I have spent the majority of the past year sitting on the floor. I don’t have a chair in my room at all currently. I don’t even have a bed. When I write on my laptop or browse the internet, I sit on the floor. When I’m not sitting on the floor, I walk around the neighborhood or ride my bike lately.

Also over the course of this year, I have lost a lot of weight. I don’t keep track of my weight, just like I don’t keep track of what time it is; both are pointless. But when your clothes stop fitting you and you need to cut a new notch in your grandfather’s passed-down belt, you notice that you have lost a LOT of weight. That and people tell you.

I never set out to lose weight. I just happened. Part of it is diet, I’m sure. I eat mostly hummus, bread and bananas now as my staple foods. Consequently, I have never felt healthier or “cleaner” physically (see also: sattvic foods). Part of it is also probably my level activity: not super high, but I get regular exercise. Part of it, also, I reckon is attitude: my priorities have so radically shifted over this past year that I have a hard time explaining it to people who haven’t seen me in a long time.

But I think there is more to it than that, honestly. I think sitting on the floor has had a major impact on my weight and physique. Here’s how I was explaining it to myself the other day. Ordinarily, I will sit in one of two positions on the floor: cross-legged (”Indian-style”), or my left leg will be in that same position, while my right knee will be brought up in front of me, almost touching my chin and chest. I have adapted over time to where that position seems really comfortable and natural to me.

So how could that possibly relate to losing weight?

Simple, I am compressing my stomach because I am always leaning forward from sitting on the floor, or from having one leg raised. I’ve equated it mentally with that stupid surgery people have where they staple part of their stomach shut for good (”gastric bypass”). When your stomach is physically smaller, you tend to eat less.

Now, I’m not saying if you sit on the floor that you’ll slim down. You might not. But I am curious as to what effect the typical physical position plays in conditioning your body’s biochemical responses over long periods of time. Maybe the reason people become fat couch potatoes is because sitting on a couch, sprawled out, gives your stomach plenty of room to expand, and consequently you get hungry a lot.

Maybe I’m wrong about that though, and maybe I’m wrong about sitting on the floor being an effective method of losing weight. But wouldn’t it be funny if it were true? All these people doing all this stupid exercise and buying crazy products and getting insane surgery, when all they really have to do is change a few habits, and voila, your body automatically reverts to its optimal shape and size. Even if it’s not sitting on the floor that does it or did it for me, all any diet consists of is changing your habits, reconfiguring your behavior, and watching your body follow suit.