Travis Eneix

Things like this make my day.

When I was 21, I weighed 396 pounds. Today, at 37, I float around 190. It’s been a long, strange trip. I have tried a plethora of weight loss methods, schemes, tricks and regimes along the way. None of them were “it”. They all worked for a time, and then didn’t. This experience is not true for everyone who has battled the bulge, but for me it is. Some folks get on a diet that absolutely does do the trick, they take off the weight and keep it off. But, for the vast majority of warriors of the waistline, that is not the case.

I have tried Weight Watchers, Slim Fast, liquid diets, fasting, Body for Life, Jenny Craig, cheat days, grazing, paleolithic diets, The Zone, The T-Factor, huge water intake, journaling and one meal a day. I have exercised to the point of heat stroke, and sat on my backside. I have been through periods of giving up sugars, flours, processed food, meat, sex and sleep. I have taken phen-phen, phen-free, anabolic boosters, mega doses of flax oil, protein shakes, performance snacks, weight-loss bars, and amino acids. I have read over a hundred fitness/diet books, read thousands of websites, and been an active member of dozens of online forums and support groups. I’ve studied martial arts, cooked all my own food, lifted weights, been through three professional trainers, run, done massive cardio, worked with one of the best Olympic Power Lifting coaches of all time, spent hours and hours in saunas, meditated, and practiced a large number of calisthenic/body-weight routines. I’ve done a lot. I stopped short of surgical intervention, but I did consider it for a long time.

I have yo-yo’d my fair share up and down the scale. I managed to never pop back up past my top weight, but my progress on paper looks a hell of a lot more like a terrifying, vomit-inducing roller coaster ride than a ski slope. Most recently I went down to 185 and popped back up to 270. I’ve been on the down slope since. Keep your fingers crossed.

So, what have I learned? What method works? You might not like it.

There is no magic bullet, no secret. No guarantees. The only absolutely, for certain thing is this - if you want to lose weight and keep it off, you have to do it. No one can say anything to you, or show you anything, or give you anything that will make one bit of difference. You must make the effort. You must do the work. Sorry.

The plan I have come to is this -

1. Eat Less
2. Move More
3. Drink Water
4. Write It Down

That is my patented four point pan for better fitness, weight loss, weight management and healthy living.

Let’s look at each point, shall we?

• Eat Less - No-brainer here. Less intake of mass means less mass on your ass waist. We all know that eating more than you need makes you larger than you want.
• Bonus Point - Eat smarter. Get some education about proper nutrition. It’s free all over the web, and we both know you know how to search the web. My basic advice is, the less you can visualize the ingredients something you are about to swallow is made of, the less good it is for you.
• Move More - Not really much of a surprise either. More movement requires more fuel consumption which means less junk on your rump. Shoot for 30 minutes a day of physical activity MORE than what you are doing now.
• Bonus Point - Start slow! Don’t burn yourself out. The time you will spend bemoaning your sore muscles and growling stomach will detract from the time you can be getting your fitness on. Trust me, it is not an even exchange. And, one of the best ways to slide back into a sedentary life is to be couch ridden with a broken something-or-other. Take it easy, slow and steady wins this race.
• Drink Water - If you are thirsty, it’s too late. Thirst is the first sign of dehydration, not a precursor to dehydration. Eight, 8 oz. glasses a day. Any fluid you drink that is not water counts for half.
• Bonus Point - Pre-Hydrate before exercise, and rehydrate immediately after, sip throughout.
• Write It Down - I cannot stress this enough. Any, any plan, or diet, is not built specifically for you with the best data possible unless it is devised by you. Books, sites, videos and trainers can give you a wealth of information, but it does not apply 100% to you personally, and this is a personal endeavor. Be your own fitness writer. It does not have to be complicated, what you ate & when, how you exercised & when, and a couple of sentences about how you are feeling each day will provide information more valuable than a Happy Meal Wholesale. Please, believe me. I mean it. Not even kidding.
• Bonus Point - Every once in a while, review that pile of note keeping gold for trends and tricks of your own. Note things that worked, and things that didn’t.

And, to touch back on the key that unlocks it all -

• Only You Can Do This -  Who lifts the weights?  You.  Who eats the salad?  You.  Who keeps you motivated?  You.  Who keeps and honest and accurate record that never, ever, ever needs to be shown to anyone ever?  You.  Who wants to improve your weight/fitness situation? You.  You are the champion of your own league, and your own dearest fan base.  You can do this.  You are the only one who can.  I know for certain, with no shade of doubt whatsoever, that you (yes you!) are capable of claiming your body as your own and making a machine worthy to carry your spirit.
• Bonus Point - Be an inspiration to others.  They deserve your efforts.

Let me know how you do.

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I seek the truth…it is only persistence in self-delusion and ignorance that does harm. - Marcus Aurelius

Douglas Harding was the “founder” of the Headless Way, and his teachings are kept alive by one of his long time students, Richard Lang over at Headless.org (really a well laid out and chock-full website). I have read Harding’s book, On Having No Head, and found it to be both very entertaining and a deeply profound exposition on the practice of self-inquiry.

Richard sends out a newsletter called Reflections - A Course in Seeing. It includes testimonials from students of the Headless Way over the years. Today’s dispatch included the following quote which stopped me in my mental tracks:

The only thing I can do is see when it occurs to me to see. I can’t force it. The more I look, the more I remember to look. So when it comes to me to look, I do. I don’t just ignore the impulse and go on with what I’m doing. That’s the only way I know to keep it going or rev it up. Besides, I’m not sure I want to go full bore with it all the time. It’s always here, never lost, when I want it. I know it’s never inappropriate, but I don’t think it’s a good idea to think that it should be a 100% practice in time. We have to function in time, and though the timeless never gets in the way, it can go to the background with no harm to anyone. So far it has never failed to come back to awareness. Once you see it, it’s yours. It’s you. Trust it to come when it’s needed. It’s relaxing because it’s the place without tension. I don’t want to feel guilty if it fails to come up for a time. It’s still here. (M.S. UK.)

Another quote from the same email which brings the above points into even better focus:

Douglas compares it to being in love. You don’t have to think of your loved one every minute to be in love. It’s there in the background. (J.C. USA)

There is a saying in 12-Step programs. “Once you know, you can’t not know what you know.” Self-Inquiry is like that. Once you get a taste of what you really are, you just can’t get rid of it. It sneaks up on you in the strangest of moments. The “practice” of sitting your awareness in what is feels like to be here, now, is simple and profound, and is the only thing needed to come to finally knowing the Truth of what you already are. Making this simple technique into a big deal is self defeating and can be one of the best (and probably last) blocks against your inevitable abiding as that Truth.

Don’t make a big deal about it. Become friendly with the feeling of being here, now, and that feeling will see you through the hardest of times. It is what you are, and it is your best companion. Steadfast and sure.  And, just like the most tenacious of infections, once you have been bitten by the ever present sting of Self-Inquiry your false identity is doomed.
Thank the Buddha!