What is Mindfulness? – 3 Mindful Eating Tips


Here are 3 tips to make your next meal more mindful-
 

1. 2 Ways to Snaz It Up 

 
A Nice Place Setting-
  • Food is not just a feast for the mouth. It can be a feast for the eyes and the nose as well.
  • The next time you cook at home, take time to set a nice place setting.
  • Set out a placemat
  • Set out silverware and napkin.
  • (Hint: the spoon and knife live together. Go ahead, let the fork get jealous)
  • Put out a candle, maybe even a little flower arrangement.
  • The goal is to treat yourself like an honored guest. 
Garnish Isn’t Garish-
Plating is the art of arranging food on a plate or in bowl.
(Hint: Bowling is something else entirely)
  • When you serve your food, try plating it beautifully.
  • Remember to leave empty space on your plate to frame the food.
  • Then add a finishing touch, AKA,  le garnish. (Hint: I don’t know french)
  • The easy route is a piece of fresh parsley or basil. (Hint: AKA a sprig)
  • A lemon wedge or half a slice of tomato also looks great.
  • Or go fancy and cut funky shapes out of cheese or tomatoes.
  • Finish with a sprinkling of fresh herbs.
  • No matter what you are eating, you can make it look lovely.
  • It just takes a little attention to detail.

2. The Anti-Eating+ Business Lunch

 
Eating+ = -Taste and -Enjoyment (Hint: This is called food algebra)
Think about what happens at a dinner party. People talk, laugh, and eat, but usually don’t focus on their food.
But what happens when the food is exceptionally delicious? Everyone gets very quiet. Everyone wants to focus on his or her food. This is an example of zoning in to your food.
 
Eating+ is what we do when we talk, text, watch, or work, while eating. When we ‘Eat+’ we subtract taste and enjoyment. We miss the experience because we are distracted.
 
The Business Lunch Problem
In the US we’re conditioned to Eat+. It’s part of our culture, especially our business culture. 
 
Business lunches are a great example. Instead of eating we often work over a meal. this is a hard tradition to overcome. One way to work with this is make  Mindful Business Lunch.
My father and his colleague tried this recently and gave me great feedback.
 
5 steps to a Mindful Business Lunch 
  1. Ask a friend or colleague out to lunch. 
  2. Pick someone who falls into one or more of these categories.
    1. You’re close to
    2. Wants to lose weight 
    3. Is into mindfulness 
    4. Likes trying new things
  3. Tell them you want to have a Mindful Business Lunch. 
  4. Tell them there are only 3 rules
    1. We’ll talk until we get our food. 
    2. Once the food come we just eat, no talking, for 5 mins
    3. After the 5 mins spend a few mins talking about the experience
  5. Ask them what they think?

3. Spooning Leads to Forking

One of the easiest ways to focus on our food is to slow downour eating pace. Here are 4 reasons to slow down:
  1. When large amounts of information come at us, we get overwhelmed. Large amounts of food are no different.
  2. When we eat fast, we taste less.
  3. When you taste more, you eat less.
  4. Slowing down you’ll enjoy everything you love about food even more.
Get Down With Your Fork
Putting down your spoon or fork is a great way to slow down. Here are 10 steps to getting down with your fork:
  1. Take a bite. 
  2. Put down your spoon or fork.
  3. Chew and taste your food.
  4. Instead of focusing on the next bite, taste the bite you have.
  5. What flavors are present?
  6. What is the texture?
  7. Do different flavors get larger or smaller as you chew.
  8. Chew until that bite is done.
  9. Then take another bite.
  10. Enjoy!
Thanks
Thanks for taking the time to check out these 3 mindful eating tips. If you liked this blog, I hope you subscribe to receive future Mindful Fitness blogs. I also hope you will comment below and share this post with your friends. 
Do you have a favorite mindful eating exercise?