Jon Barr > Recent Status Updates

"Since when are you so intelligent as to go around correcting other people's mistakes?" 1.18.11

"I must die. But must I die bawling?" 1.1.22

Didn't expect to hear Haggai quoted in this book...

Fun, quick read. I asked a good friend who is familiar with graphic novels what I should read to check off the box on the Metropolitan Library's Winter Reading Challenge. This was his recommendation and it was a good one.

Straightforward advice on mindfulness from someone who has put in the time and effort to be an expert.

"I could hear him climbing the stairs, his footsteps leaden, like a man climbing the gallows. I wondered if he was the condemned or the executioner." (That's not an exact quote, but it's close.)

Chapter 6 covers the first of 10 Principles, "Reject the Diet Mentality." Included in this chapter is the first mention of an IE journal, which I'm glad to hear of. The amount of introspection necessary to carry of this method will certainly require a means of tracking your feelings. The authors also clarify their definition of "diet" painting with broad strokes to include a variety of strategies.

Chapter 5 outlines the stages of becoming an Intuitive Eater. Along the way the authors make sure to further demonize dieting at every chance. In this 9 page chapter alone, dieting is to blame for: your belief that your weight is a measure of your worth, pressuring you to meet unrealistic goals, feeling stuck, frustrated and discouraged, disconnecting you from your internal eating drive and true food preferences, etc

Chapter 4 quickly introduces the 10 Principles of Intuitive Eating. These range from the terrific "Feel Your Fullness" advising the reader to stop eating when they're full to the self-defeating "Movement - Feel the Difference" which advocates regressing your exercise routine to simple movement. Exercise without a plan is a waste of time and will get no results, so suggesting removing the science is bad advice.

The authors are beginning to slowly replace common terminology with more gentle words and phrases. If they had a glossary explaining these terms or at least parenthetically explained their usage, that would be fine. Instead, it feels sneaky when the terms "overweight" or "obese" are suddenly replaced by "people in larger bodies." I have no problem with the phrase, but it feels like I'm being tricked.

I'm running across repeated instances of terms with which I am unfamiliar being dropped in the text with no definition and without sufficient context clues to help me fully understand them. Examples include "body consciousness," "weight stigma," and, most frustratingly "orthorexia." I have had to stop reading in order to look up these terms. The last one was used incorrectly by the authors.

The end of Chapter 1 - "The Science Behind Intuitive Eating" features a chart summarizing the research findings of characteristics of Intuitive Eating. In two columns, they list "Intuitive Eaters Have Lower" and "Intuitive Eaters Have Higher." Combined, there are 20 characteristics. Only 4 (20%) are quantitative factors (lower triglycerides, lower blood pressure, higher variety of foods eaten, higher HDL).

Chapter 1 - "The Science Behind Intuitive Eating" recounts a multitude of studies that support the idea. However, most of these studies rely on self-reported feelings and emotions. Only two mentions of measurable data (BMI in both cases.) I understand IE is not about weight control (the idea is demonized repeatedly) but if you're writing a chapter about Science, there must be some math involved.

I'm going to stop reading this one. It's interesting and as detailed a travelogue as I could ever want, but it's just taking me forever and my interest is waning.

New media screentime (such as electronic devices and social media) contributes to mental health issues and unhappiness in two ways: first, the actual time spent on new media can lead to depression, anxiety, etc. Second, new media detracts from two of the main sources of happiness and contentment: in-person interaction and print media.

My takeaway: put down the phone and see real live humans or read a book.

Listening to the audiobook. Had to pause listening so I could finish laughing.

The older brother in the Parable of the Prodigal Son is the personification of envy and the precursor of social media.

Relief vs. restoration. Entertainment, comfort food, drugs and alcohol; these things can bring relief. But restoration comes only by the grace of God and requires more intention on our part - nature, solitude, meditation and the like. He calls relief and restoration "leagues apart."

The introduction spoke to me. "I'm asking my soul to live at the speed of smartphones."

"If you are unhappy in a relationship, you are the one who is probably at fault. A strong statement? Absolutely. But if you can come to grips with the truth of it, it will change your marriage and your life."

The Sabbath: God's original airplane mode

The author compares rest to breathing. We (modern Americans) work for months, then take a brief vacation when we are exhausted. The author asks you to imagine someone holding their breath at all times and only taking a gasping breath when they are about to pass out. Rest is like breathing.

Regarding the societal belief that people who stay up late and prefer to sleep in are lazy or making poor choices: "Night owls are not owls by choice. They are bound to a delayed schedule by unavoidable DNA hardwiring. It is not their conscious fault, but rather their genetic fate."

"Apparently it's easier, or at least a lot more profitable to change a disease of civilization into a lifestyle than it is to change the way that civilization eats."