HerveDuchemin’s BodyBlog

In modern life, people think that their body belongs to them and they can do anything they want to it.  When they make such a determination, the law supports them.  This is one of the manifestations of individualism.  But, according to the teachings of emptiness, non-self, and interbeing, your body is not yours alone.  It also belongs to your ancestors, your parents, future generations, and all other living beings.  Everything, even the trees and clouds, has come together to bring about the presence of your body.  Keeping your body healthy is the best way to express your gratitude to the whole cosmos, to all ancestors, and also not to betray future generations.  If you are healthy, everyone can benefit from it.  When you are able to get out of the shell of your small self, you will see that you are interrelated to everyone and everything, that your every act is linked with the whole of humankind and the whole cosmos.  To keep yourself healthy in body and mind is to be kind to all beings.

A large percentage of the country has absolutely no control when it comes to the foods they choose to put into their mouths.  In a mental battle between right and wrong, the mind is a funny thing, and will almost always push you toward the wrong choice.  Hence, you must master your mind, and direct it to “proper action.  You must do what needs to be done in order to achieve your goals, for no other reason than “because that’s just how it has to be.  You must do the right thing, “because it is the right thing to do, and because you made a conscious choice to do what is right.  Then, and only then, will you be able to walk with the sheer, honest confidence that radiates from within the individual who sets inviolable standards for him or herself.  If you can maintain these standards 90% of the time, then the remaining 10% of the time where you falter, will be attributed to human error.  We are not God.  We are only human, and will occasionally falter as humans do.  But the true test is how you pick yourself up and recover from your mistakes, as well as what your attitude is both during the recovery process, and thereafter.
Food can be compared to a drug.  It has an effect on chemicals in our brain, and throughout our bodies, thereby affecting our mood and behavior.  If we constantly make poor and unhealthy food choices, it will almost always be evident in the way our body looks, as well as in our behavior and attitude as well.  If, on the other hand, we curb our “addiction to unhealthy food, and “train our brains to desire to function off of healthy foods, we will look better, feel better, sleep better, and have a better mental disposition overall.  Going back to the percentage analogy, if a healthy diet is in place 90% of the time, our bodies will be properly fueled to go through life the way they were designed to, and the remaining 10% of the time will have a nearly negligible impact on us.
As with cessation of drug or alcohol use, the decision to “quit eating unhealthy foods on a regular basis, begins in the mind.  YOU have to make the conscious decision to change your eating habits, and YOU have to have a burning desire to do so, because you know that it will get you closer to your end result of having a fit-looking and healthy body.  YOU must train your mind to eat for nutrition and NOT for taste 90% of the time.  And YOU must UN-train your brain to desire junk food, except for 10% of the time, where it won’t matter.  This is NOT an easy task, and may be even more difficult than quitting cigarettes.  But the end result, is that you will change the “internal chemistry of your body.  Eventually, you will desire only healthy, nutritious food, and so will your taste buds.  Your  brain will be re-wired to support eating habits conducive to maintaining a lean, healthy-looking physique.  Finally, after changing the internal chemistry of your body, the most important thing to understand is that the 10% of the time that you DO eat garbage, you will know how bad it is for you, because you will literally feel SICK to your stomach when you indulge in such foods!  It may take you a while to get to this point, but once you are there, you will be forever thankful that you made the change!

For all you lean people out there….I’m wondering if you get the same feeling as me.  When I’m eating my regular diet, clean food, every 2 hrs, I feel fantastic.  If I keep on the diet for 7 or more days, and then have 1 cheat day where I eat a bunch of garbage, I look better the next day.  It doesnt even effect me really.  But if I do it TWO days in a row, I look like crap the next day, AND my mood is just completely all out of whack.  I feel down, with less energy, and it’s almost as if I changed the chemical makeup of my body BACK to "garbage mode", where most people live out the duration of their lives.  Then, when I get back on my regular eating plan, my body takes about two days to return to where I was, and on the third day, I wake up feeling fantastic again, full of energy, and uplifted.  This is how it works inside "me"….But I was wondering if anyone else experienced the same thing

So a funny thing happened the other day.  My girlfriend was arguing on the phone with me, while doing cardio at her gym.  Picture this cute little blonde girl on a treadmill, screaming at me at the TOP of her lungs on a cell phone.  Now, the cardio machines are in one room, and the weights are in a separate room.  While she’s blurting out obscenities on the phone, in walks this guy in the background, doing dumbell military presses WHILE WALKING!!!  For Godsake buddy, if you’re trying to get a girl’s attention at the gym, at least make it a LITTLE less obvious by picking an exercise that is SUPPOSED to be done while walking!!  Anyway, in the midst of screaming at me, my girlfriend gazes back to see this guy staring at her while doing his "walking military press", and she gives him a cold stare that sent him scurrying back off into the weight room!   She told me about it the next day and I thought it was pretty damn funny   That one goes down in the gym etiquette file!