No More Binges, The End.

Before there was Meals at Mealtimes, the book you can hold in your hands and tuck into your bag, there was No More Binges, The End. And now it rides again!

NMB is a downloadable self-guided 30-day tour through the process of swapping chaotic eating for the soft beautiful life of eating meals in a sane and regulated way.

Let me be clear: it’s not gonna take 30 days, in all likelihood. I like to say you can quit binging the minute you start eating regular meals, and plenty of folks do.

But if you like the idea of a companion through the process, you will like this little workbook.

Please note: if you read the book and got what you needed, you won’t find anything radically different in NMB. It is largely the same set of ideas, expressed in a different way, with a light update from the original release.

Okay so what is happening with my PEPTIDE JOURRRNEY?

Omigoodness, so much.

• Nothing in my closet is too small. For me, that’s the lede. My wardrobe was 90% aspiration (actual figure) from my early 20s until this July. I LIKE GETTING DRESSED NOW.

• I lost almost 20 lbs in the first 2-3 weeks, and about one or two more since then. My weight has been basically stable since July.

• This is the only three-month period in my adult life when my weight has been both low(ish)(for me) and steady. High and stable? Oh, for SURE. But this is new.

• People talk about GLP1s and GIPs as appetite suppressants. I don’t have much hunger the day after a dose, but overall, “suppressed appetite” is emphatically NOT my experience. To me it feels like appetite regulation. I used to try every day of my life not to eat like a 20-year-old ranch hand, because no one else was! And ppl were taking note! But I nearly always felt underfed in a painful way. Now I eat like regular folks. I like this so much.

• I hear about 50% of ppl can’t tolerate the side effects, but after a brief introductory period, I’ve been fine

• Except for the night 48 hours after dosing, when I don’t sleep through the night. 48 hours after that, another not-great night. Worth it tho.

• I have much less raw energy. Maybe half what I used to have. At some point, usually about 3pm or two hours earlier than my previous baseline, I hit a wall and it’s over. And there is no drama about that whatsoever, when I’m done I’m done; when I hit the wall I just stop.

• And I STILL get WAY MORE done. It’s not even close. It’s like I have no story anymore about how a lack of energy explains a lack of output.

• My spiritual teachers Barb and Tom Duffy used to talk to me about this. My spiritual teachers in Shambhala used to talk about this, too. I thought they were 100% full of shit and willfully pretending not to understand human limits, or were just trying to get me to do something I didn’t want to do.

• And now I get it. I can be tired, and do what must be done. And when I hit my limit, I know it’s real.

• Clearly there is a nervous system component to this unlinking of energy and output, and I’d like to know more about that. If it can be known.

Feel free to ask me about this, if you’re curious for yourself. (Naturally I do not need and will not read opinions about what I’m doing for myself.)

As always, I do not recommend these drugs for anyone. I recommend that if you’re curious, you investigate for yourself.

A note on public violence.

Last time we talked about the troubled times America is having. Since then … well shit.

Three thinkers I admire said some things that help me, and here are excerpts:

“All I’ve heard for the last ten years is how polarized America is. We are not. And people need to stop falling for it. Our political machine pretends to be polarized on culture war issues, so no one pays too much attention to the places where they absolutely agree: rich people should get to do what they want, our defense industry should get all the money in the world, and the American people should live in a state of what is basically unstated austerity. Sorry, you can’t have any services, we spent it all on this drone we’re about to use to drop a bomb on a wedding.” —excerpted from Jessa Crispin, writing in The Culture We Deserve.

“Where we are trained to see public violence as the outcome of ideology - those anarchist assassinations, 9/11, Oklahoma City, Anders Breivik, Yukio Mishima - in the 21st century, a certain potent strain of political violence is not the product of ideology but rather an attempt to will ideology into being through violence itself.” —excerpted from Freddie deBoer, Constituent Parts of a Theory of Spectacular Acts of Public Violence.

Finally, Catherine Liu’s thoughts on Violence, American Style are behind the paywall on CLiuAnon, her Substack. But I always get my $5/mo worth, and then some.

Me now, if I believed in evil (haha I do), I would begin to suspect that malevolent powers want us to give all our life force to this futile, terrible way.

I choose something else. Like Jessa and Freddie and Catherine, I choose trying to be a lamp in the darkness to myself and others, and by others I mean even the ones I’m told deserve nothing, are irredeemable and should be cut dead in the street.

(I mean. I do make an exception or two re: irredeemable ppl. But you know! By and large.)

Do you have my book?

If not, getting a copy for yourself or a friend is a great way to support this newsletter! And an even greater way to get your eating under control for good.

RECOMMENDING.

reading.

Infallible Human Recommendation Engine Julie H. did not love Remarkably Bright Creatures as much as most, and I guess in the end I agree with her. A touch too heartwarming. But maybe it’s just what you need rn! It held my interest and broke a long streak of unfinishables.

Now I’m rereading Alan Moore’s collected Promethea from the early 2000s. Still my favorite comic. Alan says this: "There are 1000 comic books on the shelves that don't contain a philosophy lecture and one that does. Isn't there room for that one?"

Waiting now for Clown Town and The Road to Tender Hearts and The Academy (#57, 197 copies). As always I am keen to know what you are reading!