WELCOME TO NOW
This is an excerpt from my course ENJOY EVERY BITE.
Here you are. Where else could you be? The thing is, if your thoughts are bouncing from place to place, you really aren’t here right now. The good news is you can learn to direct your attention here and now.
Focused attention is a definition of mindfulness. You can also include awareness of your bodily sensations, present behaviors, your cat-on-a-leash thoughts and the emotions you are experiencing. Finally, and most importantly, is the acceptance without judgment of each moment.
Luckily, my new course ENJOY EVERY BITE shows you how.
What is Mindful Eating?
Eating with awareness is at the center of mindful eating. Begin by asking yourself why do I want to eat right now? Dig deeper and ask, what affect will this food have on my energy, my weight and my health? You can also assess your level of hunger before and during the meal. These steps will anchor you in awareness (and enjoyment) while you are eating.
Mindful eating is also eating without distraction. So, yes, you’ll have to put your cell phone aside, turn off the tv, close your laptop and only eat. What?
Your One-Track Mind
Despite your protests that you’re different. Your brain can only do one thing at a time. That’s right, just like me, you can only focus on one thing at a time. So, what does that have to do with mindful eating?
Digestion involves a series of hormonal signals between your gut and nervous system. You’ve probably heard before that it takes about 20 minutes for your brain to register fullness. If you’re eating while driving, watching tv or scrolling through social media, you’re liable to miss those signals and keep on chewing. Moreover, you’re probably eating so fast your brain’s 20-minute timer goes off after you’ve eaten too many cookies.
There’s also evidence to suggest eating while distracted slows down the process of digestion. That makes all the food you’ve eaten slower to process and of less nutritional value.
Please Have A Seat
An underrated key to mindful eating is sitting in the same area for each meal. Of course, I don’t mean at your desk - you crazy overachiever. The physical cue of sitting at your kitchen table or at the break room table to eat can be one of the positive triggers you set for your mindful eating habit.
The word trigger is often associated with negative habits, but it is just as meaningful for the positive ones you want to cultivate. If you create a ritual of sitting and eating slowly and without distraction it will become an automatic habit in time.
Food Is Meant to Be Enjoyed
Pretty simple, huh? Enjoy your food. Savor what you eat without judging how “good” or “bad” the food is. That’s right. Judging yourself for what you eat is total bovine scatology (bs). If you get nothing else out of this book, please find a way to let go of assigning a moral equivalent to food.
I am not talking about dietary practices you choose because of religious or ethical beliefs. I am simply referring to labeling something like broccoli as “good” and a candy bar as “bad.” They are simply caloric and nutrient delivery systems.
Yes, a head of broccoli is more nutrient dense than a candy bar, but they are only tools for you.
Think of a hammer, which can drive a nail in a wall as part of building a house or hit you on the thumb and cause pain. You decide the foods you are going to include in your diet to nourish yourself. You also get to choose whether or not you will enjoy them.