Eating with awareness

"If we eat wrongly, no doctor can cure us;
If we eat rightly, no doctor is needed."

--- Victor G. Rocine

Good eating habits are a strong foundation to good health. It's important to eat what you like and also to experiment with a variety of new foods.

You also need to set aside enough time to sit down and enjoy your meal. Don't get into the trap of eating in front of the open refrigerator, rushing down the street or driving the car.

Eating slowly will allow your body's natural enzymatic mechanism to tell you when you have had enough. When you eat with awareness, you enjoy food more fully.

You notice how food affects you and you are less likely to overeat.

Eating with awareness also means eating whole, pure, natural foods. Without the proper balance of a variety of nutrient-rich foods on a continuing basis, good health cannot be achieved and maintained.

Remember, if you neglect your health through poor eating habits, it spills over into every aspect of your life. Eating with awareness will make you aware of other aspects of your inner life, including your emotional and spiritual side.

Five Ways to Guarantee that You'll NEVER Quit Smoking

You're hearing it from all directions: "Quit smoking!" But the heck with that! You're going to smoke until the day you die, right? Here's how to "fight back" against the tyrants and authority establishment that is trying to make you quit.

First, you must never believe that quitting smoking is possible. On the contrary, no one has ever quit smoking. Once you've had one puff, you're hooked for life. Might as well just start smoking even if you only inhale some second-hand smoke. You see, if you believe you can quit smoking, then you might actually try to do something about it. Believing is the first, most important step to becoming an evil "non-smoker". So don't believe what you hear from anyone else. Don't believe your own gut-instinct that tells you that you do have the ability to quit. You don't! It's impossible! Forget it!

Second, don't set a date for quitting. The winners in life are the people who never plan their life. They just get lucky. Money falls from the sky whenever they need it. They get around to doing things "someday".

The losers in life spend time planning their day, planning their goals and dreams; planning, planning, planning. Don't do that! It's a waste of your time. You don't need to know when you are going to do anything. You'll be just fine letting life "happen" to you. Free love, man! Peace!

Don't set a date for quitting smoking. That way you'll never know when you should put the cigarettes down for the last time. That way you can just smoke one right after the other, with no thought of when you want to become smoke-free.

Third, to guarantee you'll never quit smoking, don't talk to your doctor about quitting. He or she will just give you a load of hogwash. They think they know everything, those doctors. They say smoking will shorten your life, make you sicker more often, cause sexual dysfunction, give you heart and lung disease, plus a whole bunch of other unsubstantiated claims. Everyone knows that smoking never hurt anyone.

Your doctor would try to offer you his professional advice, and maybe even try to prescribe some "helpful" medications for quitting. They go to school for a million years and all of a sudden these doctors think they can help heal people! Imagine. Oh sure, studies may show that smokers who consult with their physician are more likely to quit, but then everybody knows that no one every quit smoking, right? (See the first method, above.)

Fourth, don't exercise. Exercise is hard. You have to burn calories. You have to discipline yourself to move your muscles three or four times per week. You have to stop watching TV for 30 minutes. No way!

Stay seated and smoke another pack. Or two.

Exercise is good for you, they say. It can help you take your mind off smoking. It can relieve stress. But you have cigarettes to relieve stress, right?

Who wants to exercise when it gives you bulging muscles and a tone body? The "experts" will try to tell you that you might feel pretty good about yourself when you start to get in shape. You just might want to take better care of yourself and quit smoking. Your self-esteem will improve, your sleep will improve, your stamina will increase, your sense of purpose will rise, your weight will drop, your performance at work will improve. That's what the "experts" say. Nonsense. You're doing just fine right now, smoking your cigarettes on the couch, in front of the TV, right?

Finally, the fifth way to guarantee that you'll never quit smoking is to just give up trying to quit. Don't take any action toward quitting. It's not necessary. Oh sure, you've tried to quit before. Did it work? Of course not. So forget it. It's just not worth the effort. You're a slave to cigarettes.

You don't want to live five or ten years longer anyway, do you? No, quitting isn't possible. Quitting requires that you actually try. So don't try. Don't make plans to quit. Don't read about how to quit. Don't talk with your doctor. Don't learn from other smokers who quit. Don't try to quit cold turkey or to gradually reduce the number of cigarettes you smoke. Don't do any of that weird deep breathing stuff. Don't drink plenty of water. Don't exercise. Don't eat healthier foods. Don't try to find a quitting buddy. Don't remove all the ash trays and lighters and matches and cigarettes from your home and office and vehicle. Don't talk to strangers!

Face it, you're a smoker. You love smoking. You love the coughing and hacking. You love freezing to death when you have to smoke in the designated smoking area outside. You love being stared at every time you light a cigarette in public. You love spending hundreds or even thousands of dollars each year on your habit. You love smelling terrible. You love having bad breath. You love paying more for your insurance. You love spending time in the hospital.

Remaining a smoker is easy, now that you know the five simple ways to guarantee that you never quit smoking. Get started today (or whenever you feel like it--or never--see step 5)

Brought to you by the Good-For-You-And-Your-Children Tobacco Company.

MOST IMPORTANT,YOU CAN DO IT.

If you have tried to quit smoking and failed before, take comfort in the fact that most smokers fail several times before quitting successfully. Your past failures are not a lesson that you are unable to quit. Instead, view them as part of the normal journey toward becoming a nonsmoker.

The information below will ease your way and help insure that this is the last time you ever need to go through the quitting process. You can do it!



QUITTING TIPS
© 2000 by Patrick Reynolds

The most important step to take is the first step --
admitting you have an addiction.

When asked why you smoke, you might have said, "I just like to smoke!" or "It's my choice to smoke."

The tobacco companies have promoted the idea that smoking is a matter of personal choice. As I see it, there really isn't as much choice as they have suggested to their customers.

Ask yourself, and be totally honest: Am I addicted to tobacco? Am I truly making a freely made choice when I smoke?

You might consider that you need to have a cigarette. Studies have shown that nicotine addiction is as hard to break as heroin or cocaine addiction.

In Nicotine Anonymous' 12 Step program, which sprang from the venerable Alcoholics Anonymous program, the first step is admitting to yourself, "I'm powerless over tobacco." Making this admission may seem trivial to you, but for many it is a very significant part of completing the journey to becoming a non-smoker.

By telling smokers that smoking is a personal choice, the tobacco industry has helped to keep its customers in denial about the true extent of their addiction. If smoking is a choice, then what's the rush to quit? The tobacco companies have used this spin to help keep millions of customers buying their deadly products.

Admitting that you're smoking more out of addiction than choice will help motivate you to go on to the next steps -- taking control of yourself and becoming a nonsmoker.

This admission will further serve you by helping you stay smokefree later. In the months and years after you quit, when temptations to smoke occasionally overpower you -- and they will -- remind yourself, "I have an addiction and I'm powerless over tobacco." Saying this to yourself in overwhelmed moments of desire will help give you the strength to say no to "just one" cigarette.

If you can make it for just five minutes without giving in, the urge to smoke be controllable or disappear. In this way, you'll be able to stay smokefree for life.