Tag Archive for: mealtime

How to Get Pleasure in Your Meals

The room is dark, the noise is loud. There is a buffet of luscious food awaiting. I walk over to the buffet, pick up a plate and can’t help but wonder “what is in front of me?” It looks like quinoa salad, or is it couscous? That must be a lentil patty, or is it a tuna croquette?

 

I take food, sit down at the table, and begin eating. All my friends at the table are saying what I am thinking, “anyone know what this is that we are eating?” I take a few bites, put my fork down and decide I have had enough.

 

Have you ever stopped to think about how important your senses are to the pleasure and satisfaction you get from your meals?

 

If you’re a chronic dieter, you’ve probably been eating what you think you should be eating, and not what you truly want to eat. And I might suggest that more often than not, you finish a meal and don’t say “wow, that was amazing!”. And, if you do, you likely have tremendous guilt that you enjoyed what you ate, and food is not meant for enjoyment.

 

One of the most beautiful benefits of being an intuitive eater is recapturing the pleasure in eating. The ability to use all of your senses during a meal to truly appreciate the food that is in front of you is something that you have lost in all your years of dieting. But, you can reclaim it on your path towards being an intuitive eater.

 

Here are 3 ways to get the most pleasure in your meals:

 

  1. Before you begin eating: take a moment to observe the food in front of you and appreciate it. Think about where it came from, send gratitude to the people involved in preparing the food for you and observe the various colors, textures and aroma of the different foods on your plate.

 

  1. During the meal: Pay attention to all aspects of the food. Notice the taste on your tongue, the texture in your mouth, the sound as you chew and how the flavor changes as you eat the bite.

 

  1. At the end of the meal: notice how your belly feels, satisfied and content? Full or overfull? Stuffed? Perhaps your having indigestion or acid reflux. Take note and decide if this is a food that feels good in your body, and if it’s something you will want to eat again.

 

 

Learning to slow down and be mindful when you eat is an important part of your intuitive eating journey. It takes practice and patience, but it is worth the lessons learned.

 

I was not able to see the food I was eating at the party I was at, and I did not enjoy it. So, I honored myself and stopped eating. It’s a good thing I honored my hunger before leaving my house for the party and had a snack.

 

Your turn to take action: Try these tips above and comment below how it enhanced the pleasure of your meals.

 

 

 

 

Where’s My Baked Potato? Eating without Distraction!

Young girl on appWe live in a world where it’s all about staying connected….not to each other, but to our electronics. If we leave the house and forget our cell phone at home, we fall into panic mode. “Oh my gosh, what if my friend tries to call me?” Or, “What if that email I am expecting comes in when I am out?”

 

What if?

 

The phone message and email will be there for you when you return.

 

I was recently shopping with my daughters. While we were waiting on the very long line to pay, I noticed that everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, was looking down and scrolling on their phones. I pointed this out to my daughters, who by the way, were on their phones too! Now, I will admit that I am prone to doing the same thing. But, I am trying really HARD to disconnect from my phone when I am out.

 

We decided to put our phones away and just do a bit of “people watching”. Come on, I know you like to do that tooJ.

 

Anyway, we noticed that even when there were two or more people in line together, they were not talking to each other. And, if they did speak a word or two to each other, they did not even lift up their head to look into the eyes of the person talking. Actually, the person talking didn’t lift her head up either.

 

This need to be connected to our electronics isn’t just when we are shopping. Unfortunately you see this when people are driving (NOT safe people!) and even when dining out. The next time you go out to a restaurant, take notice if the people dining together are actually speaking to one another, or looking on their phones. Or if someone is dining alone, they are likely reading the newspaper, checking email, or updating Facebook.

 

I ask my clients to eat and just eat, without any distractions. This means no T.V., newspaper, book, email or texting. This is probably one of the hardest things for my clients to do. Actually, when I first suggest this, they resist. They tell me it will be boring. They even try to tell me that they eat slower when they read or watch T.V.

 

Well, your meal might drag on longer, but you are not focused on your food, not aware of what you are eating, will not have the utmost pleasure in your meal and will find that even if you are satisfied physically, you will not be satisfied psychologically after you finish your meal. And then you are looking for food later on in the evening.

 

Let me share a story with you.

 

When I was newly married and had my first baby, I returned to graduate school in the evenings to complete my education. I ate an early dinner before the babysitter came and then I was off to school. One night while I was eating dinner, I was watching T.V. When the show was over, I turned to my plate and my baked potato was gone! I looked on the floor, it was not there. I know the baby didn’t eat it, he was sound asleep in his crib (and not even eating solid food yet!). I realized that I must have eaten it and didn’t even realize it because I was tuned into the T.V. I SO wanted another potato! I promised myself at that moment that not only will I never eat and watch T.V. again, but I will be tell this story to my clients in my future practice as I teach them to eat without distraction.

 

I have been telling this story for 28 years.

 

Don’t let your potato escape your plate without notice. Make an effort to put away your electronics during mealtime, and eat and just eat! Let me know how it goes in the comments below.