When you know better, you do better

Crickets chirping.

Pins dropping.

Church mice not squeaking.

Suspicious silence on the mindful eating front occurring.

There are many good reasons why I haven't written a post in over a month.  Chiefly, mindful eating is challenging!  Furthermore, food is so yummy/comforting/distracting!  And, eating is so ritualized and habit-forming! Let's not forget, sitting at a desk or in a car is so boring and tiring - eating fixes that!  Also, I'm going to France soon and have been spending ALL of my spare time trying to navigate the high-speed train website.

This is a lifelong practice folks - it's gonna wax and wane.  I'm not going to flagellate myself over my tenuous mindful eating commitment the past few months.  Instead, I've been asking myself "what are the things that are getting in the way of my mindful eating practice?" with genuine curiousity.

Here's one: I've been choosing food items that are just too darn hard to enjoy mindfully, especially when I am travelling and famished.  Upon recognizing and accepting that it is physically impossible for me not to drink an entire litre of chocolate milk in 2 sittings or less (and that its deliciousness really is because it's full of sugar, not because it's a nutritional powerhouse), I made a better choice recently.  Even though many new and alluring varieties of chocolate milk were ON SALE last week, I did not buy any.  I did stand in front of the shelf for a good 5 minutes thinking about it though.  This was a victory of conscious decision-making, not willpower.

What would you do????

With the knowledge that I get ridiculously hungry in the afternoon when I'm travelling, which I do a lot at this time of year, I can also come up with a list of more appropriate snacks to take with me, instead of stopping at every country corner store on the backroads of eastern Ontario.  Mindful eating saves money, but hurts small business.

Sometimes when you know better you do better (thank you mom and Maya Angelou).  Sometimes you know better, but you do whatever you want anyway.  But without knowing, understanding, and recognizing the challenges, there's not much chance of making better choices, now is there?  So, let's just say these past few months I've been putting a lot of effort into fully exploring my mindful eating challenges.  And now I can do better.  Maybe even in France - we'll see.