How Joe Yonan of the Washington Post got rid of pounds, cravings, and reflexive eating

For the month of January (in the spirit of new year’s resolutions) five Washington Post staff members each took on a different diet to change their eating habits, chronicling their results in 5 Diets, a single resolution to eat better in the new year: Which Will Work.

Washington Post Food takes on Buddha's Diet and gets rid of pounds and cravings

Joe Yonan, the Food and Dining Editor selected our very own Buddha’s Diet, what he called a “deceptively little book with a catchy title” for his journey.  He found (as we suspected he would) that Buddha’s Diet not only brought him weight loss, but wisdom as well. Though the 30-day experiment is over, Joe’s writes “I’m not changing a thing.” Joe has new habits and new discoveries as a result.

Joe’s Eating Discoveries:

  • It’s now second nature to finish dinner and stop eating for the day (and feel fine about it).
  • After a month on Buddha’s Diet, the reflexive cravings that happened after dinner are gone
  • Slowing down to eat comes more naturally. It takes 20 minutes (say studies) for the brain to register fullness. The slow down means Joe reduces the risk of overeating.
  • Mornings are less hectic. Instead of rushing to eat, he now as a few moments of stillness, tea drinking and reading.
  • Despite outside stressors (an IRS audit for one, to say nothing of current events) he managed to maintain his weight loss from previous weeks and even drop a bit more
  • And perhaps more importantly, he’s going to stay on it. When was the last time you heard someone say that about a diet?

For us, the best part of hearing about Joe’s success is not losing weight, but the other things he’s lost – the cravings, the rush to eat, the mindless stress eating. Joe writes “I was looking for a radical shift in perspective, a way to truly break some habits that weren’t doing me (or my waistline) any favors.” It sounds like he’s found it.

 

 

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