Dieting merely mind over matter

By Rosemary Desmond, Adelaide Now, November 9, 2006

Adelaide, Australia -- Forget dieting, it will only make you fat in the long run. Long-term weight loss is more about lifestyle changes, a conference on the Sunshine Coast will be told this weekend.

<< Dr Blair-West taught his patients techniques involving Zen Buddhism and mindfulness to get them to cut back the size of their portions and lose the weight they wanted - permanently.

Keynote speakers at The Clinicians Challenge in Treating Obesity will be husband and wife team professors Peter Herman and Janet Polivy.

The couple are psychologists at the University of Toronto, Canada, and world authorities in restraint theory, which holds that if you deny yourself food, you ultimately overeat.

Prof Polivy said most people trying to lose weight had unrealistic expectations and self-defeating behaviour from the start of their diet.

When it failed, they were actually likely to gain weight before the next attempt, and so the cycle continued.

"I'll be talking about how restraint eating leads to the false-hope syndrome and how this results in failed attempts at dieting but renewed attempts that are no more likely to succeed," Prof Polivy said.

"Losing weight involves actually changing permanently how people live their lives."

About 50 clinicians nationwide will meet at Noosa Heads in the inaugural symposium of the newly formed Obesity Prevention and Treatment Society (OPATS).

Its spokesman, Brisbane psychiatrist George Blair-West, today said that people knew what to eat but the question remained why didn't they do what they should do.

"We are better at treating most cancers than we are at treating obesity," Dr Blair-West said.

"Our five-year success rate in treating obesity is less than 20 per cent, and that's why we have this thing spiralling out of control," he said.

Research also showed that after people lose weight, they usually regained all they had lost plus another 15 per cent.

One of the topics for discussion at the conference will be whether obesity was an addiction or a willpower deficiency.

Unlike the campaign to make smoking unpopular to cut the addiction rate, food could not be made unpopular.

"That's why, with this conference, we really want to bring in this focus on the psychological conditions and teach clinicians, particularly the front-line professionals, that there is a complexity here they must start to deal with."

One way to treat the problem was a sophisticated dietary approach involving allowing the patient to pick around four or five foods to which they were deeply attached and removing other fattening foods they liked less.

Dr Blair-West taught his patients techniques involving Zen Buddhism and mindfulness to get them to cut back the size of their portions and lose the weight they wanted - permanently.

We Need Your Help to Train the
Buddhist AI Chat Bot
NORBU!
(Neural Operator for Responsible Buddhist Understanding)



For Malaysians and Singaporeans, please make your donation to the following account:

Account Name: Bodhi Vision
Account No:. 2122 00000 44661
Bank: RHB

The SWIFT/BIC code for RHB Bank Berhad is: RHBBMYKLXXX
Address: 11-15, Jalan SS 24/11, Taman Megah, 47301 Petaling Jaya, Selangor
Phone: 603-9206 8118

Note: Please indicate your name in the payment slip. Thank you.


Dear Friends in the Dharma,

We seek your generous support to help us train NORBU, the word's first Buddhist AI Chat Bot.

Here are some ways you can contribute to this noble cause:

One-time Donation or Loan: A single contribution, regardless of its size, will go a long way in helping us reach our goal and make the Buddhist LLM a beacon of wisdom for all.

How will your donation / loan be used? Download the NORBU White Paper for details.



For Malaysians and Singaporeans, please make your donation to the following account:

Account Name: Bodhi Vision
Account No:. 2122 00000 44661
Bank: RHB

The SWIFT/BIC code for RHB Bank Berhad is: RHBBMYKLXXX
Address: 11-15, Jalan SS 24/11, Taman Megah, 47301 Petaling Jaya, Selangor
Phone: 603-9206 8118

Note: Please indicate your purpose of payment (loan or donation) in the payment slip. Thank you.

Once payment is banked in, please send the payment slip via email to: editor@buddhistchannel.tv. Your donation/loan will be published and publicly acknowledged on the Buddhist Channel.

Spread the Word: Share this initiative with your friends, family and fellow Dharma enthusiasts. Join "Friends of Norbu" at: https://www.facebook.com/groups/norbuchatbot. Together, we can build a stronger community and create a positive impact on a global scale.

Volunteer: If you possess expertise in AI, natural language processing, Dharma knowledge in terms of Buddhist sutras in various languages or related fields, and wish to lend your skills, please contact us. Your knowledge and passion could be invaluable to our project's success.

Your support is part of a collective effort to preserve and disseminate the profound teachings of Buddhism. By contributing to the NORBU, you become a "virtual Bodhisattva" to make Buddhist wisdom more accessible to seekers worldwide.

Thank you for helping to make NORBU a wise and compassionate Buddhist Chatbot!

May you be blessed with inner peace and wisdom,

With deepest gratitude,

Kooi F. Lim
On behalf of The Buddhist Channel Team


Note: To date, we have received the following contributions for NORBU:
US$ 75 from Gary Gach (Loan)
US$ 50 from Chong Sim Keong
MYR 300 from Wilson Tee
MYR 500 from Lim Yan Pok
MYR 50 from Oon Yeoh
MYR 200 from Ooi Poh Tin
MYR 300 from Lai Swee Pin
MYR 100 from Ong Hooi Sian
MYR 1,000 from Fam Sin Nin
MYR 500 from Oh teik Bin
MYR 300 from Yeoh Ai Guat
MYR 300 from Yong Lily
MYR 50 from Bandar Utama Buddhist Society
MYR 1,000 from Chiam Swee Ann
MYR 1,000 from Lye Veei Chiew
MYR 1,000 from Por Yong Tong
MYR 80 from Lee Wai Yee
MYR 500 from Pek Chee Hen
MYR 300 from Hor Tuck Loon
MYR 1,000 from Wise Payments Malaysia Sdn Bhd
MYR 200 from Teo Yen Hua
MYR 500 from Ng Wee Keat
MYR 10,000 from Chang Quai Hung, Jackie (Loan)
MYR 10,000 from K. C. Lim & Agnes (Loan)
MYR 10,000 from Juin & Jooky Tan (Loan)
MYR 100 from Poh Boon Fong (on behalf of SXI Buddhist Students Society)
MYR 10,000 from Fam Shan-Shan (Loan)
MYR 10,000 from John Fam (Loan)
MYR 500 from Phang Cheng Kar
MYR 100 from Lee Suat Yee
MYR 500 from Teo Chwee Hoon (on behalf of Lai Siow Kee)
MYR 200 from Mak Yuen Chau

We express our deep gratitude for the support and generosity.

If you have any enquiries, please write to: editor@buddhistchannel.tv


TOP