Try this imaginative remix for mindful eating

January 5, 2017 Ashley 0 Comments

Okay, I want you to close your eyes.

(Not yet – but in a second after you read this passage, duh…)

I want you to close your eyes, and imagine yourself partaking in a typical binge sesh.

(“Calories no one watches go down, don’t count – right?”)

You’re there in your kitchen (or car, or bed, or wherever the crime scene generally transpires). And, all the usual suspects are there: fast food. Ben ‘n Jerry. Gouda. Who knows. It’s your pantry party – so get creative. Now, I want you to look up, halfway through funneling food down your face hole, and suddenly realize you’re eye to eye with -….. Who is it? Now this is where the creative bit comes in. Maybe its your slender friend who’s been trying to help get you fit. Maybe it’s your spiritual guru who’s trying to help you find balance in all things. Or maybe it’s even that office crush you’d be crushed to have see you like this. So, contemplate a moment. And whoever you come up with – make sure it’d be the worst person to observe you in such a situation. Food stains on your hoodie. Pastry paste painted on your face. Cheeks, chipmunk stuffed. What would you do if they could see you right now? Ask yourself: how would you feel if they were to sit with you – at the end of each day – and eat everything you’d eaten all day long, while staring you dead in the eye? Tacos. Nachos. All those unnecessary little kitchen nibbles. All of it – while you had to watch a shameful reflection of your ingestion habits.

Pretty intense little exercise, wasn’t that?

Really, though. Ask yourself – how would it make you feel? Proud? Ashamed? Indifferent?

Because, when my mom told me about this TV show she’d seen, featuring exactly this practice (someone munch mimicking obese people trying to lose weight), I was kinda horrified. (Especially thanks to the holiday confections infecting my clinic’s kitchen ATM.) If somebody followed me around, playing Simon Swallows (the victual version of Simon Says), on the days I “eat my feelings”, I have to say – I’d be pretty ashamed. I may follow a healthy, clean diet. But, yes, it’s possible to get imbalanced – even on a plant based diet. Fat’s still fat. Too much is still too much. And sugar’s still sugar – when I cave and have it. So, seeing someone do the same on my bad days… might just gross me into transformation.

(’cause it’d look a lot like this…)

So this made me kind of think of “mindful eating” in a whole different light.

Now, you may have heard about mindful eating before. (If not, here’s an article on it.) The idea? Essentially that you tune in to your body and brain’s newsfeed when it comes to food. You ask yourself questions like “Am I really hungry? Or just sad? Tense? Anxious?” You pause for a meal intermission halfway through consuming it, to take some water and decide if you’ve had enough – or if cleaning your plate’s what’s truly needed. You enlist a li’l willpower when it comes to the quality of food choices, too.

And that’s all fantastic. It’s a great place to start (and stick, if it’s legitimately working). But the tough thing about that, is that when you’re alone, it’s easier to go to denial about the fact that you’re treating your belly like a landfill. Or that the same body you don in private, has to go out into public – with the sins of tonight singed onto it with extra inches. With the added mass you’re planting there one pie slice into your pie hole at a time. In fact, there’s this one meme I’ve always liked that expresses exactly that:

And there’s more to that, isn’t there? There’s the fact that – what you eat in private now, you have to suffer everywhere later. It’s not just about what other people will see and judge you on. It’s about how hard climbing the stairs is on your heart. Or how hard it is to stay awake at work because you snacked on crappy Kraft food and your blood sugar’s off. How hard it is to keep up with your children or pets. How hard it is to stay healthy enough to enjoy life and interact with others in general – whether they’re in public or the privacy of your own home. That’s why those applications and communities that keep you connected to other weight-loss minded people are so helpful. Remaining connected – avoiding that sentiment of solipsism – is so important. How are your dietary decisions now going to effect your social, spiritual, and psychological interactions later? Imaginatively inviting the idea of those people into your private time now too – from your kids to your coworkers – could just help you improve the quality of all those decisions.

So, the next time you find yourself facing a craving or starting to nosh unconsciously, try tuning into your body. And if you cannot, try to think of someone whose opinion of you, you value. I mean someone really important. Someone you fix your makeup for. Someone who raises your vibe. Someone who makes you wanna be a better member of the human species. Then, imagine them watching you – and copying every morsel you wanna mindlessly consume.

And then, instead’ve feeling guilty, enjoy some healthy spiralized zucchini spaghetti together…

Lady ‘n the Tramp style.