Wholistic Fitness

Noble Sangha,

today, we reVisit one of my most dastardly clever and deeply helpful Nutritional/Wellness Techniques; my “3×30 Assignment”.  If this Assignment is NOT a part of your WF Practice,  it needs to be…first, let’s rehearse what the “3×30 Assignment” is:

30 x 3 Assignment:
This is taken from a Theravada Buddhist mindfulness exercise. Each mealtime (assume 3 ‘sit-down’ mealtimes per day) chew your first bite of food for 30 times.  During this conscious chewing, feel the physical texture of the food as well as the spiritual significance of the food being eaten.  Appreciate the fact that you are not different from the food you eat and one day, you too will be ‘eaten’ by the Universe as well.    Use this time to honor and revere your food and ‘tell’ the food that you will do your best to use its life-giving energy to refine yourself in order to help others.

Now,
let’s visit  this precious input from one of my Online Students who is closing in on his Master Student Inka…you’ll see why as you read his training report from last Friday;

“Friday-  This morning I woke up and enjoyed meditation.  It was a little late in the morning (7:30) however the mind was still calm.  I used your print out of Amitabha Buddha during my meditation as well as the Blessed Mala Beads. During my meditation I also tried to envision strength in my body for the run tomorrow.  Following meditation I enjoyed a long session of EMR.  The stretches for the hips and toes made my entire body feel refreshed.  Following EMR I performed Winged Angel which went hand in hand with the hip opening that my body was needing today.  Then I ate breakfast and FINALLY remembered the 3×30 assignment on the first bite.  It was on mini wheat cereal…and it was complete mush after thirty chews J.  I also remembered for lunch on a pb&j sandwich, which was still ‘sticking’ to my mouth after 30 chews.  Finally at dinner I had pasta, after 30 chews the pasta had pretty much dissolved.  The one thing I noticed during dinner was the pace at which I ate.  It was slower and took more time.  I even didn’t ‘overfill’ myself and saved left-overs for tomorrow.”
Now, ask yourself;
what if EVERYONE practiced my “3×30 Assignment”?
what if YOU practice it?
why don’t you give it a go for the next 3 Days…and then, let me know what you’ve Learned!

one of the cyclists i ride with here in Durango – who is a several time National Champion – came up to me and said:

“The balance between good nutrition and being hungry is always a problem for me…” Now,  like many in the peleton, this Champion was trying to get some free counsel…it’s a common thing.  So i figured the Highest thing i could say to him was,

“Well, the thing about Nutrition is that when it is accurate  – meaning balanced between cleansing and empowerment, and balanced between physical, mental, and spiritual aspects – what happens is that our hunger for physical food eases, while our appetite toward the Divine increases.”

this counsel was strange enough to have him grunt something and pedal off, probably thinking, “Man, that ilg character sure is peculiar….”