5W1H

For A Different Purpose—Digest THAT!

I remember being taught this myself when I was in elementary school:

According to the principle of the Five Ws, a report can only be considered complete if it answers these questions starting with an interrogative word:

• Who is it about?

• What happened?

• When did it take place?

• Where did it take place?

• Why did it happen?

Some authors add a sixth question, "how", to the list, though "how" can also be covered by "what", "where", or "when":

• How did it happen?

Each question should have a factual answer — facts necessary to include for a report to be considered complete. Importantly, none of these questions can be answered with a simple "yes" or "no".

It's the kind of inquiry that is taught to children when they're about to embark on a writing assignment. And much like children, we must demonstrate the same kind of dogged persistence and determination they often exhibit when they are trying to learn something new.

(Adobe Communications)

I thought of these questions again, unprompted and completely unexpected, for a completely different context. You see, I was eating the other day and….

Full and proud disclosure: I’m a VEGAN!

A Vegan lifestyle (and I use an upper case “V” with intention) is best thought of as a way of Being in the world. While eating a “plant-based diet” refers mainly to food with a foundation on one’s health, “Being Vegan” more appropriately entails something much deeper and more encompassing—akin to a philosophical creed or understanding by which a life of meaning, authenticity, and compassion can best be lived. I need to write separately about my choice to be Vegan because it doesn’t fit within the brainstorm of today’s post. Besides, I have a lot to say about Being Vegan—it is one of my main passions and life practices.

But about today’s brainstorm…

Today’s post: 5W1H

I’ve “struggled” with eating issues most of life. I remember wanting to play grid kids football when I was maybe about 8 years old or so. My mom took me to register where they weighed each of us—they weighed us to insure we were classified appropriately. Grid kids wasn’t about age groupings, it was about weight divisions. Although I was not fat (I’ve been a mesomorph my entire life, not an endomorph—the product of great Lenseigne, strong bone/heavily muscled, genes), I weighed too much to be placed in the division where my friends would play. I remember hearing that from the weigh in coach. I remember how I felt about that. My friends went on to play; I didn’t. I didn’t play organized football until my eighth grade year of junior high (I turned to soccer instead). That was the start of my eating concern—funny the things you never forget.

(All me: Me the 49er (it would be a Seahawk now!), my brother Trevor the Ram; me the goalkeeper; me the HS icon in ceramic. LOL! Each the mesomorph!)

Know that I am asking for absolutely NO sympathy by sharing this vulnerable side of me. Eating disorders of all kinds are very serious and mine never approached a level of severity where my overall health, neither physical nor mental, was impacted. Still, since that time, I’ve been conscious of my weight and body shape up to the present day—and I have made certain life decisions based upon my weight. But I’m conscious of it now in a much different way. Now, it’s a matter of Zen. Food, for me now, includes a profound spiritual aspect in addition to being health conscious. Now, eating is a part of my overall mindfulness practice—a practice that I approach with reverence. So, know this:

I eat whatever I want, as much as I want, whenever I want.

Can you imagine that? Jealous are you? Would you like to join me in doing exactly this? Remember, I’m not your guru so don’t take my word for it. But, it is simple. You gotta focus on…

…your WANT. It’s all about the want!

I’ve become hyper-focused and intentional in my WANT. I’ve defined my WANT very clearly and, ahem, intentionally. Including the things I don’t want. My Zen practice has taught me to control my wants—my wants don’t control me. If they do, I suffer. That’s kinda where the 5W1H framework subconsciously surfaced for me the other day.

I suspect most Westerners (especially) don’t pay much attention, let alone intention, to what they eat. The only want they want fulfilled is their bellies full—no matter the what, the when, the why, or the how. As for how much…just make sure it’s supersized! It’s no secret the good ol’ US of A ranks high (13th!) among the most obese, per capita (almost 43% of all Americans are considered obese), of all the world’s nations. It’s no accident the acronym for the standard American diet is S.A.D.

Until recently, I didn’t pay much intention either. I was raised on the farm by “meat-and-potatoes-at-every-meal” parents. We ate what was put in front of us (make no mistake, it was good eatin’ at the time! But then again, we knew no different.)

Imagine the Lenseigne dinner table conversation, circa 1978-ish:

Dad/me/my brothers: “What’s this green thing next to the steak?”

Mom: “That’s a vegetable! I thought we’d try one tonight!”

Us: “Oh look, mom’s being silly again. Silly mom! Pass the A1 sauce please. And the bacon.”

[The story you have just read is true. The names were changed to protect the innocent. No broccoli was harmed in the making of this story. Can’t say the same for the cow, though. Or the pig.]

That’s how my parents themselves were raised; that’s how they raised us. And that’s how my wife and I started to raise our own kids when they were younger. Thankfully, that was then…

…this is now.

The other day, as I got up to eat some raw, unsalted mixed nuts, the thought occurred to me: “I know why I’m eating these.” Then the second thought occurred to me: “Wait a minute, I also know the when I’m eating them. And the how I’ll eat them.” And that’s when I thought about writing elementary school reports. Eating for me now is a conscious act of intention that answers each of the 5W1H questions of our youth. My back-then teachers would be so proud of me—I’m applying their teaching to a whole new concept 50 YEARS later!!! (Rest in Peace Mrs. Phlieger!)

To wit:

Who—in two ways: I’ve come to believe and understand every thing I eat comes from a living being of some sort. And each of those beings have the same “life force” energy as I do. It might be a little “new agey” for some, but it’s not a far stretch to imagine we eat “whos,” especially if you ingest animals and their products and secretions. Look into the gentleness of a pastured cow’s eyes grazing along side its calf, as I have, and I dare you not to see a “who” in there. We eat beings who are alive and sentient in ways science has yet to fully understand. But science is getting closer to its understandings. And it’s becoming more clear just how closely we all are interrelated. Even with the community of beings we know as plants and fungi.

Way number two of The Who (sorry Pete Townshend, no pun intended), is the importance of making meals communal. Shared meals always taste better and are better for you—that is when communal Love is also shared and ingested. So, to be mindful of with whom one eats is also its own practice. If you don’t enjoy the company, even when you are eating alone(!), the food, guaranteed, won’t taste as good and it might even come back up (not so figuratively) to haunt you later!

What: I could eat potato chips and german sausages and pizza and Big Macs and McNuggets every week. But I don’t want to, anymore. I could, but choose not to. Those foods used to become me because I used to eat them. And in too many of those kinds of foods, suffering gets ingested too—suffering was a part of those lives all the way up to the point they were killed in order to become my meal (okay, maybe not so much the potato chips, but for certain the momma and papa cow, their calf, and the “what was once so cute” baby chick! And have you ever eaten lamb chops?).

As mentioned, I’m a fully plant-based eater—a Vegan with pride. But Oreo cookies are Vegan too, so I am still careful to be mindful of exactly what I’m choosing to put into my mouth. Sometimes, although rarely Oreos, that does include french fries, chips, or Ben and Jerry’s “Light! Caramel! Action!” nondairy dessert (don’t you dare knock it until you’ve tried it—and I highly recommend you try it. Tonight!). I eat a lot of veggies, obvi, raw and cooked in a lot of different ways. And I’ve incorporated foods I had never eaten in my life until I started practicing my eating differently—like kimchi, for its taste as well as its pre and probiotic benefit to my gut health (note, my mom and dad NEVER came within 50 feet of kimchi—though we did eat sauerkraut, and I still do, for the same benefit as kimchi though not the same reason as my parents). When one becomes Vegan, one (at least I have), becomes quite the foodie—unless you want to eat just stir fry veggies over rice the rest of your entire life.

Side note: when we host family, friends and colleagues over to our house, and we feed them, I typically feed them vegan meals. Even when I BBQ. Even when I BBQ “cheeseburgers” and “sausages.” Sometimes I tell them, sometimes I don’t. But all have been surprised at the meals and tastes, not imagining 100% plant-based foods of all types can be so good!

There’s more to the What than just this, though.

One of my Zen teachers, Thich Nhat Hanh, used to teach: “When you drink this cup of tea, see as well the cloud that you drink. When you eat this piece of bread, you eat as well the rain, and the sun, and Mother Earth, and the toil and skill of all those who brought that piece of bread to you. What is NOT, therefore, in a piece of bread? What is not in your cup of tea?”

Amen.

What we eat is so much more than the final product we put on our forks (or between chopsticks!). Everything we eat, every thing, has its own back story of universal interconnectedness. If Love was a part of that story, we eat Love. If suffering was present, we eat suffering. Same with confusion, anger, joy, happiness, and fear. ALL are alchemical ingredients—all make up these bodies on loan to us as we experience this journey called human life.

Where: this is important too—where one eats, the environment and surroundings chosen to be a part of the eating experience is, itself, an important aide to the taste and healthful impact of the meal. Eating in front of the TV watching FoxNews (which I have NEVER done in my life!), is not the same healthful benefit as eating with my wife and family at the dinner table, or on the summer deck, with laughter and good music playing in the background, amidst our neighbors the trees, and plants, and birds that encompass the community that is our home.

When: now THIS has become more important to me of late. I have integrated intermittent fasting (IF) into my practice. I fast three days a week (Monday, Wednesday, and Friday); on my non-fast days, I eat, typically OMAD (one meal a day) which we eat in the early afternoon. Buddhist monks, even the Dalai Lama, follow a precept of not eating past noon. This, for spiritual reasons, but the other important benefit is for how the stomach and intestines work while we sleep. Since I’ve integrated this practice into my life, I no longer experience heartburn, indigestion, gerd, acid reflux, or constipation—and, ahem, my bowel movements are 100% regular. At my bedtime, there is no food in my stomach, but I am not hungry—my intestines are working on the last meal to send those vital nutrients to all the cells that make up me.

Many folks eat a keto diet—but I’ve learned getting the body into ketosis has just as much to do with when you eat as what you eat.

You can eat an Atkins or paleo diet of all meats and proteins and low carbs, and get into ketosis. But that doesn’t mean you are burning YOUR fat stores—rather, you first burn the fat stores your body finds most available, which would be from the foods you’ve just eaten.

Fasting, as I’ve found, is the most efficient and long-term beneficial way of getting my body into a state of ketosis. Timing your fasting to take advantage of the time when you are sleeping jumpstarts the beneficial aspects of fasting, which includes ketosis—with the added benefit of not feeling hungry…because you’re asleep. Fasting itself would be a great thing to write about and ponder! It is VERY misunderstood even as it had been a natural part of our evolutionary past.

And wait until I get started on the vital importance of knowing all things insulin!

But I don’t fast mainly to control my weight—I fast because it is a spiritual practice that also promotes wellness and longevity. In the West, we are indoctrinated from our starts as babes with a lot of misconceptions when it comes to food, including the notion we have to eat three meals a day plus a snack maybe once or twice. And that you better eat your breakfast because, well, you know, breakfast is….

If you didn’t know, you’re about to: it was the powerful lobby that is the National Dairy Council that promoted breakfast as “the most important meal of the day.” And on what does one pour milk virtually every morning in virtually every household especially those with kids? Breakfast cereal! (Fun fact: the global breakfast market was valued at over $60.8 BILLION dollars last year—$22 billion in the US alone!) I’m leaving the rest of the words to be written about cow’s milk and cereal on the table (see what I did there?). I’ll come back to it another time.

In fact, there is NO such thing as “the most important meal of the day.” All THAT is absolute nonsense. I discovered when I moved to a now firmly established IF practice that a lot of our eating is psychological—at the start, I had cravings, not so surprisingly, right around the typical meal times. When the new habits became ingrained, I no longer had those cravings. I’ve gone on 10 day water fasts and by day three, I no longer feel hunger—there are sound physiological reasons for this!

Why: as mentioned, I’ve moved my WHY of eating to a much more spiritual place. Everything ingested becomes a part of me—and now I try to ingest only the beautiful, the true, and the good. I cook starting with the main ingredient Love. I get there fully when I approach each meal with reverence. At my family table growing up, as Catholics, we said Grace before every meal:

“Bless us, O Lord, and these Thy gifts, which we are about to receive from thy bounty, through Christ our Lord. Amen.” (Obligate sign of the cross follows!)

Look at me! I haven’t said this Grace in decades. There’s Catholic still in me! (I can see my mom’s guilt-provoking look even now!)

Every experience of eating is an opportunity to practice gratitude. My new “grace,” that I say to myself when I cook and when I eat, is: “Just as I benefit from this food (or from this coffee!), the offering of so many other forms of life and non-life from this Universe, may my own life be of benefit to all beings as I live this authentic life and death that matters through wisdom, loving kindness, compassion, joy, equanimity, forgiveness, and gratefulness.”

How: with mindfulness, intention, reverence, and patient skill. Whereas I used to gulp food until my “way past full” point, because I ate so fast and oftentimes mindlessly in front of the TV, my imperfect practice now is to slow down, focus, and savor what I’m eating. It is a fact that the first few bites of the foods we eat are the most flavorful upon the cleansed tongue—made more flavorful when we pay attention. Our flavor receptors on our tongues do become saturated so we lose the flavor of food the longer we eat. (You know this as a fact yourself—the third cookie, or fifth bite of cake, never tastes as great as bite #1.)

Using the Zen practice of “when you eat, eat,” and doing nothing else while eating in order to fully savor the meal, makes the experience transcendent. Multitasking is one of our culture’s most misunderstood concepts—it’s not as productive or beneficial as we think it is. Especially when eating. If I write at my iPad or watch a video, and snack while doing so, I can’t taste fully what I’m eating. And if I’m not careful at that time, the entire bag of chips, or the entire cookie, is gone before I realize it! “One-pointed” focus brings out the fullness of the object of attention—be it the breath, a candle flame, the free throw to tie the game you are about to attempt, the blog post you are writing, the book you are reading, or the flavor of the homemade vegan organic whole wheat blueberry muffin you are about to eat.

Relatedly, “how much” is also a part of How. The Japanese (Blue Zone flashback!) have the concept of “Hara Hachi Bu” which is translated as “eat to 80% full.” For the record, Japan is ranked 187th out of the 193 countries rated for their obesity percentages. A slim(!) 4.5% of Japanese are considered obese. They eat with intention. They eat hara hachi bu.

It bears repeating, eating is the most intimate of all relationships—everything we consume (food, social media, entertainment, noise, music, art, friendships, work, play, love), everything, becomes us. It IS a Holy Communion (the Catholics got THAT right at least!). With something this important and vital to life, I’ve chosen to pay more attention, and intention, to it.

It’s a key part of the Alchemy that is my Life’s Journey.

And it’s made a significant difference in the quality of that Journey.

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Live, Laugh, and Love

Always and Ubuntu,

~ k

And with Ahimsa!

🙏🏼

But then again, it’s all just my opinion, man! Just know I get my protein from the same place your protein gets its protein!

I knew you were gonna ask.

PS: I had to write on something completely different from what’s (rather, who’s) been on my heart the past two weeks. That, maybe next week. Maybe.

The Yakima Valley Prep Athlete of the Year, circa 1983. A 220 lb. fullback and noseguard on the Yakima Valley Prep Athletic Team of the Year, circa 1983–the East Valley High School Red Devils! F-you grid kid coaches! Just sayin’.

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