Skip to main content

Wallace D. Wattles on When to Eat

 A.K.A: Intermittent Fasting Ain't Nothin' New!

Wallace D. Wattles was a popular early New Thought writer


I was reading through a book this morning from one of the early New Thought writers in American history - and one of the lesser known ones:  Wallace D. Wattles.  In 1910, three of his "prosperity" books were published.  (And I don't think they were called "prosperity" but rather "New Thought" since the word New Thought had been in usage already by 1910.)  The three books were entitled, "The Science of Getting Rich," "The Science of Being Well," and "The Science of Being Great."  Of the three, the "Science of Getting Rich" was his most popular, and you can find quite a few copies/versions available from different book dealers.


But the book I was reading this morning was The Science of Being Well.  I wanted to share a few quotes from it with you, and to show you how intermittent fasting really is nothing new, along with any other sound dietary advice!  (All italics below are from the 1910 publication of Wattles' The Science of Being Well.)

It is a self-evident proposition that the natural time, and the healthy time, to eat is when one is hungry; and that it is never a natural or healthy action to eat when one is not hungry... Always eat when you are hungry; and NEVER eat when you are not hungry.


We must not fail, however, to make the clear distinction between hunger and appetite.  Hunger is the call of the subconscious mind for more material to be used in repairing and renewing the body... and hunger is never felt unless there is more need for material, and unless there is a power to digest it once taken into the stomach.  Appetite is a desire for the gratification of a sensation.  The drunkard has an appetite for liquor but no hunger for it.  A normally fed person CANNOT have a hunger for candy and sweets; the desire for these things is an appetite.


For instance, if a person has been sufficiently fed from the preceding day, it is impossible that he should feel a genuine hunger after arising from a refreshing sleep.


Hunger is not caused by sleep, but by work.  And it does not matter who you are or what your condition, or how hard or easy you work, the so-called "no-breakfast plan" is the right plan for you.  It is the right plan for everybody, because it is based on the universal law that hunger never comes until it is EARNED.


If you are going to live according to the Science of Being Well, you must NEVER EAT UNTIL YOU HAVE AN EARNED HUNGER.



Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Feel free to leave us some feedback on the article or any topics you would like us to cover in the future! Much Appreciated!

Popular posts from this blog

The 5x10x5 Program

A HIgh-Frequency Muscle-Building Routine So Simple That It Seems Almost Too Good to Be True      A few years ago, after suffering from some herniated discs that were causing me pain, I experimented with a program so simple that I wasn’t sure it would work.  I should have known better.  After utilizing it, and getting good results, I thought it was even too simple to write about.  Readers might think I had gone off the deep end.  But I didn’t.  And I haven’t.  I’m currently using the program right now, after taking a week-long layoff in order to prepare myself for a “bigger” program a few weeks down the road.      Before using this program, I had already had a lot of success with easy strength methods.  I write about them quite a bit, so, unless this is your first time reading one of my articles, you’re already well-aware of the methodology.  With easy strength, you, typically, do no more than 10 r...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Big and Strong Series - Legs and Back

  The High-Set, Low-Rep Training Manifesto Part 1: Training the Legs and Back      In several of my recent essays and articles, I have discussed various HFT methods, most of them using higher volume.  Starting with this article, I’m now going to turn my attention to a series of essays on (what I believe to be) the most effective method for attaining a combination of muscle mass and serious strength: workouts that combine high sets with (relatively) low reps.  I’m going to do a series for one primary reason—different lifts/muscle groups should be trained in different ways.  I will cover legs and back (this one), shoulders (overhead press training), chest and lats, and arm training.  Each of those are best developed when trained a little bit different from one another.  So, we will have 4 parts, with, perhaps, some additional essays on how to bring the 4 together into a cohesive, holistic strength program or on anything else that come...
Post a Comment
Read more

Marvin Eder’s Mass-Building Methods

  The Many and Varied Mass-Building Methods of Power Bodybuilding’s G.O.A.T. Eder as he appeared in my article "Full Body Workouts" for IronMan  magazine.      In many ways, the essay you are now reading is the one that has had the “longest time coming.”  I have no clue why it has taken me this long to write an article specifically on Marvin Eder, especially considering the fact that I have long considered him the greatest bodybuilder cum strength athlete of all friggin’ time .  In fact, over 20 years ago, I wrote this in the pages of IronMan magazine: In my opinion, the greatest all-around bodybuilder, powerlifter and strength athlete ever to walk the planet, Eder had 19-inch arms at a bodyweight of 198. He could bench 510, squat 550 for 10 reps and do a barbell press with 365. He was reported to have achieved the amazing feat of cranking out 1,000 dips in only 17 minutes. Imagine doing a dip a second for 17 minutes. As Gene Mozee once put ...
Post a Comment
Read more