Have you heard of mindful eating? It’s the art of eating consciously, or mindfully. When I ask clients what they’ve eaten today, it’s astounding to see how many people have no idea. In our pressured, time-focused culture many people shove food into their mouth when it’s in front of them, forfeiting all of the pleasures of eating. This results in an emotional, as well as physical hunger.
Learning how to eat mindfully is a wonderful skill which will revolutionise the way that you experience food. You can focus on the nutrition it provides your body (how blessed we are to have such a nourishing food supply when there’s so many people going without), how it affects your senses (oh, it smells amazing!) or how it was made and all of the people you have to be thankful for producing this food that you now have sitting at your table, but to start with
I’m going to teach you to analyse your meal like a food reviewer.
Have you heard of mindful eating? It’s the art of eating consciously, or mindfully. When I ask clients what they’ve eaten today, it’s astounding to see how many people have no idea. In our pressured, time-focused culture many people shove food into their mouth when it’s in front of them, forfeiting all of the pleasures of eating. This results in an emotional, as well as physical hunger.
Learning how to eat mindfully is a wonderful skill which will revolutionise the way that you experience food. You can focus on the nutrition it provides your body (how blessed we are to have such a nourishing food supply when there’s so many people going without), how it affects your senses (oh, it smells amazing!) or how it was made and all of the people you have to be thankful for producing this food that you now have sitting at your table, but to start with
I’m going to teach you to analyse your meal like a food reviewer.
Grab a piece of food, and let’s get started….
Pretend that you’re writing an article on this meal or snack for a blog or magazine.
Firstly, look at it. How would you describe it? Is your meal well presented? Is it visually appealing? Colourful?
What’s the ambiance like? Does the room feel cold and dismal, or warm and inviting?
Is your meal providing an alluring freshly-baked aroma? Or can you just smell the burnt cheese from a dirty microwave?
Have a small taste. Describe the flavours: “the main flavour wasn’t pea or cheese as I expected, but explosive mint” or maybe “the hint of nutmeg made the dish”. Has it been cooked to perfection? Or is it a little over or under-done? Did you get the temperate right?
What did you like most about the meal? What could have been improved?
You get the gist….the point is that eating slowly, really tasting your food and thinking about your meal will provide you with so much more pleasure that your desire for soggy pizza and salty processed chips will rapidly dissipate.
Go on, give it a go! You’ll be amazed at how once you start eating mindfully, you’ll feel a lot more satisfied after a lot less food.
To do: Write a review of your meal tonight, take a quick snap of it, and upload it here for us to see