but also externally. For example, I noticed that those who started my 12-week training program with extra weight ended up with a slim figure at the end. Overeating blocks our ability to create, puts the mind and senses to sleep, like anesthesia. But the opposite is also true—our ability to create can block overeating.”
How? The tools are the same as in The Artist’s Way:
1. Morning Pages. Start the day with 3 pages of non-stop writing – just write down in a row, without thinking, everything that comes to mind until you fill out 3 sheets of paper. The exercise helps to “ventilate” the brain and get off the autopilot, clear the way for new thoughts, ideas, habits.
Read more:
- Does creativity educate?
“Through the morning pages, we begin to understand that each day is made up of billions of “choice points” and that we are free to choose how we live,” Cameron writes. “Like a relentless but loving friend, the Morning Pages push us in the direction of the changes we need… A month of Morning Pages changes habits that have developed over the years.”
2. A diary. Write down your feelings on paper before any meal. The goal is to translate the unconscious impulses that make us overeat into conscious feelings, to understand what pushes us to eat.
3. Before you eat, ask yourself 4 question: Am I hungry? / Hungry? I want exactly this product/dish? I want it right now? Could I have eaten something else instead? Exercise helps you slow down and determine whether you are feeling hungry at the moment – physical or psychological. If the latter, then it is better to “feed” it with meditation, sleep, music, a walk, yoga, a hot bath.
Read more:
- Why are all diets bad?
4. Treat yourself creative dates at least once a week. You can go to a beautiful tableware/kitchenware shop, take a tour of a chocolate museum, or sign up for a cooking class and learn how to make a delicious light dessert.
5. “STOP” signal. In a moment of temptation, ask yourself questions: Am I very hungry/hungry? Very Angry/Angry? Feeling very lonely? Very tired? / Tired? If the answer is yes, stop at a red light – this is a sure sign that you are on the verge of a relapse into gluttony. It is better not to start eating at all, otherwise it will be difficult to resist overeating. Instead, take a sheet of paper and transfer your stream of consciousness onto it without thinking. This exercise will help you calm down and relieve stress. If you decide to give in to the temptation and eat, take a notebook right in the process of gluttony and start writing down why you are now overeating. Are you worried about someone/something? What or who threw you off balance? What are you afraid of? Are you worried about work? This will help you recover faster.
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- Enjoy food without guilt
“Language is like a shield we put between ourselves and gluttony,” explains Cameron. – With its help, we pacify the raging emotions in us. We sort of map our inner landscape—name forests, lakes, hills, and valleys—and this process of precise self-identification is a pleasure. As soon as we see the shadows cast by objects in our inner world, they lose their power over us and can no longer cause harm.