weightcontrol photos on Flickr

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Concept Series 2010

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By "The Japanese Diet," I mean a way of getting and staying slim inspired by the Japanese lifestyle, rather than what the Japanese eat, and I'm not saying I do all these things.

Eat slowly, with smaller bites using chopsticks

Use smaller plates (Wansink, Ittersum, & Painter, 2006),

Eat a variety of things in very small portions,

Cut your slices of bread in half,

And bring your food to your eyes, so it looks big, like a bonsai tree

Enjoy eating, the taste, texture, look, variety of your food

But do not use food as a way of cheering yourself up

Try to believe that treating yourself with food is less fun than treating yourself with being thin - Kate Moss "Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels" is also a maxim in Japan.

Don't talk when eating, concentrate on your food

Think of food as a gift from all people who made it possible, and say an undirected "thank you" before you start your meal.

Do not drink sweet drinks, which are only for children. They contain 6-13 teaspoons of sugar

Do not drink fruit juice, which is only seemingly healthy

If you do drink fruit juice water it down by up to ten to one

Drink green tea, black coffee, wheat tea (mugi cha), or water

Do not eat sweets, which are only for children

If you do eat sweet things only in miniature, and not very sweet

Do not eat dairy products, which are for children, or hefers

Do not eat cheese which is concentrated bulking up food, not even for cattle

Eat less, more often

Eat vegetables Eat vegetables!

Always "eat" soup before your meal

Treat proteins as flavourings, for your vegetable matter, rather than as a way of filling yourself up

Remember that meats are dead animals by eating it raw and call your "beef" cow and your "pork" pig, and eat fish, or failing that chicken in preference to both.

Soy, and other beans, is the best source of protein eat lots of it in many forms (Eda beans, bean sprouts, tofu, miso, kinako ground roasted soya beans, red bean paste which is Japanese for chocolate, natto and others). The Japanese are made of soy!

Rice is better than bread

Cold rice is less calorific than hot

Exercise is better than calorie reduction

Wear clothes that fit, no baggies

Get smaller clothes as you get thinner (second hand shops help gaijin, but Japanese usually buy clothes new)

Enjoy your clothes and your appearance

Try to look at the world, by always carrying a camera.

Find ways of enjoying your body, especially as it gets thinner

Take selfies!

Look in the mirror (Nagumo, 2012)

Get naked in front of other people

Go to the pool, beach, or public baths

Do things that you could not do before, climb a mountain, run for your bus, or get a longer bicycle stem to get longer and lower when you can.

Try to improve your posture

necklaces, sit on the floor, stiff rucksacks, martial arts (see below)

Go to bed early and get up early

Exercise in the morning

See exercise as a form of worship, and your body as a temple.

Do exercises which are a repetition of set forms, ideally with others, such as yoga, aerobics or karate

This encourages you to realise what you yourself look like

Drink alcohol only with others (at parties)

or immediately before sleep, never during the day, and like sugar never as a way of cheering yourself up.

Talk, and think in a deep voice; high voices are for other people

Try not to think in words, words are for other people.

Be aware of what thoughts as words are - excuses or cake. (Nisbett and Wilson, 1977; Libet 2008, Soon, Brass, Heinze, Haynes, 2008, Kim, 2002)

Be aware of what cake is - autoaffection (Derrida, 2013)

Judge your own behaviour visually, by imagining it, or thinking about how it looks to others, from their reaction especially.

Listen to your breathing or chant a mantra

Do no criticise others, everyone is trying, nor praise yourself

Linguistic praise is something that is or should be only transitive (the only sort of self praise to allow yourself is narcissistic, in the literal sense - an enjoyment of your self imagining, photos, mirror reflection)

Do things for others, especially children

Sleep, and bathe, with your children. There is no better way of enjoying your body.

The dark side of Japanese thinness

Smoke cigarettes in moderation (and die thin)

Do not eat much of anything, shrink the size of your stomach, and die with haemorrhoids (which seem to be prevalent in Japan)

Very un-Japanese Bibliography

Derrida, J. (2013). Of grammatology. JHU Press. books.google.co.jp/books?id=iagJAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA165&amp...

Haidt, J. (2001). The emotional dog and its rational tail: a social intuitionist approach to moral judgment. Psychological review, 108(4), 814. student.cc.uoc.gr/uploadFiles/179-%CE%9A%CE%A8%CE%92364/m...

Kim, H. S. (2002). We talk, therefore we think? A cultural analysis of the effect of talking on thinking. Journal of personality and social psychology, 83(4), 828. www.researchgate.net/profile/Heejung_Kim5/publication/110...

Nisbett, R. E., & Wilson, T. D. (1977). Telling more than we can know: verbal reports on mental processes. Psychological review, 84(3), 231. l3d.cs.colorado.edu/~ctg/classes/cogsci12/rdg/nisbett-wil...

Soon, C. S., Brass, M., Heinze, H. J., & Haynes, J. D. (2008). Unconscious determinants of free decisions in the human brain. Nature neuroscience, 11(5), 543-545. projects.ecfs.org/pchurch/ATBiology/Papers2012/unconsciou...

Wansink, B., Ittersum, K. van, & Painter, J. E. (2006). Ice Cream Illusions. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 31(3), 240–243. doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2006.04.003

Nagumo, Y. 南雲吉則. (2012). 長生きしたい人は「鏡」を見なさい. 朝日新聞出版.

because you're worth it by madamepsychosis

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Joyfully Counting Calories by Charm and Poise

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No date, alas.

Evolution, American-Style by Mike Licht

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Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

But Does Right Swingin' Keep You Eating? by Charm and Poise

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Published 1969

USACE promotes healthy living in Europe with employee-run support group by U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Europe District

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Katie Ergenekon (left), U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Europe District program manager, and Raquel “Q” Blankenhorn, a district contract specialist, host the district’s Healthy Living Support Group Jan. 11, 2012, at the Amelia Earhart Center in Wiesbaden, Germany. The first meeting of the New Year focused on new beginnings, setting goals and group planning. The group was formed by Ergenekon and Blankenhorn in 2010 as a way to promote healthier life choices including better eating habits, weight control, and physical fitness for its members. (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers photo by Carol E. Davis)

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