Today my challenge to myself is to:
-eat mindfully at every meal
-rate my hunger prior to eating and after eating
-rate my emotions prior to eating, and after eating
Mindful eating involves using all your senses to be aware of your food and how you eat it. Slowing down. Acknowledging your responses to the food without judgement. And tuning in to physical hunger, satiety cues, and even psychological processes, to see how they all interact within your eating.
Will you join me today in this mindful eating challenge?
Try this:
Take in your hand or on your utensil a tiny bit of food. Look at it. Smell it. What is its texture, what is its color? Is it giving off heat? Are your drawn toward it? Ambivalent? Is your tummy growling? Is your mouth starting to water? Are you thinking about other things?
Put that tiny bite in your mouth. Is it crispy? Soft and mushy? Hot or lukewarm? Spicy, sweet, salty? Is it dissolving fast or do you have to chew it a lot? How many times can you chew til it disintegrates? What is the aftertaste? How do you feel after that one bite? Can you take a little pause before the next bite?
Take the next bite. Chew super slowly. See how long can you make it last. By making it last, what else is coming up? Are you impatient? Or are you relishing the taste? Is your favorite part putting the food to your mouth? Or rolling it on your tongue? Or swallowing the food?
Is the first bite as fulfilling as the second bite? Is the flavor of the food intensifying, reducing, or staying the same?
At what point are you starting to feel full?
Just pay attention, moment to moment. Without judgment, without distraction. With just focus and curiosity.
I invite you to try this out for your next meal.
With love,
Kristina
MAY