right eating: break out of binary thinking of just 1 or 2 meals a day

 

I wanted to share a great idea I've implemented the past year or so.
I keep the Buddha's right eating rules in the suttas:

Eat in the window between sunrise (about 6am) and solar noon (about 12pm).

So that's a 6 hour window of eating, 

and a 18 hour fasting period of just water.

 

The Buddha's preference is eating in 1 session a day,

but he made allowance for 2 sessions for those with age, health issues.

For health reasons, despite trying a few times, I'm not able to maintain 1 session a day,

so for the past 20 years or so by far I've been doing 2 meals, breakfast and lunch.

Occasionally, depending on what I anticipate the activity level for the day,

I'll literally "treat myself" to just one meal instead of two. 

"Literally" means I'm serious, I'm not being sarcastic, I'm not joking. 

I look forward to avoiding the pain, time, energy of having to prepare just one meal a day instead of 2.

I look forward to eating less food and having less meals, 

as much as a regular person looks forward to treating themselves out to a fancy meal or buffet and stuffing themselves silly.

Truly, the Dhamma goes against the grain.

Very often, we find pleasure where regular people find pain, and vice versa.

So what's someone with health issues who aspires to eat one session per day instead of 2 to do?

I'd experimented with many permutations of ideas,

such as small breakfast, big lunch,

big breakfast, small lunch,

just a smoothie for lunch and big breakfast, 

and so forth, but keeping the same 6am breakfast and 12 noon eating window.

So the past year or so,

I realized there was another variable I didn't experiment with,

and it's the eating window.

The reason I hadn't done this, 

is because I always wanted to follow a daily eating structure compatible with most monasteries,

in case I stay there for a 6 month retreat or something.

But since in practice, 

I prefer a solitary existence, preparing my own healthy and simple meals,

there's no reason I can't set my eating parameters in a way to transition into one session a day eating gradually.

The big idea: focus on decreasing the window gradually, dynamically, naturally

naturally

Naturally means listening to my body,

eat according to the energetic needs of my body for that day,

rather than being rigid and trying to force a time schedule.

So don't eat breakfast until I'm hungry and need energy.

and then lunch at solar noon is the amount of food I need to sustain energy for the remaining 24 hours.

dynamically

means some days I need to increase the window, some day I need to decrease according to energetic needs. Don't get attached to forcing "improvement".

Whenever it feels right, I can treat myself to a one session a day.

Avoid binary thinking, rigid thinking, such as "I have to be a one session a day eater",

or "I'm not living up to the Buddha's standards by having to eat two meals per day."

Think more in terms of how much food do I need to sustain energy for a full 24 hours.

When you undereat to the point that the last few hours of the 24 hour cycle you're so tired from lack of food and energy that you can't think, you can't function,

yet you can't sleep, 

that's your body telling you you're eating wrong for your age and health condition.

gradually

means you gradually become a better "right eater",

in terms of comprehending the true purpose of food,

not necessarily gradually becoming a full time one session a day eater,

which just might not be (healthily) possible for some people.

progress in the past year

So I used to have about a 6 hour eating window,

now I'd say I'm at about 4.5 hour average after several months of doing this.

With good exercise and meditation, as my health continues to improve,

I believe the window can get down to about 3 hours.

Once the window is 3 hrs or less, then it starts to make real sense to 

do something more like eat single session every other day, as an example,

and a 4hr window on days where I need more food.