My “just-for-show” physique is finally changing!

When I wrote last month’s column, my waist had decreased by 5cm. Now, one month later, it’s down another 4cm (though it’s not yet stable). In other words, I’m just 1cm away from my goal of minus 10cm. It seems to be noticeable even through my clothes, as people have been commenting more often, “You’re as slim as ever.” My weight sometimes dips into numbers I haven’t seen since my twenties, so I’ve truly become slim again after a long time. Previously, my limbs were slender in proportion to my waist, making my “just-for-show” physique appear “as slim as ever.” Now, my appearance finally matches my reality.

Incidentally, I’m doing nothing more than what I described in last month’s column to achieve this weight loss. That is, I’m slightly incorporating the Natural Hygiene diet: eating fruit as is or in a smoothie for breakfast, and starting lunch and dinner with raw vegetables or having leafy greens in a smoothie. Otherwise, I’m eating as usual. Furthermore, I fell two weeks ago and injured my wrists, elbows, and knees, so I haven’t been able to run, and yoga and Curvy Dance have been difficult. Despite this, my waist has shrunk by another 4cm during this period, so I can only attribute it to the effects of Natural Hygiene.

Feeling lighter and better when eating only about 70% full

However, it might also be the conscious effort to control my food intake that’s paying off. We’ve always been told that eating to 80% capacity is healthy, but I’ve realized that’s still too much. I feel lighter and better when I eat only about 70% full. Also, perhaps it’s just me, but when I eat until 80% full, I tend to get carried away and can’t stop until I’m 100% full (meaning, completely stuffed). To stop at 80% requires considerable willpower for me. But if I stop at 70%, just before getting carried away, I can easily put down my chopsticks and say, “Okay, I’m done.” And I can feel the pleasantness of the 30% space left in my stomach.

This difference of 10% is a personal sensation, so it can’t be quantified in terms of calories. But I believe that calculating calories is inherently nonsensical, as everyone has a different body size and constitution. Isn’t it more important to pay attention to our own sensations of feeling “light” or “heavy”?

Can’t even eat my favorite sushi!?

I’ve also come to understand something else about my body. We’re told that it’s important to eat a balanced diet of 30 different items or to eat a wide variety, but I realized that consuming so many different types of food in one meal would be incredibly taxing for digestion, making my “internal organs” tired. Apparently, digesting proteins like meat and fish requires acidic digestive enzymes, while carbohydrates like rice and bread need alkaline digestive enzymes. This means that eating a full-course meal requires using various digestive enzymes, and it takes a lot of time and energy to digest. They say the energy required for such digestion is equivalent to the energy consumed in a full marathon! For the same reason, my favorite sushi, with its combination of different digestive enzymes, is also a no-go. I choose to ignore this fact and limit my intake (laughs).

The order of eating and breathing exercises is actually the same

Another thing I’ve experienced is that the lighter my breakfast, the more comfortable my body feels, and ideally, it would be best not to eat breakfast at all (though I can’t manage that yet. More laughs). I once read that ancient people woke with the sunrise, worked in the fields, and then ate breakfast. This means they didn’t eat before working. I now understand the reason: eating diverts the body’s energy towards digestion. So, the principle of eating should be to replenish energy after working, not to eat before working because you need energy. Isn’t the order of breathing exercises also about exhaling completely until your stomach is flat before inhaling? Eating seems to follow the same principle.

In this way, over the past month, I’ve been eating while experiencing various things about the act of “eating” alongside Natural Hygiene, which may have led to the total reduction of 9cm.

My own standards for “delicious” and “just right”

Even so, I still have a strong appetite, so I often eat and drink to 120% capacity, and I frequently find myself regretting eating dishes that look “difficult to digest.” Of course, being able to eat is a happiness in itself. And some might say, “Why not just eat whatever you want without overthinking it?” I used to think the same way, admiring those who could eat simply and sparingly. But now that I’ve experienced the feeling of eating “foods and portions that make my body feel light and good,” I’ve come to dislike and be fed up with feeling heavy (not in terms of weight) after eating as much as I want, as I used to.

I hope to soon reach a point where my standard for “delicious” and “just right” is based on foods and portions that my body rejoices in, rather than on the sensation of “deliciousness” born from human desire.