Some cool slim fast images:
The Japanese Diet
Image by timtak
By "The Japanese Diet," I mean a way of getting and staying slim-ish, rather than what the Japanese eat, and I’m not saying I do all these things.
Eat slowly, with smaller bites using chopsticks
Use smaller plates,
Eat a variety of things in very small portions,
Cut your slices of bread in half,
And bring your food to your eyes, so it looks big, like a bonsai tree
Enjoy eating, the taste, texture, look, variety of your food
But do not use food as a way of cheering yourself up
Try to believe that treating yourself with food is less fun than treating yourself with being thin – Kate Moss "Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels" is also a maxim in Japan.
Don’t talk when eating, concentrate on your food
Think of food as a gift from all people who made it possible, and say an undirected "thank you" before you start your meal.
Do not drink sweet drinks, which are only for children. They contain 6-13 teaspoons of sugar
Do not drink fruit juice, which is only seemingly healthy
If you do drink fruit juice water it down by up to ten to one
Drink green tea, black coffee, wheat tea (mugi cha), or water
Do not eat sweets, which are only for children
If you do eat sweet things only in miniature, and not very sweet
Do not eat dairy products, which are for children, or hefers
Do not eat cheese which is concentrated bulking up food, not even for cattle
Eat less, more often
Eat vegetables Eat vegetables!
Always "eat" soup before your meal
Treat proteins as flavourings, for your vegetable matter, rather than as a way of filling yourself up
Remember that meats are dead animals by eating it raw and call your "beef" cow and your "pork" pig, and eat fish, or failing that chicken in preference to both.
Soy, and other beans, is the best source of protein eat lots of it in many forms (Eda beans, bean sprouts, tofu, miso, kinako ground roasted soya beans, red bean paste which is Japanese for chocolate, natto and others). The Japanese are made of soy!
Rice is better than bread
Cold rice is less calorific than hot
Exercise is better than calorie reduction
Wear clothes that fit, no baggies
Get smaller clothes as you get thinner (second hand shops help gaijin, but Japanese usually buy clothes new)
Enjoy your clothes and your appearance
Try to look at the world, by always carrying a camera.
Find ways of enjoying your body, especially as it gets thinner
Take selfies! (photos of yourself)
Look in the mirror
Get naked in front of other people
Go to the pool, beach, or public baths
Do things that you could not do before, climb a mountain, run for your bus, or get a longer bicycle stem to get longer and lower when you can.
Try to improve your posture
necklaces, sit on the floor, stiff rucksacks,
Go to bed early and get up early
Exercise in the morning
See exercise as a form of worship, and your body as a temple.
Do exercises which are a repetition of set forms, ideally with others, such as yoga, aerobics or karate
This encourages you to realise what you yourself look like
Drink alcohol only with others (at parties)
or immediately before sleep, never during the day, and like sugar never as a way of cheering yourself up.
Talk, and think in a deep voice; high voices are for other people
Try not to think in words, words are for other people.
Be aware of what thoughts as words are – excuses or cake. (Nisbett and Wilson, 1977; Libet 2008, Soon, Brass, Heinze, Haynes, 2008, Kim, 2002)
Be aware of what cake is – autoaffection (Derrida, 2013)
Judge your own behaviour visually, by imagining it, or thinking about how it looks to others, from their reaction especially.
Listen to your breathing or chant a mantra
Do no criticise others, everyone is trying, nor praise yourself
Linguistic praise is something that is or should be only transitive (the only sort of self praise to allow yourself is narcissistic, in the literal sense – an enjoyment of your self imagining, photos, mirror reflection)
Do things for others, especially children
Sleep, and bathe, with your children. There is no better way of enjoying your body.
The dark side of Japanese thinness
Smoke cigarettes in moderation (and die thin)
Do not treat sexual relationships as cake either, but do not give up on the dream, maybe? Maybe not.
Very un-Japanese Bibliography
Derrida, J. (2013). Of grammatology. JHU Press. books.google.co.jp/books?id=iagJAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA165&…
Haidt, J. (2001). The emotional dog and its rational tail: a social intuitionist approach to moral judgment. Psychological review, 108(4), 814. student.cc.uoc.gr/uploadFiles/179-%CE%9A%CE%A8%CE%92364/m…
Kim, H. S. (2002). We talk, therefore we think? A cultural analysis of the effect of talking on thinking. Journal of personality and social psychology, 83(4), 828. www.researchgate.net/profile/Heejung_Kim5/publication/110…
Nisbett, R. E., & Wilson, T. D. (1977). Telling more than we can know: verbal reports on mental processes. Psychological review, 84(3), 231. l3d.cs.colorado.edu/~ctg/classes/cogsci12/rdg/nisbett-wil…
Soon, C. S., Brass, M., Heinze, H. J., & Haynes, J. D. (2008). Unconscious determinants of free decisions in the human brain. Nature neuroscience, 11(5), 543-545. projects.ecfs.org/pchurch/ATBiology/Papers2012/unconsciou…
13. Fast: It’s been a tough two days living on slim fast and water. #fmsphotoaday
Image by ljfullofgrace
Wikket
Image by VickyTH
I’m not a big fan of "stacked" shots, in which the dog is posed as if in a show, but she did this all on her own and it shows how nice and slim she is now. She was fast headed towards chubby six months ago.
