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Mindful nomming
Went to a work seminar on eating called "Your relationship with food" and it made me think a bit. Thoughts below:
The presenter was a licensed clinical social worker, so much of the presentation was about mindfulness. When she asked us to define mindfulness at the beginning of the talk, I was tempted to say, "A way for corporations to push the responsibility for dealing with structural and societal issues onto individuals and make it their responsibility to solve," but I didn't.
A lot of my food is shoveled down while I'm reading and listening to podcasts, just like everyone else. The presenter even admitted that she often drove to work while listening to music and eating breakfast, which is something I've never done, though admittedly she has a one-year-old and I do not. I even realized after the mindfulness exercise that there are a lot of times that I do practice mindful eating for at least a moment. I make a lot of matcha, and every time I do I sit in silence, look at the light coming in the dining room window, and enjoy the taste of the matcha and sweet.
That's about as far as it goes, though, in terms of my healthy eating habits. Part of the way I lost all that weight after Japan was by being very rigid about my eating habits. I almost never eat bread or pasta or potatoes, and never more than one starch or grain with a meal. Aya-sensei was astonished that I didn't eat rice and potatoes, and that when I make Japanese curry it doesn't have potatoes in it. She was even more astonished that I rarely take seconds and never at home, and only have half a cup of rice with a meal--she said she often makes two cups per meal for her and her boyfriend and they're always taking seconds. I write down everything I eat, add food until I reach my budget, and then stop. Unless it's a party or special occasion, I don't go over.
My therapist asked me what would happen if I stopped writing my food down and my mind honestly went blank for a moment. I couldn't even conceive of doing that, and I won't. I did stop walking 10K steps every day, instead taking one day off a week now, and I eat a bit more bread than I used to, but I still have a very strong idea of "this is the right way to eat and I must stick to it or bad things will happen."
There's a proposed disorder called "orthorexia" now, an obsession with the "correct" way to eat. I've heard about it in relation to vegetarianism in America or formal diet programs like Weight Watchers, both of which provide an acceptable way to refuse food (well...sometimes). As I told my therapist, I don't think my eating is disordered, but I think it wouldn't take much for me to slide into it. If I started gaining too much weight, or had too many life upheavals all at once. If I developed a health problem that I could plausibly connect to what I eat. It's not a problem now, but it easily could be and it's something I need to watch out for. Mindful eating won't help with that.
Just some thoughts I had. Also, I wrote this while very hungry but I'm refusing to eat anything because dinner is in an hour and a half, so...
The presenter was a licensed clinical social worker, so much of the presentation was about mindfulness. When she asked us to define mindfulness at the beginning of the talk, I was tempted to say, "A way for corporations to push the responsibility for dealing with structural and societal issues onto individuals and make it their responsibility to solve," but I didn't.
A lot of my food is shoveled down while I'm reading and listening to podcasts, just like everyone else. The presenter even admitted that she often drove to work while listening to music and eating breakfast, which is something I've never done, though admittedly she has a one-year-old and I do not. I even realized after the mindfulness exercise that there are a lot of times that I do practice mindful eating for at least a moment. I make a lot of matcha, and every time I do I sit in silence, look at the light coming in the dining room window, and enjoy the taste of the matcha and sweet.
That's about as far as it goes, though, in terms of my healthy eating habits. Part of the way I lost all that weight after Japan was by being very rigid about my eating habits. I almost never eat bread or pasta or potatoes, and never more than one starch or grain with a meal. Aya-sensei was astonished that I didn't eat rice and potatoes, and that when I make Japanese curry it doesn't have potatoes in it. She was even more astonished that I rarely take seconds and never at home, and only have half a cup of rice with a meal--she said she often makes two cups per meal for her and her boyfriend and they're always taking seconds. I write down everything I eat, add food until I reach my budget, and then stop. Unless it's a party or special occasion, I don't go over.
My therapist asked me what would happen if I stopped writing my food down and my mind honestly went blank for a moment. I couldn't even conceive of doing that, and I won't. I did stop walking 10K steps every day, instead taking one day off a week now, and I eat a bit more bread than I used to, but I still have a very strong idea of "this is the right way to eat and I must stick to it or bad things will happen."
There's a proposed disorder called "orthorexia" now, an obsession with the "correct" way to eat. I've heard about it in relation to vegetarianism in America or formal diet programs like Weight Watchers, both of which provide an acceptable way to refuse food (well...sometimes). As I told my therapist, I don't think my eating is disordered, but I think it wouldn't take much for me to slide into it. If I started gaining too much weight, or had too many life upheavals all at once. If I developed a health problem that I could plausibly connect to what I eat. It's not a problem now, but it easily could be and it's something I need to watch out for. Mindful eating won't help with that.
Just some thoughts I had. Also, I wrote this while very hungry but I'm refusing to eat anything because dinner is in an hour and a half, so...