The Search For Enlightenment

Those of you who know me personally will be aware that I am on a bit of a quest to lose some excess weight and get my poor old body back into shape. The same people will also know that I can get a bit addicted to challenges like this, with charts and spread sheets and training plans, the full Monty.

I find it easier to focus on a goal when I know the details of exactly what is required to achieve it, so I decided to do a little maths to work out where I am along this path to a slimmer me.

There are roughly 6618 kcal in each kg of body fat. Assuming that all the weight I want to lose is body fat, that’s another 106,500 kcals I have to burn, over and above that my body uses just to function.

Now I am currently burning around 35 kcal per kilometre, whilst cycling, which means that I will have to cycle another 2960 kilometres (at least) to reach my goal. That’s Land’s End to John O’Groats and back or there about, which is enough to focus anyone’s mind on the task.

So where’s the Buddhism in all this? Well it’s about self-improvement and self-awareness, it needs determination and a degree of courage, tempered by a great deal of acquired wisdom, so as not to injure or make myself ill in the process.

It’s also about the level of focus needed. Being aware, every waking minute of every day, of the effects of all your actions, be that eating, walking, drinking, sitting, cycling, you name it. For every cause, there is an effect, so when the desired effect is known, it is all about making more causes to foster that effect than those that deter the effect from happening.

So far so good, and interesting how well Nam Myoho Renge Kyo fits my breathing pattern when I’m head down, pressing on.