Be straight with yourself

The other day I overheard a conversation about diet and weight loss.  I was at a senior citizens center which I frequent to play table tennis.  A man, who is about 70 years of age, was talking about diet and weight.  He was saying that he had recently lost some weight to get down to about 180 lbs but then he had gained it all back and now weighed 206 lbs.  He was complaining about back pain and how it prevented him from exercising.  Then he said "I just love to eat and I can't find any food that I don't like."

This is an example of a person who is driven by his cravings.  This is an out of balance condition that is ruling this person's life.  He is not in control of his life, his cravings are in control.

My guru once said, "If you can't be straight with the world, at least be straight with yourself."  Sometimes we go through life and we rationalize our behavior by lying to ourselves.  Part of this is due to the ignorance of the yin and yang system which creates these cravings.  Perhaps if we knew the mechanism that was working on us we would be more able to be truthful about a possible solution.  This is why it is so important to understand the dynamics of the creation around us and to utilize the tools of balance that we have been given.

We can take this situation and improve on it by moving our diet towards the middle of the yin and yang spectrum.  That means adding more whole grains and whole grain products, more vegetables, more bean products, more sea vegetables, and more fruit.

Thanks for reading.