Everyday Systems

There's been a few comments lately disparaging the concept of 'food only as fuel'. For the most part I'd agree. But the topic reminded me of an analogy that I tried to work out for myself many months ago:

We've all heard the phrase: "Treat your body as a temple." or some such. I think it has religious roots, but not sure.

In my analogy, I like to picture my body as sort of a tall strong ancient greek style temple (but modern, not the ruins!) My temple should be tall and strong, clean, attractive.

Now, the food I eat is like the raw materials that go into building and maintaining my 'temple'. Marble, Stone, mortar, and furnishings, paintings, sculptures.

If I use substandard or even crappy materials, my temple will not be very strong, nor likely very attractive. And it probably won't withstand harsh weather well. It will age and fall apart more quickly.

Now, my temple needs regular maintenance, so if I don't supply enough raw building materials, even if what I do supply are the highest quality, then the temple will begin to fall apart. If I supply too many materials, then I have to start stacking them up and storing these excess goods in more and more places in the temple, this is rather unsightly, and detracts from the purpose of keeping the temple a peaceful, strong, sparse environment.

So I must supply quality materials, at the right quantity, not too much or too little.

Nice use of extended metaphor!

I especially like the vision of cluttering up the space with stored building materials. I hate clutter, so that one speaks to me.

I like this! Very apt analogy!

Really useful! I might print this out! Thanks for this.

Yeah, my body is a temple ....................................

The temple of ....... dooooooooooooooom !!!!

Great movie, man !!

Cheers !

Marc

Disclaimer : I am following a more extreme version of the 'No-S' diet.
I made my own personal modifications to the original plan (Diet & Exercise)
What I am doing should not be misinterpreted as being a typical 'No-S' diet experience.
11/01/2008 : 280.0 pounds - - - 06/10/2009 : 212.8 pounds
7 months 10 days / 67.2 pounds

Temple of Doom ... so for dessert you have "Chilled Monkey Brains"?

I agree. This, of course, is from the Bible. One thing that middle girl once said to me that has stuck with me is this:

"The people who eat at McDonald's are fat, but the people who eat McDonald's in their car are really fat."

It's not just what we eat. It's also how we eat. Are we taking the time to enjoy what we eat? I know that this is not directly addressed by The No S Diet. However, what I have found is that I'm careful about what I eat on N Days particularly because I know I have to wait a few hours before I can eat again. Heck, I've even started to be careful on S Days because I now realize there is a limit to how much I can eat without getting a stomach ache!

When I was permasnacking, I shoved in my mouth whatever was close at hand and convenient to eat. There was little or no thought involved.

Kathleen

Good point Kathleen.

So we can add that we should also treat our food, and our dining... reverently. I like that! It fit's in with the Temple analogy.

I like this too. . . it immediately reminded me of the "terms" Reinhard has on the Everyday Systems homepage: (Should be in columns but I couldn't get that to show up. . .

Contemporary Euphemism = Biblical Term = System(s)
Overweight = Gluttony = No S Diet
Out of shape = Sloth = Shovelglove, Urban Ranger
"Multitasking" = Idleness = Weekend Luddite
Problem Drinking = Drunkenness = Glass Ceiling
Litigious (no one was this bad in the bible) = Really Boring Disclaimer

For me, gluttony is such an ugly word, for example. . . we've prettied up those words through the years so that they don't sound so bad. . . like heavy, plump, even pleasingly plump.

Thanks for sharing.

I totally agree -- one of the benefits of moderation is NOT that it teaches you "food is just fuel, and shouldn't be enjoyed" - it's that it increases your enjoyment! Both because you don't feel sick from overindulging, and because it makes a treat a TREAT -- something special, not just something you shove in your mouth and look for more.