By Paulo Coelho
The Brazilian philosopher and composer Tim Maia once said : “I decided to go into a draconian diet, cutting drinks, fat, and sugar. In two weeks, I lost 14 days”.
We are obsessed with the Elixir of Eternal Youth, and one of the ways we found to keep younger was being as skinny as a tree twig. In my new book, “The Witch of Portobello”, the main character discusses this obsession – and the waste of energy put into this. Of course you may say: a healthy food does no harm, and you are right. But this is not what Athena is discussing in the text below.
“Today, before we close, we’re going to talk about diet. Forget all about slimming regimes.”
“We have survived for all these millennia because we have been able to eat. And now that seems to have become a curse. Why? What is it that makes us, at forty years old, want to have the same body we had when we were young? Is it possible to stop time? Of course not. And why should we be thin?”
I heard a kind of murmuring in the crowd. They were probably expecting a more spiritual message.
“We don’t need to be thin. We buy books, we go to gyms, we expend a lot of brain power on trying to hold back time, when we should be celebrating the miracle of being here in this world. Instead of thinking about how to live better, we’re obsessed with weight.
“Forget all about that. You can read all the books you want, do all the exercise you want, punish yourself as much as you want, but you will still have only two choices – either stop living or get fat.
“Eat in moderation, but take pleasure in eating: it isn’t what enters a person’s mouth that’s evil, but what leaves it. Remember that for millennia we have struggled in order to keep from starving. Whose idea was it that we had to be thin all our lives?
“I’ll tell you: the vampires of the soul, those who are so afraid of the future that they think it’s possible to stop the wheel of time. Use the energy and effort you put into dieting to nourish yourself with spiritual bread. Know that the Great Mother gives generously and wisely. Respect that and you will get no fatter than passing time demands. Instead of artificially burning those calories, try to transform them into the energy required to fight for your dreams. No one ever stayed slim for very long just because of a diet.”
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To be honest with you Mr Coelho, I feel better when I’m slim. I feel lighter, more energetic and more confident of my appearance. And I am almost forty. I do follow a strict diet, but I allow myself times when I eat all I want. I also exercise religiously. To me it’s not about stopping time, but about aging gracefully. At the same time, I do nourish my spirit (see, I read your books!).
I have suffered much for the sake of being slim, it’s true, but to me it is suffering for good reason, and as I do allow myself the pleasure of sweets from time to time, I am not deprived, but find that it is all about BALANCE. You can’t always have what you want, and you can’t always be deprived. Balance and discipline together are what bring results.
To ask me to talk of food is to leave a loaded shot gun unlocked and cocked or wahtever the proper term is.
I would think that most “normal persons are ok with this advice but that ask someone with a REAL problem with food to follow this advice is like asking an alcoholic to just not drink.
None theless on my learing to live again I am able to use the passage to help me.
I hope it healps even more people, more then me.
Just typeing this makes me want to puke,cry and I feel light headed and ready to bolt. Something hard and metal blocks my chest and I’m in pian. I think normal people don’t feel that when talking of food. And I think these are the one that the lady spoke to that day. In thier contex it makes sense.
Eat when hungry and stop before the full, fill your belly with 1/3 drinks, 1/3 food and 1/3 air.
this is a nice article but sorry im 14 no disrespect or anything but all this nourishing your soul stuff sounds very hippyish so i really didnt understand anything. thanx though lol
Thank you.
Thank you.
Inner beauty is what counts, not counting calories.
I am 43 years old now. I was in the ICU in a hospital in Dubai for 5 days to have my irregular heartbeat corrected. The stay cost $15,000 (which my health insurance will pay of course.) to tell me to have a diet and to lose 20 lbs from my body weight. Now, I cannot eat the food I always enjoyed. I can eat as much soup and fruits and veggies that I want. All my life I lived my life without fear or control. I never regretted the things that I have done but now, I will regret all the things that I did not do. To have tasted life when you had the opportunity and to have lived as much as I can. I have only one choice now when before I had plenty.
only two choices? one must overeat to be “living”?
How many taste the second or third forkful?
How many seek to fill their bellies instead of nourishing their souls?
Enough food is enough food. We can eat and be in balance, neither twigs nor cows, if we but savor each morsel and each moment.
I don’t think that the main point is to overeat to be living. It’s about the obsession with weight and looks instead of actually living your life fully.
I myself was struggling with compulsive overeating for 9 years. The thing was that when I was a teen I believed that you should be of a certain body shape if you want to be happy, to have friends and to find love. As silly as it may sound, but this belief has brought me lots of suffering, that I’m starting to get over it only now, 9 years later. I remember myself reading all those glamorous magazines, looking at skinny models and believing that being like them will bring you joy and happiness in life. I believed it because I was too young to analyze it well.
And it does steal one’s soul. Because instead of spending time with my friends, or going to a date, or enjoying some hobby, I spend time alone, thinking I’m too fat to enjoy life. It is not about being actually thin or fat. It is about one’s mind’s constant preoccupation with looks, weight, dieting, etc.