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Lesson 8 Should We Diet in Order to Keep Fit？Text How Does It Feel to Lose Weight？Here is a conversation between a heart specialist and a heart patient.Vic： I've been feeling very lonely. I can't explain it, I'm in a crowd but I feel lonely. And so today, .I tried to get in touch with it . The loneliness and sadness are there because several things are going on. One, I don't like my body. Two, I am very angry with my body for having heart disease. Dean： Do you want to do an imagery exercisel？Vic： Yes. Dean： Okay, Please close your eyes and put yourself in a meditative state. If at any time you feel like this is not something you want to do, I'11 rely on you to tell me that. Begin by visualizing your body. What kind of image do you get？Vic： Just mounds of flesh. A wall of fat. Dean： Imagine that your body has a voice of its own. Tell it hello. Ask it to just say hello to you, just to identify itself. Does it？Vic： [pause] it says “hello” back. I'm amazedl Its voice is different from mine. Dean： Ask it if it has a name. Vic： It says, “Fat .”Dean： Ask “Fat” what is its purpose in your life. Vic： [pause] It says, “To give me support. To shield me. To protect me.”Dean： Ask it what it is shielding you from. Vic： It says, “From everyone. I'm your best friend.”Dean： In what way is it your friend？Vic： It says, “I've been protecting you.”Dean： Ask it what it has been protecting you from. Vic： It says, “You don't have to do a lot of things because you're fat. ”Dean： Ask it if it's protecting you from anything else？Vic： [pause] Yes, it says it's been protecting me from my feelings. Dean： Okay-ask it if it's protecting you from any feelings in particular. Vic： [pause] It says, “From loneliness.”Dean： When it says that, do any other images or feelings come to your awareness？Vic： Somehow I remember getting fat when I was seven. I see myself going into a room feeling like I was all right, and finding out I was not all right . So my life has been about justification. Justification about being all right. Being accepted. So I used food as a friend. My fat says it protects me from feeling bad. I have a lot of resistance to change. I have a lot invested in this fat. And to give it up is like giving up a friend. It's been a barrier but it's also a friend. It's a friend that gets in the way sometimes, but it also serves me really well. But my size limits me in what I want to do now. Dean： Stay with those feelings now. Ask “Fat” what it needs from you now. Vic： [pause] It says that it needs to be told it's all right the way it is. Dean： Maybe you could start by thanking it for shielding, protecting you from loneliness all these years. Vic： [pause] All right. Dean： Does the wall say anything in reply？Vic： It agrees. It says, “It's about time.”Dean： Good. Now ask if it would be willing to open up, to stop shielding you all the time. If you could find a different way to shield yourself when you need it-one that is easier to open and close. Vic： A replacement-is that what you are saying？Dean Yes. Something that you could use to shield yourself when you need it, but isn' t there all the time when you want to open up. See what it says. Vic： [pause] It says, “Yes.”Dean： Ask it what you need to do f or it to begin opening up. Vic： [pause] To get massaged. To be, perhaps, more vulnerable. To allow myself to be touched. Dean： What images or feelings come to mind of your body in that way？Vic： I'd feel freer. Dean： How would you look？ Ask “Fat”, the one that protects you and shields you, if it would give you a different image of your body. How your body would look if you were more open and less shielded all the time. Vic： Okay. Dean： What does it say？Vic： [pause] If I'm willing, it's willing. Dean： Good . W hat image do you see？ You can always go back to the fat image if you need it. Vic： I see a thinner body. Dean： What does it look like？Vic： It looks thinner. But it looks disfigured The fat is very disfigured. Dean： How so？Vic： It's full of stretch marks. Saggy skin. Dean： Okay. What does that body have to say？Vic： [pause] To try and attain it anyway. To try to achieve it. That it's okay to have a thinner body that' s not perfect. Dean： Do any other images or feelings come to your awareness？Vic： I feel uncomfortable and sad……II. Read Read the following passages. Underline the important viewpoints while reading. 1. We Should All Grow Fat and Be Happy Here's a familiar version of the boy-meets-girl situation. A young man has at last plucked up courage to invite a dazzling young lady out to dinner. She has accepted his invitation and he is overjoyed. He is determined to take her to the best restaurant in town, even if it means that he will have to live on memories and hopes during the month to come. When they get to the restaurant, he discovers that this etherial creature is on a diet. She mustn't eat this and she mustn't drink that. Oh, but of course, she doesn' t want to spoil his enjoyment. Lct him by all means eat as much fattening food as he wants： it's the surest way to an early grave. They spend a truly memorable even：ng together and never see each other again.What a miserable lot dieters arel You can always recognize them from the sour expression on their faces. They spend most of their tixne turning their noses up at food. 'They are forever consulting calorie charts； gazing at themselves in mirrors； and leaping on to weighing-machines in the bathroom. They spend a lifetime fighting a losing battle against spreading hips, protruding tummies and double chins Some wage all-out war on fat . Mere dieting is not enough.They exhaust themselves doing exercises, sweating in sauna baths, being pummelled and massaged by weird machines. The really wealthy diet-mongers pay vast sums for “health cures？ For two weeks they can enter a ”nature clinic“ and be starved to death for a hundred guineas a week. Don't think it's only the middle-aged who go in for these fads either. Many of these bright young things you see are suffering from chronic malnutrition： they are living on. nothing but air, water and the goodwill of God.Dieters undertake to starve themselves of their own free will so why are they so miserable？ Well, for one thing, they're always bungry. You can't be hungry and happy at the same time. All the horrible concoctions they eat instead of food leave, them permanenily dissatisfied. “Wonderfood is a complete food,'~ the advertisement says. ”Just dissolve a teaspoonful in water……“A complete food it may.be, but not quite as complete as a juicy steak. And, of course, they're always miserable because they feel so guilty. Hunger just proves too much for them and in the end they lash out and devour five huge guilt-inducing cream cakes at a sitting. And who can blame them？ At least three times a day they are exposed to temptation. What utter torture it is always watching others tucking into piles of mouth-watering food while you munch a water biscuit and sip unsweetened lemon juice！What's all this self-inflicted torture for？ Saintly people deprive themselves of food to attain a state of grace. Unsaintly people do so to attain a state of misery. It will be a great day when all the dieters in the world abandon their slimming courses； when they hold out their plates and demand second helpings！ |
