Presence of Mind (Guilt-Free Part II)

How often to you eat a meal at your desk while working? How many times have you gone through a drive-through and eaten on your way to work (or elsewhere)? Do you eat while watching TV?

Sometimes, life gets in the way. There’s just too much to do, you feel like you’re always behind on something, and you multitask. We all do it. But keeping up this pace non-stop can leave you drained, over-tired and unable to sleep, too physically tapped to exercise, and too mentally tapped to… well… to be human. Practical or no, if you’re so busy you don’t have the wherewithal to laugh, love, exercise your own personal creativity, or play, all of that effort is for naught. And there are plenty of studies showing that all this busy-ness is making us less healthy.

Mealtimes can be one of those times to renew, rebuild, refresh… to take yourself out of the stress and just be. There are more benefits to be realized by this approach than those described above. The stomach has sensors that tell the brain, “Hey, I’m full here!” Their voices are pretty quiet, and if you’re not listening, you won’t hear them. Furthermore, these little guys are pretty slow to speak. They kind of mull it over and consider, “Am I full now? How about now?” If you eat too fast, they don’t have time to catch up. By the time they get around to saying, “Whoa, buddy!!!” you’re already over-full. The multi-tasking style of eating lends itself to wolfing down food; the eating process is getting in the way of whatever else you’re doing. It occupies at least one hand and at least a little attention, so whatever else you’re doing is done less carefully. You bolt down the food to get it out of the way.

Eating while multi-tasking has another, far more depressing side-effect. If you’re not paying attention to eating, you’re missing out on all the pleasant sensations of eating. The textures, colors, flavors, and smells… mmm…. Without taking pleasure in eating, you’re left unsatisfied – eager for more because you missed it the first time around. By cultivating a boredom with eating, you cultivate a desire to avoid thinking about what you eat. You resort to convenience foods like a bag of chips or a candy bar and coke, a Big Mac bought in the drive-through, or even worse, nothing.

One counter-intuitive way to ensure both enjoyment in the food and a slower eating pace can be to eat with friends and family. Why counter-intuitive? Because it seems like multi-tasking. However, when you’re eating as a social activity, you’re more relaxed. You can listen to what a friend is saying and still be attentive to the textures, smells, and flavors before you. And, unless you’re sitting with a stream-of-consciousness talker or are hopelessly laconic, natural pauses are introduced into your eating as you join into the conversation. And, of course, if you’re a true food lover, the meal before you can itself end up being an engrossing topic of conversation in its own right.

’til next time,
Bearable

Tags: Guilt Free