Eating Mindfully:
Putting The "Mmm" Back In Eating

Eating Mindfully

It's possible to eat meal after meal, snack after snack, and have no recollection of what you ate or what it was like to eat it.

Is weight loss one of your goals? If so, skip this page and go to my eating mindfully with weight loss in mind page.

Great things happen when you start paying attention to what you eat.

Suddenly you start to notice how wonderful food is and how much you're putting into your body.

Mindful eating means you look at what you are putting on your fork. When you put food into your mouth, you take notice of it. When you chew it, you taste what you are chewing. It's very simple.

Eating mindfully includes feeling the saltiness of a tortilla chip when you pick it up and tasting the salt when you put the chip on your tongue. It’s listening to each bite's crunch. And it's happening to notice how many chips it takes to feel just satisfied enough.

Eating mindfully is all about increasing awareness of food and the eating experience. All you have to do is pay attention to how and what you eat.

This is easily accomplished by doing 2 simple things:

	recipe!
	Thai Green Papaya Salad
		courtesy of Recipe for Travel
	A food companion for travel lovers, and travel companion for food lovers, with articles, anecdotes, recipes and trip planning tips for round-the-world adventures in food and travel.

• Engaging all 5 senses when you eat
• Putting your fork down between bites

Engage all 5 senses when you eat:

At your next meal, focus on:

• How your food LOOKS
• How it FEELS on your tongue
• How it sounds...can you HEAR it swishing around in your mouth?
• How it SMELLS
• How it TASTES

Eating an apple mindfully would thus look like this:

Noticing...

• What it looks like - round, shiny, red, green?
• What it feels like - heavy in your hand, smooth?
• What it sounds like when you bite into it?
• What it smells like - sweet, tart, fresh?
• How the taste changes after slowly chewing - sweet, tart, sour?
• What the texture of the peel and the flesh are like.
• Whether there is a pleasant aftertaste after you swallow.

Go ahead...

...try it the next time you pick something up to eat!

Put Your Fork Down Between Bites

I know, your mom already told you, but now I'm telling you. And I went to nutrition school!

Putting your fork (or spoon) down between bites forces you to slow down and pay attention to your food.

Your mind can only be in one place at a time, and chances are, if you have your fork in hand, your focus is on the bite that's next to come...NOT on the food that's in your mouth already. You are consuming calories... shouldn't you taste and enjoy them? Slow down and give food the respect it deserves.

It's as simple as 1-2-3:

1. Take a bite, then put your fork/spoon down
2. Swallow whatever is in your mouth
3. Go back to #1 and repeat

More than a state of mind, eating mindfully is a practice. Unfortunately you can't buy the skill and you can't get good at it by reading about it. You have to practice it...

Starting now...lasting forever.

Start today. Make a commitment to practice eating mindfully at one meal every day. Eventually it will become second nature.

Food tastes good. Make sure you notice it!

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