Mindful eating - like yoga and meditation, learning to kitesurf, or any other activity that is new and challenging - is a practice. Of course, it's fun (for brainy smurfs like me) to put lots of effort into reading books, finding websites and journalling about the concept of mindful eating. Oh yes - over the past 6 months or so I've really filled my head with all kinds of information about eating mindfully.
But I still snarf down lunch at my desk every day.
This blog is inspired by "Eating the moment - 141 mindful practices to overcome overeating one meal at a time" by Dr. Pavel Somov, a clinical psychologist. This great little book suggests starting a food blog as one of the many practices alluded to in the book's title. The point of this exercise is to make one conscious of the experience of eating by writing about it. As Dr. Somov says, this is a better use of time than logging mindlessly consumed calories. So, I intend to blog about actually practicing mindful eating practices. I hope you'll try a few of them too and let me know what your experience is!
Our relationship to food has become so much more then a resource to fuel the body machine. It scares me when I think of times I have used it instead of as a warm blanket, a tissue or a breathing exercise to alleviate stress. I'm excited to follow this blog of hills and valleys. Today, as the colder weather approaches, I am reminded of the saying "Feed a Cold, Starve a Fever". Every time I hear this is screams as a rationale to over consume if one is feeling under the weather...Feeling sluggish and tired??? Could be a cold coming on...go ahead and eat that brownie!
ReplyDeleteYou said it, sister. The definition of over-consuming in this book is eating for any reason other than to satisfy the biological needs of the body. Eating for some of the reasons you mention is OK sometimes - it's about learning to be in charge and aware when you are doing it, and to accept the consequences.
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