Mindful Eating

Saturday 23rd July, 2011

Day 25

You've been working hard on a project on the computer, and it's time for at snack. You've been holding off, waiting for the delicious taste of - here, please fill in the blank. Coffee ice cream? a piece of chocolate cake? a donut? an packet of chips? some fresh strawberries?

For me, it would be cadbury chocolate, usually the whole block.

You take the first square. Very yummy! You take the second square. Still yummy, maybe a little less yummy than the first bite, but never mind. You glance at the computer and something catches your eye. A Hollywood scandal, a facebook friend has come back from overseas, a weird utube video. You click on it, watch, and continue eating.

Suddenly you look down. Where did the chocolate go? Your fingers are sticky and you can still taste the flavor on your tongue, so it must have disappeared down the hatch while you weren't looking . . . or smelling, or tasting, or enjoying. Disappointment and dissatisfaction set in. "That one just vanished! I'd better have another one." Next the internal critic voice pipes up "What are you thinking? Enough is enough!  You know you're trying to lose weight."

Try taking the first four sips of a cup of hot tea or coffee with full attention?
If you are reading and eating, try alternating these activities, not doing both at once? Read a page, then put the book down and eat a few bites, savoring the tastes, then read another page, and so on.
At family meals, you might ask everyone to eat in silence for the first five minutes, thinking about the many people who brought the food to your plates.
Try eating one meal a week mindfully, alone and in silence. Be creative. For example, could you eat lunch behind a closed office door, or even alone in our car?

Enjoy your meal!