Meal by Meal is a unique daily meditation book that taps into the healing power of mindfulness as a tool for dealing with issues such as food choice, dieting, and weight loss in a more balanced and sensible manner. Each day is a self-contained journey of conscious eating to nurture a healthier relationship with food. As sustenance, Buddhist devotee and former monk Donald Altman shares daily meditations including quotes from various sources from around the world: Zen teaching stories, the 6th century Rule of St. Benedict, the Bible, the Buddhist tripitaka scriptures, Hindu scriptures, Native American rituals, and sages from all the major wisdom traditions. Meal by Meal also explores food rituals, eating, preparation, and much more, as it examines perennial food dilemmas, including how we can learn to moderate our thoughts and feelings about food and how we can master mindful techniques to help us transcend our struggles so that we can rest in peace with all of our food choices. Meal by Meal will give hope to those who are engaged in the difficult, daily struggle for balance around food, and for those who want to nurture a healthy relationship with food. "Meal by Meal is one of those special books for anyone who wants to know how food can heal your life and relationships. Whatever behaviors, emotions, struggles, and extremes you experience with food, this book can help you understand them and change them with mindful awareness, love, and compassion." --Debbie Ford, best selling author of The Right Questions Our approach to food and eating can teach us great lessons if we are willing to learn. What a joy to have Altman's generous portions of insight, courage, and loving advice that we can practice on a daily basis! Our relationship with food and eating will be transformed forever! --Lindsey Hall, author of Bulimia: A Guide to Recovery Top recommendations are in order for Donald Altman’s Meal by Meal This book is a treasure for introducing anyone to mindfulness exercises in relationship to food and eating. With quotes ranging from Deepak Chopra and Eckhart Tolle to Mark Twain and Winston Churchill, this gem of a book provides daily mindfulness practices that are skillfully thought out and easy to follow. Bravo Altman! I will for sure be using this book with clients. --Carolyn Costin, MFT Clinical Director, The Monte Nido Treatment Center and The Eating Disorder Center of California and author of The Eating Disorder Sourcebook and Your Dieting Daughter . "Donald Altman gently encourages self-awareness by attending to physical, emotional, and spiritual hungers. This book provides food for thought and nourishment for the soul!" --Anita Johnston, author, Eating in the Light of the Moon and Director, Anorexia & Bulimia Center of Hawaii Former Buddhist monk, Donald Altman, has given workshops and lectures on spirituality and is currently teaching "mindful eating" courses in clinical eating disorder programs. He has a bachelors degree in psychology and is currently completing professional studies in psychotherapy AT Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Oregon. He has lectured and has taught writing at numerous universities including UCLA Extension, Cal State University Northridge, and Loyola Marymount University. Altman's award-winning writing career includes work for television, film, Fortune 500 corporations, and periodicals such as The Los Angeles Times and Independent Business Magazine. He is the author of the critically acclaimed Art of the Inner Meal and Living Kindness. Altman lives in Portland, OR. FAVORITE BOOKSTORE: New Renaissance Bookshop in Portland, OR. For more information on the author, visit his website innermeal.com Meal by Meal 365 Daily Meditations for Finding Balance through Mindful Eating By Donald Altman New World Library Copyright © 2004 Donald Altman All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-1-930722-30-9 Contents Acknowledgments, Introduction, January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December, Author's Note, CHAPTER 1 JANUARY 1 Entry Lead me not into temptation; I can find the way myself. Rita Mae Brown Each meal brings emotional challenges. Have you ever eaten a meal while you were angry, frustrated, or upset? Eat a meal in anger and you eat anger. Contemplate on this story before today's meal. Two monks – one young and one elderly – gather food for their daily meal. On their way back to the monastery, a woman falls into the nearby river and struggles against the current. Without hesitation, the eldest monk carries her safely to the shore. The monks continue walking in silence until the young monk can no longer contain his anger. "You carried that woman and broke your monk's vows." "I left her on the bank," says the old monk. "But I am afraid you are still carrying her on your shoulders." * * * Be mindful of your emotions as you prepare to eat. JANUARY 2 Choices Fight your shame. Throw out you