Comments on: Twig Obsession

By: Jihan

Jihan — Sun, 17 Oct 2010 11:26:45 +0000

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.

By: A name is power so not evan a false one

A name is power so not evan a false one — Fri, 14 May 2010 03:27:33 +0000

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.

By: Kiki

Kiki — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 10:05:34 +0000

Eat when hungry and stop before the full, fill your belly with 1/3 drinks, 1/3 food and 1/3 air.

By: katelyn

katelyn — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 16:37:10 +0000

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

By: Diane

Diane — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 10:20:29 +0000

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.

By: Natalie

Natalie — Mon, 25 May 2009 12:26:49 +0000

Thank you.

By: Natalie

Natalie — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 18:15:36 +0000

Thank you.

By: Marie-Christine

Marie-Christine — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 11:33:15 +0000

Inner beauty is what counts, not counting calories.

By: Lenti Lentejas

Lenti Lentejas — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 14:41:46 +0000

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.

By: jonr

jonr — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 20:45:15 +0000

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.