Back in Business
Last night before I went to bed I had this thought for a blog post (a brain fart, really) and hastily typed typed it on my iPhone (using the Evernote app – I mostly use the desktop version on my Mac) with a 2 word note subject (“Food meditation”) and a 2 word note (“Blog it.”). Alright, alright. On my list of things to blog about, 2 of which are timely. And now I write this at 8am with the intention of scheduling it for later today.
Day 5 (yesterday) of 21 Days to Health mentions slowing down while you eat and being connected to your food. I want to offer you more than that:
In May 2009 I shared an eating meditation that I learned from my friend Aaron (a rabbi), who was leading a discussion series called “Eating Jewishly, Eating Ethically: Exploring Judaism and Food in the 21st Century”. The eating meditation comes from a book called God in Your Body: Kabbalah, Mindfulness and Embodied Spiritual Practice
Begin by selecting a piece of food. A bit of fruit or vegetable is good, though I often teach this practice with a potato chip — really, almost anything works. Take a moment to focus on the object before putting it in your mouth. Use the Kabbalistic map of the four worlds to help you, as described here.
1. First, on the level of the body, you might feel the food with your fingers, or just gaze at it with focused attention. What does it feel like, or look like? Allow yourself the pleasure of being entranced by this object — most food is quite beautiful, in its detail — as if you’re giving yourself a miniature spiritual retreat, right now, at your lunch table. You might smell the food too, and notice what effects doing so has on your body.
2. “Check in” next with the heart. What desires do you have? Are you hungry? Nauseated? Thankful? Or, maybe, do you think this practice is maybe not for you? Whatever the “feeling-tone” of this experience is, just note it attentively, without judgment; stay with it for a couple of breaths, and see if it shifts, or intensifies, or ebbs.
3. On the plane of the mind, consider for a moment all of the people involved in bringing this food to you. Farmers, truck drivers, factory workers, storekeepers — there are hundreds, if not thousands, of people whose labor created the simple occasion of this food arriving in this moment. Take a moment to consider them; imagine what they look like, how hard they are working to support themselves and their families, the economic system that creates the conditions for their labor.
4. And, on the level of the soul, consider all the conditions necessary to have created this food. The four elements of fire (sun), water, Earth, and air; the genetic information in the plants (or animals), which I see as part of the Divine wisdom (chochmah). Consider, in Thich Nhat Hanh’s words, all of the aspects of the universe which “inter-are” with this food. You are holding a small storehouse of the sun’s energy, and water from a cloud. Allow the poetry of this simple piece of food to be felt, in your body. It’s easy to be cynical or sarcastic. It’s harder, and more rewarding, to cultivate a moment of sincerity.
5. Then — finally! — place the food in your mouth. Before chewing and swallowing, experience the tactile sensations of the food on your tongue, the tastes, the feeling of the mouth watering. What happens to your whole body when you put the food in? Calibrate your sensitivity as finely and exquisitely as possible. See if the food tastes different in different parts of the mouth. Really give yourself a juicy, rich experience of this bit of food. You might keep your eyes closed for the duration of this practice, simply to focus your attention on what’s going on in your mouth, rather than on other things.
6. Then, bite into the food and chew, trying to omit any automatic movements. When chewing, know you are chewing. You probably know the joke about “walking and chewing gum at the same time” — this is the opposite. Do only one thing at a time. That way, the mind slows down, focuses, experiences. You are fulfilling the act of v’achalta, eating.
7. Swallow after the food has been thoroughly chewed, probably twenty or thirty times (don’t bother counting; it’s not a quiz). See if the flavor changes — some food really only comes alive after ten or more chews; some disappears. Finally, when you do swallow, see how far down your esophagus you can still feel the food. Just relax in the physical sensations of eating.
8. As your tongue cleans your mouth after this mindful bite of food, try to maintain the attentiveness that you’ve cultivated; don’t let it be automatic. We have a finite number of hours on this planet — why not be as awake as possible for each of them?
As I said the first time I posted this, the above meditation can be done by anyone. You don’t need to believe in any god, you don’t need to belong to any religion. Omit the “soul” stuff if you want.
Of course I don’t actually do this, but it would be nice if I did. When I think of it, which isn’t often enough, I do take a moment to think of the food producers (see meditation step #3). And when I first stopped eating meat almost entirely but was still eating it in special cases (a foreign delicacy, a particular chef) I took the time to think about the animal, the farmer, etc. and say thank you in my mind. This is a reminder to myself to start doing that and maybe make a habit of it.
It’s something we should all think about, be it animal product (from meat to milk and honey) or grain or fruit or vegetable. Even your sushi nori was harvested by people and people worked in the rice fields.
That’s my thought for this morning.
Update (Jan 18): When I checked out the hunger scale that Ginger Lemon Girl posted last week (as I referenced in this post) I found a link to a “mindful eating Journal”. The content is no longer up but I did some further searching. It looks like that same journal was also posted (PDF) by Inner Wisdom Nutrition. There is, of course, an app for that. This Mindful Eating app (more at their website) for Apple devices costs $5.99. I’m unsure whether I’ll buy it but I did print the PDF journal for jotting down notes. It could easily be copied into a spreadsheet.
Eat well, be well.
First off, I often think that no one reads my blogs but last night a number of people retweeted me (both of my Twitter accounts that mentioned the blog post) and today at the office I learned of three colleagues who had read it. Thanks for reading. It means a lot that you enjoyed and read even if you didn’t enjoy what you read.
As promised I recorded some video this morning. It was supposed to be in 2 stages. In the first one I introduced the segment and showed two lemons side-by-side, one organic and one conventional. The second was supposed to be the main video post. It being my first video recording using Mac’s Photo Booth program, I played the second video back before realizing that it stopped almost 4 minutes in because I went over to Twitter for a moment. I then had to redo the second part of that video, interrupting the flow, trying to remember what I’d said. The first take was the best. Then, I recorded a post script but kept calling “melons” “lemons” and another couple of attempts had no sound. Below you’ll see what I mean. I’m including one of the attempts without sound because I think it’s funny. You can add your own subtitles. (Update: In YouTube they have sound. In Photo Booth and Quick Time no sound. Subtitles would have been funny though.) Now, where did I put my freeze ray? (more…)
As I’ve mentioned already, when I got the guide I found that I was doing the first two habits already: Warm lemon water in the morning, floss daily.
However, before the official 21 days even started, after I flipped through the book, I found myself inspired to add my own “habits”. Simple things that I don’t necessarily need to do for health but that don’t take long and are good habits to have.
The first idea: Instead of dropping my clothes on the floor when I get undressed in the evening, actually fold them and put them away. No affect on my health, but it’s a nice thing to do so that at the end of the week I don’t find myself picking up a week’s worth of clothes. (On the other hand, I tend to wear the same pants multiple days in a row so dropping them next to my bed is kind of convenient.)
Also a habit that I’ve always had trouble getting into: Washing my face every evening, even when I don’t wear makeup – which is most of the time. I’ve been doing it, though.
Then last night after I’d washed my face, flossed and brushed my teeth I was waiting for the water to warm up so that I could give my mouth guard its required warm water rinse (since investing in a mouth guard a year and a half ago I no longer wake up in the morning with searing jaw pain). I looked ahead in the mirror and realized that in the time it took for the water to get warm I could spray and wipe down the mirror. Now, obviously the mirror doesn’t need daily cleaning but there are things that I could do in that 30+ seconds. Scrub the toilet? Spray down the shower walls? Dust a surface?
My warm water with lemon routine has actually been improved and made faster, but I’ll save that one for tomorrow when I do my first ever video blog post.
…Or maybe I shouldn’t say that because then I’ll have to do it because I said I would. I’d hate to say it and then not do it.
At the start of each year, my friend and colleague picks a “word of the year”. It’s a word intended to guide his actions and decisions over the year ahead. Last week he asked me if I’d be willing to participate in a project: He wanted to record a few people talking about their “word of the year”. After ruminating over it for 6 days I chose “commit”- or maybe it chose me. As in, I will commit to tasks and activities in my personal and work life and see them through. I will commit to doing particular things for myself. I will not wuss out, stop out of boredom, let people down. I will not make unrealistic commitments. Today he recorded me. However, I’m way more articulate in print and even though I had what felt like the perfect answer in my head before he came to record me, once recording began the answer didn’t sound as eloquent.
I’ll also mention that although fitness and health weren’t “New Year’s Resolutions” (I don’t make those, though some years I set new goals for myself), I went to the gym four times last week including an early morning spin class on Friday. I don’t do mornings and on some Thursday nights I’m out at karaoke until after midnight. Really, I wanted to see what it was like and if i could do it. A small part of me wanted to be one of those early morning smarmy people.
I’ve also eaten vegan dinners for the last two nights*, and I’m not talking all-vegetable and/or grains. Yesterday I made a tofu scramble (scrambled egg substitute) and though I was skeptical of the recipe and any such recipe, it was outstanding. Way exceeded my expectations. Today I made soba noodles with vegetables (steamed cauliflower, steamed kale, steamed Swiss chard, steamed spinach, raw purple cabbage, and tomato) and a cashew-based “cream” sauce. Basically, a vegan “alfredo”. Tomorrow’s lunch will be leftovers.
For your reference, the tofu scramble was the “Tofu Scram” recipe from Jae Steele’s Get it Ripe, page 123 (Jae FTW again!) and the Alfredo was Meghan’s, with minor modifications, though many vegan Alfredo recipes exist. I highly recommend a generous amount of freshly ground pepper on top. I also included organic barley miso as an ingredient in the sauce.
Also see Chatelaine’s How to change your life in 30 days.
(Yeah, both Chatelaine and Meghan want me to meditate. I’ve never been good at that, though I’ve gone through short phases of trying. Of course that means that I’d benefit a lot from it. It’s the “task” for Day 8. I have until next Saturday to worry about it. 
)
Eat well, be well.
*Updated to add that I’m not going “vegan”. In fact, tomorrow I’ll be eating wings as I help a friend celebrate her birthday. Chicken’s not vegan. (Vague Scott Pilgrim reference there.)
New year, new goals?
A week ago I told you about Meghan’s new guide, 21 Days to Health.
From Meghan’s blog:
We all know that creating a super powered community around healthy living is the surest way to:
- Make it stick
- Make it fun
- Make us not feel like total and complete social outcasts.
For 21 days Meghan will use Facebook, Twitter and live video chats to help you through. At the end of 21 you may or may not have developed habit. It’s up to you. You’ve got to put in the effort and keep it up, yo.
Buy it here!
(An affiliate link, I get 8% of each sale if you buy via that link. 8% is $1.12 on a $14 book.)
[Apologies for I'm telling you about the sale in the evening. I'd done most of the blog post about 21 Days a few days ago before it was available for regular sale, saw Meghan's note about the sale this morning, and was picked up for Boxing Day brunch while I was in the middle of finishing the post. The sale is still on for a few hours though.]
Meghan is back with another guide, 21 Days to Health.
What This Program’s All About
You know how they say that it takes 3 weeks to form a habit? 21 Days To Health is about incorporating very simple changes everyday for 21 days. By the end of those three weeks, you will have tried out and gradually added more healthy living practices than you ever thought possible- and done so with virtually no stress and minimal effort. You will have broken old habits and established new ones.
This program has nothing to do with whether you should eat organic or not, or what the best kind of fish oil is. This is about 21 simple transitions that cover off the 20% of the effort that will give you 80% of the results. This is the important stuff. The changes in this book are not rocket science, they are things we inherently know we should do, but for whatever reason, don’t do.
How to use the guide:
In the guide, Meghan has made a series of 21 recommendations for enhancements to your healthy living. The idea is that on day 1, you take on the first task, on day 2 you add a second, on day 3 a third until after 21 days, you have made 21 simple, easy changes which you will then carry on for another whole week.
Each day contains a checklist. There are suggestions for making the tasks even simpler. There are recipes. There are reasons why each task is worth doing.
This program answers that every popular question when it comes to transitioning to a healthier way of eating.
Watch Meghan’s video explaining the tutorial.
I’ve already got my copy. The recommended for Day 1 is warm lemon water in the morning. I already do that. Day 2 is a reminder to floss daily. I do that too! (Most days.) I’m already ahead.
I recommend printing it out in color because it’s beautiful. Bind it if you can. I didn’t, but I did hole punch it and began a binder for all of the Making Love in the Kitchen books/tutorials/e-guides that I own. Of 9 I think I own 7, but could only find 6 that I had kept together in the same place. Her Guided Meditation recording is on my “to buy” list. Speaking of buying other Making Love in the Kitchen books/tutorials/e-guides…
Did someone say Boxing Day Sale?
Today only, this book and all others in the Making Love in the Kitchen catalogue are only $10 rather than the regular price of $14. You save $4. At either price, that’s a steal! Personally, I think that Meghan could be charging more than $20 for these guides. They’re worth more than that. Their low price makes the guides – and therefore access to tips for improved help – accessible to all while also enforcing their value and allowing her business to make money.
(Tell her I sent you.)
Eat well, be well.
