Alain de Botton

[schmevil]

Endeavoring to purchase something we think beautiful may in fact be the most unimaginative way of dealing with the longing it excites in us, just as trying to sleep with someone may be the bluntest response to a feeling of love.

Alain de Botton, The Architecture of Happiness

An interesting quote that has me interested in the book. Any of you read The Architecture of Happiness, or other de Botton works?

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Unrelated - I'm on a diet. Kind of. Not a traditional crash or fad diet, but a change-my-attitude-to-food diet. I'm trying to get back to eating the way I did a year, two years ago, when I was in good shape and good spirits. My relationship to food is really, really emotional and reactive, so when I'm feeling bad, I eat even worse. Thinking of the transition period as a diet helps me to keep my snacking and comfort eating in line. It's an incredibly disciplinary word, diet, in a way that changing-my-attitude-to-food isn't. 'Self-discipline' trips all kinds of things in my psyche, which makes it useful for lifestyle change type work, if deployed in moderation.

This btw is the diet. It's incredibly effective and easy to follow. Basically just eating mindfully and healthily.

I've also decided to go veggie three days a week. This has turned out to be incredibly easy to keep up. Cooking veggie for one is much easier than defrosting and preparing meat day after day. It also helps that I'm already a fan of lots of vegetarian meals. The plan is to eventually minimize the role of meat in my diet, but not necessarily to eliminate it completely. So far I don't feel like I'm missing out on anything (this goes for the 'diet' part of the diet change as well), which is exactly where I want to be: eating good food that's good for me, and not feeling self-disciplined to hell and back.


Just a note: I'm going to be cutting all d-word talk, for those who would prefer not to see it on their flist/dwircle.