Track Your Mindful Eating Moments

[Daniel E.]

Track Your Mindful Eating Moments
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By Pavel G. Somov, Ph.D.​

For years we’ve been asked to track what we eat and how much we eat. That’s all fine and good, but what about tracking how mindfully we eat?

I encourage you to try tracking your mindful eating moments. First, set a simple goal: try to have one mindful eating moment per meal. Mindful eating is often misunderstood as a kind of all-or-nothing approach to eating, where you’d commit to eating mindfully and then you’d have to eat mindfully all the time. I think this is perfectionist overkill. I think of mindful eating as an alarm clock. A few moments of mindful eating is enough to wake up the eating zombie. After all, when we set an alarm-clock to go off in the morning, we don’t expect it to keep buzzing non-stop. Same with mindful eating: at a minimum, start the meal on a mindful note and appreciate the residual sense of presence.

So, set a modest goal: say, one mindful or one savoring per meal. In other words, aim to have a few experiential calories. And then, when the meal is over, at some point, journal a bit about this moment of mindful eating. Most of us eat at least 3 times a day. Imagine if you got into a habit of having at least one mindful eating moment per meal – that’s over 1,000 precedents of mindful eating per year! You can also journal about lost eating moments – i.e. about the effects of mindless eating…

Mindful eating isn’t a one-time choice – it’s a habit. Build the habit of conscious eating one mindful eating journal entry at a time.

Mindful eating – as I have recently written – is a kind of yoga that unites your mind’s intention with your body’s eating behavior. As such, a mindful eating journal is also an opportunity for you… to rediscover yourself. Mindful eating moments are moments of intimacy and self-synchronization. When you document what you are consciously eating, you might also get a glimpse into what is eating you psychologically. Enough said. I think that the benefits of journaling about moments of conscious eating are self-evident (no pun intended).

As for specifics, you can journal the classic way – pen + paper – or, since many of us are nowadays online, you could start an online journal (even possibly a live blog) devoted to your mindful eating. Alternatively, you can use Mindful Eating Tracker, a new free feature I am piloting on my site.

Pavel Somov, Ph.D. is the author of Eating the Moment (New Harbinger, 2008), Present Perfect (NH, 2010), and The Lotus Effect (NH, 2010). He is in private practice. For more information visit www.eatingthemoment.com

 

[Daniel E.]

Awake at the Table: The Dinner Challenge
by Tonya Leigh Williams
Just B Living E-zine
March 4, 2010

A few years ago, my husband and I were in Florence, Italy, eating in a quaint, little restaurant. A big Italian family sat down beside us around around 8 p.m. (there had to be at least twenty of them). The waiter commented that they were the owners of the restaurant, and they ate there almost every night.

I was fascinated and studied these people intensely for two hours. Yes, they sat there for over two hours and laughed, celebrated, debated, argued and even broke out into song a couple of times. All the while, courses of salad, pasta, fish, cheese and dessert with espresso made its way out of the kitchen. (And not one person was overweight.)

Back at home, my husband and I would have finished our dinner long ago, but here in Italy, the waiter did not allow us to rush through such a beautiful meal. He was our pacer, bringing dishes out at a perfect, symphony-like pace.

It was beautiful experience, but, I’ll be honest, I just thought of it as an experience to have in Europe. There’s no way we could do that back home, or at least that’s what I believed at the time.

So, I came home, and even though I slowed down my eating pace tremendously, my family was still caught up in living fast, and I would often get the sighs and moans followed by, “You are SO slow,” as if I were lazy slob who wasn’t getting things done.

Recently, I have been reflecting upon my wonderful memories in Europe, filled with two hour Sunday lunches, dinners that lasted past midnight and sitting in Parisian cafes, sipping tea and chatting about art, culture, and life. I’ve missed it. A lot.

So, with recipes in hand, a trip to the farmer’s market and a mission of slowing down my family table, I gave us the dinner challenge.

We were going to sit together at our family table with delicious foods for an hour. At first, they looked at me like I was insane, but when my husband threw in a bride (I know, it’s sad to feel like we must bribe our children to act with grace and manners, but it is what it is), everyone was in.

Here’s what I did:

I made four courses, all made from fresh ingredients, served on separate plates:

Appetizer of arugula, tomatoes and mozzarella with a squeeze of lemon and olive oil.
Whole wheat ravioli’s filled with sun-dried tomatoes (a package of 2 served 4)
Chicken with artichokes, tomatoes, and mint
Cheese plate with St. Andre, Chevre and a Manchego (with a drizzle of truffle honey)

Oh, and a small piece of good sea salted dark chocolate with espresso

My husband assigned a certain amount of time for each course, and whoever came the closest without going over, won that course challenge. (I know, it sounds like the Price is Right, but again, you do what you can.)

The timer started at 6:30. Suddenly, with a desire to win, we all slowed down. It was a miracle. Everyone noticed the food, talked about the flavors and then we started talking about school, dreams and challenges.

With each course, my husband’s watch would go off, and I would present the next course and the timer would start again. Course after course, I got to really notice and enjoy my kids, the food, flavors, surroundings. I was awake at the table.

When we finished, it was after 8 o’clock. We had not only dined together for almost two hours, but we had lost track of time. Another miracle.

Here were my observations of the dinner challenge:

Our family talked more in that hour and half than we’ve talked in weeks.

• We laughed and celebrated.
• We noticed the flavors of the food, and my step-son even commented how the chicken dish was “bursting” in his mouth (okay, this was more sarcastic, but at least he did contemplate the flavors of the food).
• We put our forks down and chewed more thoroughly, allowing us to take more pleasure in our food.
• We ate a lot less because the portions were small and we weren’t going back for seconds.
• We enjoyed the food a lot more because we took our time and allowed ourselves to experience the pleasure of eating.

The extra dishes were most definitely worth the extra effort and served as a reminder of a family who had just spent over ninety minutes together celebrating food, life and the possibility of winning cash for doing such a thing.

***The biggest epiphany of the dinner challenge is that we were not starving for more food; we were all starving to slow down and take pleasure in the simple things in life, such as family, good food and wine and the beauty of connecting at the table. Living a healthy lifestyle is as much about how we eat as it is what we eat.

Our family has decided to slow down at every meal, when we have the opportunity to sit together at the table. Even when we are not eating together, I intend to sit down, savor my food and celebrate the fact that I am nourishing my body.

So, are you up for a challenge? Can you make time to cook a delicious meal, sit down and connect with family and friends?

Post your comments on my blog and let’s start savoring life.

Tonya Leigh Williams is a coach, speaker, and writer. She is also the founder of Just B Living, a company dedicated to empowering women to create amazing lives and bodies without dieting, deprivation and drama. If you want to learn more about how to lose weight from the inside out, you can sign up for a FRE*E subscription to the Just B E-zine, you can click here: Just B Living​

WANT TO SEE MANY MORE INSPIRING AND FUN ARTICLES LIKE THIS ONE? Check out Tonya's blog at Just B Living​