Mindful Eating / The Wine Diet

No, this post is not about drinking your way to health, but about viewing food much like a wine connoisseur views a bottle of wine. What and how we eat is one of the most integral parts of living, yet it is one of the most mindless things we do. Studies have shown that people who kept a food journal lost more weight than those that did not. Keeping a food journal requires you to pay attention to what you are eating, it makes you fully aware of your choices and the quantities you consume. Paying attention also signals your mind and body that you have eaten, rather than mindlessly over stuffing yourself. You can also achieve this awareness by eating your food much the same way as a wine connoisseur partakes of a glass of fine wine. When choosing think carefully of the qualities of your choice, how are we designed, what does it take to run this machine we call our body. A wine connoisseur puts thought into their choice for the exact wine to compliment the meal, put thought in your choice of food for your body, ask what would your body choose. When the food is before you, give it your attention, truly see it just as the wine is given full attention as it is swirled in the glass. Take small bites, much like a small sip, and before it enters your mouth look closer, smell the aroma, pay full attention as it enters your mouth. Once in your mouth, chew slowly and feel each sensation, notice the texture and taste as it hits different parts of your mouth. As you are eating, don't forget that you can put your utensil down and just pause or take a deep mindful breath between bites or to reply to a comment, then go to the next bite giving it your full attention. Also, as you take each bite, think of what it took to get to you, be thankful for all the hands it passed by, every ray of sunshine or drop of rain, from it's beginning of life to sustaining your life.

In the Kids Awareness Program there will be activities to awaken the children to use all their senses when eating, to eat mindfully and to then have them journal or blog their descriptions. They will also be taught some basic nutrition, the "whys" of eating certain foods not just do it because and how to, as well as importance of, reading labels and to be fully aware what it is they are eating.