Mindful Eating Nitty-Gritty I: Where Are You When You're Eating?

So, my question to you as we start to delve a little more into Mindful Eating is, as you can see from the title of this post, Where Are You When You're Eating?

What do I mean by that?

Well, most of us rarely inhabit our bodies when we do anything. We are usually "up in our heads", worrying about the future or stewing about the past. We are anywhere but in the present moment, paying attention to ourselves and our current experience.

We say that we love food more than anything else, but in reality, we're usually "not there" when eating. We might be driving the car & eating. We might be reading & eating. We might be watching tv & eating. The list goes on & on.

Why does it matter?

We can only truly, effectively pay attention to 1 thing at a time. There is a lot of brain research supporting this assertion. I know, I know. Multitasking is considered the only way to function in our society. Have you ever noticed how much stress, unhappiness & dissatisfaction there also is in our society? Perhaps if we were to slow down, take a deep breath & check in with ourselves every once in a while, life might appear differently to us.

Back to the food issue. If we were to slow down & make thoughtful food choices, we would be off to a good start. If we were then to slowly use our senses to enjoy the food that we choose, we would use our eyes to see the food, our nose to smell the aromas, our sense of touch & taste to be aware of the food in our mouth so that we could savor this food experience.

If you begin to mindfully (& kindly) observe your eating, you might notice that you grab your food, gulp it down & then want more because you don't feel satisfied.

Have you ever sat down with a bag of chips or cookies to watch tv & the first thing you know, your hand is touching the bottom of the now empty bag & you don't remember eating any of it because you weren't paying attention?

I was once advised to eat like a gourmet rather than a glutton. The comparison was made to a wine connessieur vs an alcoholic. The wine connessieur (hope that's spelled right) pours the wine slowly into the glass, holds the glass up to the light to look for clarity, sniffs the "bouquet", & takes one sip which is held in the mouth. An alcoholic grabs whatever is available & gulps it down & down until the desired effect occurs.

When you eat mindfully, you know you are eating. You are paying attention to your experience. Your brain is aware that you are eating. You notice that your body is becoming satisfied, so that you can stop when you have had enough.

Why not bring some mindfulness into your next meal - not to beat yourself up for not doing it right, but to notice where you might be able to create a better, more fulfilling experience?

Mindful Eating on a Cruise

It's good to be back home & to have the extra time now to blog.

The title of this post, Mindful Eating on a Cruise, might seem like an oxymoron. Since this was my first cruise, many friends told me that I needed to leave my mindful eating home. It's not possible with all of the wonderful food that's available.

Well, they were right in terms of all the wonderful food that was available. However, I'm very grateful that I remembered to pack my mindful eating, along with the anti-seasickness patches for behind my ears!

There seemed to be miles and miles of beautifully displayed food set out around the clock. There were so many choices ranging from totally decadent layers upon layer of fudge-caramel-mousse-torte whatevers to vegetarian dishes.

In my out of control eater days of yore, I imagine that I would have become overwhelmed with all of the choices. I would have wanted to load up on all of the things that I thought I shouldn't eat, because, after all, we paid for it, who knows when I'll ever have this chance to eat this stuff again, etc., etc.

In reality, I came home after a week on-board having lost a lb.!! I certainly wasn't dieting. Dieting is no longer a part of my life.

What I found was that having lots of food choices and lots of relaxed time to make those choices freed me to slow down, look at everything available & check in with my body to see what I was actually hungry for. My decisions weren't based on what looked the most forbidden or the healthiest, but what my body really wanted & needed at that particular point in time. It was fun.

Sometimes I would choose something, take a bite & know that it wasn't what I wanted & push it away. I was pleased that I was able to pay such good attention to what I was experiencing. It felt great!!

I never felt deprived because I ate all sorts of things. I had some wonderful praline cheesecake on 2 occasions. I had some vegetarian dishes that I had always wanted to try. I liked some & some didn't suit me at that particular moment.

Sid & I ran & walked 20 - 30 minutes on the running deck 4 days. We toured Puerto Rico, Tortola, St. Martins & Nassau, Bahamas. It was wonderful.

The most wonderful part was being there with Sid, my son, Doug, his wife, Carlene, & 3 of my 5 grandchildren, Alex, Julia, & Isabella. It's always fun being with them. Their presence was what filled me up with warm loving memories rather than food filling me up with self-loathing & fat.