CRON: a way of doing anorexia without dying.

[Guest guest]

" Anorexia " has become such a loaded term that it's virtually

impossible to talk about subjects related to reduced food intake

without being seen as somehow sick. Your citation of Leno's joke is

a good example: speak of CR and you are immediately thought of as an

anorexic.

But Dixie, you are doing to me what Leno did to CR: I said something

positive about reduced food consumption (and said it out of the CR

context) and you immediately thought of it as anorexically dangerous.

I do find skin & bone thinness sexy. (You may not, but I'm not

asking you to.) I find emptiness and hunger (to a point) sexy. The

most direct connection I can think of is foreplay. In foreplay one

deliberately generates hunger. It is very sexy and arousing. It

seems to me that hunger of almost any sort when it represents an

enhanced awareness of physicality is sexy.

In addition, extreme thinness symbolizes (at least for me) a lack of

emotional armor. (It may not be correct, but that's what it looks

like, vulnerability.) Combine vulnerability, i.e., openness, with

the enhanced desire resulting from hunger and that's very sexy.

None of that means one has to starve oneself to death. I don't find

sickness sexy. Thinness and hunger are sexy only when one is healthy

enough to enjoy them. So it is a balancing act. But then so is

CRON. There is no point in living longer if one is sick and weak all

the time. In so far as CRON is a way of being thin and hungry (I

know, CRONies don't necessarily want to be hungry), I think it

provides a very valuable service to those of us who are turned on by

it.

A member of this group wrote to me in private and came up with the

following. CRON: a way of doing anorexia without dying.

Although " anorexia " is really not the right term for what we're

talking about, I think that sentiment is right on.

-- Russ

--- " Dixie Good " <dixiegood@u...> wrote:

> With all the media attention on CR lately, even Jay Leno cracked a

> CR joke in his monologue this week. He wondered, " If calorie

> restriction is supposed to promote a long life, why aren't there

> aren't any really old super-models out there? "

>

> Good point, Jay. I visited one of the anorexia sites recommended

> by a list member recently and found lots of " glam " photos of

> dangerously thin women. Systemic CRON is one thing. Even enjoying

> that light, empty feeling is okay. But obsession with skin & bone

> thinness is not healthy, folks. Especially whenwomen internalize a

> so-called " ideal " image of fleshless beauty.

>

> Anorexia is not cute or sexy. It's deadly.

>

> Dixie

[Guest guest]

on 6/8/2002 4:39 AM, russabbott1942 at RAbbott@... wrote:

> A member of this group wrote to me in private and came up with the

> following. CRON: a way of doing anorexia without dying.

> Although " anorexia " is really not the right term for what we're

> talking about, I think that sentiment is right on.

>

> -- Russ

>

Russ: not necessarily so. ANY reduction of calories however small helps.

In fact, as Walford states: even if you DON'T reduce calories, but just

improve your diet, you'll be much healthier. As one of the more moderate

CRONIES, I'm counting on him to be right. So far, after over two years on a

more moderate CR regimen, no colds, no flu, improved lipids, BP etc. IOW,

so far, so good.