Download Mindful Eating Health Radio March 21, 2007 Donald

Mindful Eating
Health Radio
March 21, 2007
Donald Altman
Please remember the opinions expressed on Patient Power are not necessarily the views of Health Radio, our
sponsors, partners or Patient Power. Our discussions are not a substitute for seeking medical advice or care
from your own doctor. Please have this discussion you’re your own doctor, that’s how you’ll get care that’s
most appropriate for you.
Introduction
Andrew Schorr:
Hello. Thanks for joining us again on HealthRadio. I'm Andrew Schorr, and I want to
begin to tell you a story, as I do, a little more stories about things each day on Patient
Power on HealthRadio. Put them all together and you're going to know my life story. So
here's another story, and there's a point, of course, about our guest today and a lot of
powerful takeaways you're going to get on mindful eating. Keep that in mind because
we've talked so much about America's weight problem and we eat when we're stressed or
we don't eat when we're stressed, or people who are painfully thin and deep health
problems and you can see that at the supermarket counter with all the magazines of you
know who there, all those folks who are in rehab or should be. We're going to get to all
that, but I want to tell you about this journey that I went on. And the man is our guest,
he went on with me some of the time.
So about 25 years ago I was living in Los Angeles. I live in Seattle now and I've got three
kids and I'm doing this radio show and I'm devoted to health, but then I was trying to
figure things out. And I thought, well, I'll be a screenwriter, that would be cool,
Hollywood. Well, I was working in television to make some money but trying to do the
screenwriting on the side, and one day I was doing a consumer television news story
about eyeglasses and vision and computers affecting your vision, and there was a patient
who was at the optometrist so we interviewed him, and after doing the story I just ended
up chatting with him. And, you know, you meet some people in life and you instantly hit
it off. That's only happened to me a few times, but it happened with this gentleman,
Donald Altman. And guess what. He too was working at being a screenwriter, and he
said, well, why don't we try to work on it together. And so we did, and we put in lots of
hours. And we used to go to movies in Westwood by UCLA at 1:30 in the afternoon.
We'd sneak sandwiches in because we didn't have much money, you know, didn't want to
pay the money for the popcorn. Don't tell anyone. And we'd work on our screenplays.
And we wrote some funny ones. I'd like to tell you we even had an agent and I'd love to
tell you that, you know, they're at a theater near you, well, it hasn't happened yet.
So we each went on our journey, and I moved to Seattle, but Don moved to Portland. But
you have to, remember, he's going to tell us now, but along the way he became a
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Buddhist monk, far, far from screenwriting. And you need to know Don was originally a
Jewish guy from the suburbs of Chicago, so quite a change. But along the way he got to
thinking about what he'll describe as mindful eating. And so today Don is an author. He's
written seven books. He's a professional counselor in the Portland area. He does
seminars on mindful eating, has this wonderful website called mindfulpractices.com, and
he has a lot to say about America's weight problem, being overweight or too thin but
basically the role of food and what should be healthy living. So, pal, Don Altman, thanks
for being with us on my radio show.
Mr. Altman:
Well, thank you, Andrew. And I really have a smile while you were telling that story about
our history as screenwriters, and, you know, we did come up with some funny stories and
who knows.
Andrew Schorr:
There may be more and they may be in a theater some day. I wonder if it can be like
great artists, you know, they're not famous until they're dead. We'll see. But the point is,
Don, is that and I'm sure becoming a Buddhist monk you had lots of time to think about
things, and it's really a journey, isn't it? And probably that writing and the thought and
even the process has helped you where you've gone, right?
Binge Eating and Finding Peace
Mr. Altman:
Oh, yeah. It's really interesting. When I went into the monastery and I'd like to share
some things that I don't think I may have ever told you.
Andrew Schorr:
Sure.
Mr. Altman:
What happened, was that before I went into the monastery I had my own eating issues,
which you may or may not have been aware of.
Andrew Schorr:
No, I wasn't.
Mr. Altman:
Yeah, I mean I really had a problem moderating my food intake, and I would binge eat a
lot. Most binge eaters don't tell other people, even friends, right, that they're doing this.
So if I was feeling stressed out I would go eat. I would buy a box of cookies but I'd have
to eat the whole box, or I'd eat the whole half a gallon of ice cream. I couldn't moderate
it. And before I went into the monastery I knew this was going to be an issue for me
because what the monks in that particular tradition did, and it's the Theravada Buddhist
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tradition, which is in Laos, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Burma. It's the old school
of Buddhism, and what they would do is you would just have an early morning meal.
You'd wake up at like 3:30 in the morning and start doing meditation and different things,
and by 6:30 you would have a half hour breakfast, and then you'd have a lunch from 11
to noon, and then that was all you'd have to the day and maybe a juice or a cup of tea
later in the evening. So I really was concerned when I went in that I would be able to do
this. And of course I did what a lot of dieters do before they go on a diet. Before I went
into the monastery I went and had a huge meal. Kind of like my last meal, right?
Andrew Schorr:
Right.
Mr. Altman:
And then I went in and I took the vows, and it was very powerful and very moving for me.
And then after the ceremony and it's interesting. They give you a new name and the
name they gave me was (?) vyayama, which meant effort, right effort, which is really
what I kind of lacked. I hadn't put in the effort. So anyway myself and two other new
monks went back to this room, and this is kind of a funny story. It's the first lesson in
mindfulness around food that I got. We went into this room and there were three futons,
and I just went to one. Nobody said take this futon or that one, right? And I sat in it,
cross legged, and now I've got these saffron colored robes and I'm feeling very awkward
like, my god, what have I done. Like you said, I'm a Jewish guy from the suburbs of
Chicago, right?
Andrew Schorr:
Right.
Mr. Altman:
And now I'm sitting there, and I'm just feeling very strange. And I look over and my
futon was maybe just a foot and a half from the wall, and there was a small shelving unit
there and on it, I turned over and I looked, about 18 inches from any nose was a giant
Cadbury chocolate bar. Huge chocolate, you know, the giant one.
Andrew Schorr:
Yeah, I love them.
Mr. Altman:
Yeah. They're great, and the second I saw that I wanted to eat it. And I had just taken
the vow. This was in the afternoon, and I had taken a vow not to eat after 12 noon.
Andrew Schorr:
This is a test.
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Mr. Altman:
Yeah, I immediately thought somebody set me up. Well, you know, who would set me
up, right? But in my mind somebody set me up like they knew I was going to go on that
futon and they were going to put the candy bar right where I would see it. But anyway so
I look over, and one of the other monks, he's kind of exhausted, laying down. The other
monk is doing his prayer beads, chanting, and I had the thought, no one would see me. I
could eat the chocolate bar. And then I thought, wait, no I just took this vow. And then
this war started going on in my head, right? And I think that people who struggle with
food, and I really believe that to some extent it's universal, that I had this war going on.
And suddenly it was kind of almost like an out of body experience where all of a sudden
you witness what's happening and the observer part of me witnessed this war going on.
And the part of me that wanted the chocolate bar, that was obviously in pain or needed
comfort, needed soothing, needed some emotional help at this moment, and I watched
that.
Andrew Schorr:
With clarity.
Mr. Altman:
Yes. With clarity. The part of me that was watching it, that part didn't feel emotionally
hurt or wounded or anything, and I could see that. And I realized that the only way I
could get through the experience of being in the monastery and following my vow was not
to push that wounded voice away but to watch it and give it space, feel compassion for it
and at the same time do what I you know, follow my vow.
Andrew Schorr:
Wow. We're going to hear more of your story and understand how that was a revelation
for you, and now with your writing and your work really can be a revelation for so many
other people. So many other points you have too. Donald Altman, former screenwriter,
former Buddhist monk and now helping people with mindful eating. We'll be back with
more Patient Power and Don Altman, my best pal, right after this.
The Journey to Mindful Eating
Andrew Schorr:
Last night we did our premier special edition of Patient Power with the University of Texas
M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, and it was just great. And it was on cancer
prevention. So we'll be replaying that on HealthRadio Network, and you can also catch a
lot of replays on my website and my blog, patientpower.info. So take a listen.
But you now I want to get back to my dear friend and former Buddhist monk, Donald
Altman, who is a professional counselor and helps people with eating problems, eating
disorders, but what calls in a very positive way helping people towards mindful practices
for healthy living and mindful eating. So Don, there you were in the monastery, and you
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have to tell us, why did you become a Buddhist monk in the first place. We just need to
fill that in because we're all wondering.
Mr. Altman:
Okay. You know, I always had had an interest in spiritual pursuits, and I had the occasion
through my wife to meet this Burmese monk, and he turned out, he was a teaching monk
and in fact had written a book about mindfulness. And when I met him I was just really
struck by the kind of person he was. You could really sense the compassion and the
kindness that he had. And I really wanted to know how could somebody in this he was
from Burma, but how did somebody in this world nowadays come out with that quality.
So that was one of those things, meeting him, and he was the head of the monastery
when I went in. He had written about mindfulness, so the day that they told me to sit
across from him at the table, me who wasn't very mindful around food, that was a pretty
nerve wracking moment for me.
Andrew Schorr:
I bet it was.
Mr. Altman:
But I was able to observe him and talk with him about mindfulness a lot.
Andrew Schorr:
Now, we're not going to tell anybody yet whether you ate the candy bar. You've got to
stay tuned for that, folks. But, Don, so this bingeing you were doing, so this is cold
turkey, pal. So you go to the monastery. You had the big meal and then you're eating
these meals at 3:30 in the morning, so that was the end of bingeing, boom?
Mr. Altman:
You know what, I knew, I mean I had a good sense that if I went into the monastery I
would get to confront and start to learn what was happening at a deeper level with my
mind, with my emotions and why I was trying to get to the root of why I was eating like
that. I mean that was one of the reasons along with my desire for keeping my spiritual
practices in my life. And I later wrote a book as a result of those experiences, Art of the
Inner Meal.
Andrew Schorr:
Yeah, I loved that book.
Mr. Altman:
Oh, thanks. Yeah, explored how food is a spiritual path in all different traditions and talks
a lot about my experiences in the monastery as well with food. And then that led me on a
path where I started doing some workshops around that book. And people would come
up to me and say, I've got this really bad, I've got this eating disorder. And I didn't know
how to work with that, because I worked with the spiritual side of food. So I went back to
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school at that point and got my masters in counseling and then started working at the
eating disorder clinic at Providence St. Vincent here in Portland. It's an intensive
outpatient program here, and I worked there for two and a half years.
And sometimes I tell the people in the program, I'll tell the patients some people go to a
treatment center like this for help, others go to a monastery. We all try in a different way
to explore that. And then I work with them with mindful eating principles and helping
them experience different ways of approaching food and finding a different relationship
with food, and that's a lot of the work that I do with food.
How America Got off Track with Weight Management
Andrew Schorr:
Don, let me ask you, so we've talked on this program previously a lot about America's
weight problem and just I think the other day we were talking about people being
stressed and where do they go. Not only don't they exercise but then they head to the
refrigerator and often what's there or at the fast food restaurant are not at all the best
things for them. Or people may binge and like some of these young girls try to get rid of
it real fast so they don't put on weight. And then other people who otherwise starve
themselves, and I've known people like that. What's going on in America? Do you think
we're we've got these problems and they're so rampant.
Mr. Altman:
Yeah, it's really true, and I think there's a combination of elements if you look at the
etiology of this I think you'd have to say that it's somewhat cultural, of course. It's by the
images that we see. Some may be hereditary aspects of obsessive compulsive element in
there. Sometimes there's a little bit of that. And then just the personal psychology the
vulnerability to maybe not wanting to look at certain emotions and covering it up. So a
combination. It really is a psychosocial biological issue, I think. But socially
Andrew Schorr:
Do we think that overeating yes, socially it's a big you're always meeting people to eat.
Mr. Altman:
Right.
Andrew Schorr:
Eat heartily and for comfort, right?
Mr. Altman:
Right. And that's why diets don't work. I'm glad brought that up because diets often take
away the reasons we like food. And actually research has shown that people who are on
diets can actually end up gaining weight, and it may even trigger disordered eating. I like
to call it disordered eating instead of eating disorder because for me the eating disorder is
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kind of a label. Oh, I have an eating disorder. But a disordered eating is a behavior that
can be changed through a skill, you learning new skills, and that's how I like to position it
with people when I talk about it.
I'd like to mention just a recent study that came out, actually it was a task force of the
American Psychological Association, on the sexualization of girls in America, and it looked
at all forms of media. And their conclusion was that it impacted three different areas,
impacted self esteem, and you really see that in the eating disorder patients. There's,
you know, a low sense of self esteem. It impacts depression and mood and eating
disorders, you know. So actually if anybody wanted to Google that you could just look up
American Psychological Association sexualization of girls, and there's a whole report there
that you could bring up. This is a big issue.
So we need to be more educated and not just let these messages come and hypnotize us,
which is really what's happening a lot. I like to talk about the brain a lot, and I take a
mindful brain approach actually, looking at different how we can manage the effect of
stress on our lives.
“Twelve Weeks to Mindful Eating”
Andrew Schorr:
Let's begin to talk about that, Don, because what you did is, now you've written seven
books. This whole mindful eating idea, then you've put into your own life and become a
professional counselor and been helping patients, and you're doing seminars and you
have your new book and CD and you're doing classes, "12 Weeks to Mindful Eating," so
you have some specific steps. Let's start to walk through that, but it seems very much to
be the connection between your mind and what you want to put in your stomach and in
your mouth.
Mr. Altman:
Right.
Andrew Schorr:
Let's start.
Mr. Altman:
Okay. So the first part of, for example, for the 12 weeks to mindful eating, the first thing
I like to talk to people about is how do they change, what is our perspective on change,
and is there a mindful approach to change. So the older model is kind of the replacement
mechanical model for change, right? And it's kind of like the body is like a machine so we
just replace this part. And you know it works for some things, like hip replacement.
Andrew Schorr:
But not for this.
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Mr. Altman:
Or body parts.
Andrew Schorr:
We're going to take a break, Don, but we'll continue on this and you'll help us understand
how this is different. We're visiting with Donald Altman, who has "12 Weeks to Mindful
Eating," take a look at his website, mindfulpractices.com, and let's all of us get help for
how we see food and have it be in a positive way. More on Patient Power with me,
Andrew Schorr, right after this.
Andrew Schorr:
Thank you for being with us on Patient Power today and every day. I'm here, Andrew
Schorr, watching the sunshine in the Pacific Northwest. And my friend Donald Altman is
down the road in Portland, Oregon, not Portland, Maine, to be sure. It's probably a little
warmer in Portland, Oregon. And he's going to help us understand mindful eating, and
we're going to continue with that in a second. I just want to mention that tomorrow on
Patient Power there's someone else who went through their own epiphany. Don, you
know had become a Buddhist monk and was working on his issues with eating and now he
helps a lot of other people. He's a professional counselor, and he's written seven books
on mindful eating, and he'll help us understand more about that.
Tomorrow we're going to have a clinical social worker, Allison Shadday, who was
diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, a pretty severe, chronic autoimmune condition and can
be disabling. Fortunately there are many newer medicines that can help delay that or
maybe change that for some people. She's going to be with us to talk about her book, MS
and Your Feelings: Handling the Ups and Downs of Multiple Sclerosis. And there are
maybe four or five hundred thousand people with MS, you may know someone, so they'll
want to catch that on Patient Power at this time at this place.
But now back to my friend Donald Altman. Don, help us continue to understand mindful
eating.
What Is A Mindful Eater?
Mr. Altman:
Okay. You know, what does it mean to be a mindful eater, that's a real important
question for a lot of people who want to start looking at food in a new and maybe more
healthy way. And I don't know if you knew, Andrew, I am on the board of directors of a
place called The Center For Mindful Eating, it's a national organization.
Andrew Schorr:
I saw that on your website, which, folks, is mindfulpractices.com.
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Mr. Altman:
And so the center for mindful eating has developed some principles, and I'd like to maybe
share just a few of these.
Andrew Schorr:
Please.
Mr. Altman:
So someone who is a mindful eater acknowledges that there is no right or wrong way to
eat but that there are varying degrees of awareness around the experience of food. Just
think about how that could shift the feelings of guilt or feelings of shame and blame. This
is a non shame, non blame approach to eating actually. Another one is that the mindful
eater accepts that his or her eating experiences are unique, right, isn't trying to fit them
into the way that, well, you know, my family eats this way so I better do that or my
friends approach food like that. And there's a lot of peer pressure, and you mention the
obesity problem and also the problem that a lot of in colleges, for example, there's a lot
of pressure for females to try to keep their weight down to look a certain way and
experience food in a kind of limited way. So we're saying that your experiences really are
unique.
And then a mindful eater when it comes to health, experiences how he or she can act to
achieve specific health goals and becomes more attuned to the connection, the
consequences of eating and what that means to health. You know, a lot of this approach
is more it's an accepting way of looking at things. It's not a narrow way of looking at
things.
Andrew Schorr:
It sounds much more positive because I think so much of eating is negative. From your
mother saying eat this, all of us were told as kids clean your plate because there are
people starving in Africa or wherever, you know. Or you're so lucky, eat it all up. And so
now the plates have gotten larger, super size me, we've got to finish it, right?
Mr. Altman:
Right. That's a great point. And maybe that's why I always finished everything. I had to
learn
Andrew Schorr:
Eat your broccoli.
Mr. Altman:
Absolutely. President Bush never did. But you know I've had to learn to really pay
attention to my hunger and to notice when I am and this is also part of mindful eating is
really paying attention to your body and to the cues and noticing when you're full, so that
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then you can stop regardless of what might be left on the plate. You do it for your own
body's signals to you that you've had enough.
And it's also mindful eating is also another way of looking at hunger, that hunger isn't
something to be feared. I hear a lot of people worry about feeling hungry because then
they're afraid they're going to eat too much. And I work with a lot of people with
compulsive eating who don't really sense their hunger, and what's really happening I
believe is they're eating to cover up emotions. But if you can start to feel your hunger
then you can actually really empower yourself, gain back the power you've given away
through food to other things, you know, either your workplace, you might and I think
there are different environments where people give away their power to food, and could
be around the family, when there's stress there. It could be around the workplace. It
could be around pleasure eating. It could just be emotional eating. So there are ways
that we need to learn what are the areas, what are the places, the environments that
actually increase our stress and cause mindless eating.
A lot of the work I do is really around learning how to cool yourself down, learning how to
reduce your stress. I've actually learned from many patients I work with that you might
find this interesting, and I'd love to know if some of your listeners would find this to be
true that places like the giant shopping stores, you know, the giant super retail stores
trigger and this is a lot of the places where they offer food tastings and everything, that
those places can trigger compulsive eating and compulsive shopping. Really interesting.
Andrew Schorr:
Well, they probably love the compulsive shopping and maybe that's part of the plan. But,
yeah, it's quite an event. So it sounds to me just listening to it and grasping I think some
of the concepts and certainly it's set out in your books much more, and I know your
latest one, "12 Weeks to Mindful Eating," and you have classes related to that and the CD,
etc. it just sound so much more positive. We're caught up in this diet, crash, take this
pill, do this thing, etc., and it's so far away from looking at what do we need as living
beings with a brain and thoughts and hopes and dreams.
Mr. Altman:
Right.
Andrew Schorr:
And this seems to me to be eating as part of a celebration of being alive.
Mr. Altman:
Absolutely. That's one of the key areas one way that we can experience food in a
positive way.
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Andrew Schorr:
Yeah, well, we're going to talk more about that as we continue with my dear friend,
Donald Altman, who is a counselor down in Portland, Oregon but also a noted author. And
we've been talking about mindful eating. So look up Donald Altman, A l t m a n. His
website is mindfulpractices.com. We're going to continue with Don on Patient Power and
learn more right after these messages. Please stay with us.
Seven Steps to Healthful Eating
Andrew Schorr:
My guest is Donald Altman. He's an expert on mindful eating, and he really has advice to
Americans, who certainly need it, people who are overweight, binge eat, people who are
too thin, painfully, unhealthfully thin. So Don, then the question we really need to cover
now, and give us some takeaways, what should normal, healthy eating look like?
Mr. Altman:
Okay. Let me give you actually there's four steps of normal eating and then there's three
steps of mindful eating and how you can combine them for seven steps of eating to bring,
you know, a better sense of peace into your life around food. I also want you to
remember that the way you're eating now didn't happen overnight so it really does take a
lot of practice, a lot of work doing this. But I think in the long term it really gives you an
appreciation for food, helps you slow down, helps you be in the present moment, and that
is a long term payoff for you.
So the first thing is, you know, when you talk about normal eating, I like to put that in
quotes, Andrew, "normal," because I see it on a continuum, you know. There is no such
thing as a normal eater, and again it goes back to the idea that we have to view our
eating experiences as unique, and I see it on a continuum. But in general I would say the
first step of normal eating is that normal eaters tend to be aware of their hunger, and
they listen to their hunger, okay? And then they know that just means that they need
energy rights now. They need nourishment, and so they seek out food within a
reasonable length of time. They don't wait too long. Sometimes maybe you can't do
that, but in general you try to maybe you have a backup plan, some cut up foods,
veggies or something available to you. You wouldn't drive without a spare in the trunk of
your car, right? So a normal eater would try to have something available hopefully, not
all the time maybe. So I think they tend to listen to their hunger.
The second step of a normal eater is they tend to choose from a wide variety of foods and
try different kinds of foods. They're not rigid or limiting or extreme eaters so they only
eat this these small varieties of food, but they will try different things, right? Because
there's different energy in different kinds of food, and they allow themselves that. They
don't view foods as good or bad, putting them in those categories, because that would
mean, well, I can't ever have that cookie because that's bad food. But it's about the
moderation, and so a normal eater will choose from a wide variety.
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The third step of normal eating is that normal eaters enjoy their food, right? They get
pleasure from food, and I think that's a wonderful thing. Food is meant to be enjoyed,
and we have 10,000 taste buds on the tongue, right, for sensing food. So this also means
that enjoying food means like what you said, using food socially as a celebration is really
important. And while they enjoy it they get pleasure, but they're also aware of how much
to eat again paying attention to the hunger.
And then the last step of normal eating and that they tend to stop eating when they've
had enough, when the hunger has been filled up, right? One way of thinking about
hunger that I like is that you could think that anything, any feeling you have that could be
filled up by something other than food is not physical hunger, right? But anyway so
normal eaters will notice if they start to feel uncomfortable, but they'll stop when they've
had enough.
Now I want to tell you the three steps to mindful eating, and these are important because
this could really a alter your eating experience. The first step is that before you enter into
the meal time, before you even sit down, you get aware of your emotions. A mindful
eater doesn't get blind sided by something upsetting that happened maybe before, they
had an argument or something like that so now they're going to use food to help medicate
that feeling. So they're aware of what they're feeling, and they're aware of their
thoughts, too, around food, right? And this even means that, you know, with mindful
eating it's not just what you eat, but it's where you eat, why you eat, when you eat. You
know, you could choose to eat in a beautiful place surrounded by nature maybe, or maybe
people eat in the car, on the run. Think about the difference.
Andrew Schorr:
And the other two, Don? I want to get them in before the break if we can.
Mr. Altman:
Oh, okay. And the other two are the step two of the mindful eating is they slow down in
mindful experience the food.
And the third step is that when they leave the meal they transition out, and they do
maybe a little ritual, a little walk, something that lets them know this meal is done and
I'm ready to transition.
Andrew Schorr:
You know, Don, makes such perfect sense, really, and it just sounds so therapeutic to me.
We're talking about fruits and vegetables and all that, and I'm not putting any of that
down but this takes it to a higher level and I think adds the spiritual. I just love it. Well,
we'll get some final comments from my dear friend, Donald Altman, counselor in Portland,
Oregon, but author. Take a look at mindfulpractices.com. And we'll be back with some
final thoughts on mindful eating right after this.
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Andrew Schorr:
So isn't it great as we go on our journey hopefully through a long healthy life that you
have these life long friends and people find fulfillment in what they're doing, and it's often
not what you expected it would be. So Don Altman went from Jewish boy in suburbs of
Chicago to working at being a writer and a screenwriter in Los Angeles to being a Buddhist
monk and trying to deal with his own eating issues and now helping the world with many
books, and his latest one, 12 Weeks to Mindful Eating: A Step By Step (?) Guide to
Creating a Healthy Relationship With Food. And then he has a CD with it, Your Karma is
in the Refrigerator. And he has meal cards you can get. Take a look at Don's website,
mindfulpractices.com. And search Donald Altman on Amazon or any of the websites,
you'll see his very great initial book, The Art of the Inner Meal. So take a look. And he
has a whole bunch of them. So Don.
Conclusion
Mr. Altman:
Yes.
Andrew Schorr:
So you've got to tell us. There you were in the monastery being tested. Your name that
they gave you was Effort, and there was a candy bar sitting there. Did you eat the candy
bar?
Mr. Altman:
That candy bar looked awful good, Andrew, I have to tell you, but when I left the candy
bar was still there. I did not eat it.
Andrew Schorr:
That was a celebration of your change.
Mr. Altman:
Yes, I think it was. It was, my being able to recognize that even though I had a desire to
do something I could make a choice in a different direction.
Andrew Schorr:
And you were looking at that candy bar for how long?
Mr. Altman:
Well, you know, it was really right at that initial moment when I had that kind of epiphany
when I realized that I didn't have to that I could live with the thoughts about it.
Andrew Schorr:
But you were in the monastery for how long?
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Mr. Altman:
I was in there for about four months.
Andrew Schorr:
So there you go. That candy bar was around somewhere. You made a tremendous
change, and that candy bar was a gift to the world for us because, Don, they've given us
back you in a new way and your insight about mindful eating.
Mr. Altman:
Thank you, Andrew.
Andrew Schorr:
Donald Altman, thanks for being with us. Mindfulpractices.com, take a look. Take a look
at Don's books. Hey, folks, join me tomorrow, we talk about a chronic condition, multiple
sclerosis, but if you know someone with that, how to manage your feelings. It has ups
and downs, but they can be managed. It's all coming up on Patient Power. Remember,
knowledge can be the best medicine of all. Have a great day. I'm Andrew Schorr. We
wish you well.
Please remember the opinions expressed on Patient Power are not necessarily the views of Health Radio, our
sponsors, partners or Patient Power. Our discussions are not a substitute for seeking medical advice or care
from your own doctor. Please have this discussion you’re your own doctor, that’s how you’ll get care that’s
most appropriate for you.
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