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What is Conscious Eating – Conscious Eating Week – ITL Conscious Living Workshop

1 Comment Posted in: Conscious Eating, ITL Conscious Living Workshop, Uncategorized | April 19, 2011

Image by nile red via Flickr

Picture it…

You have just come home from work, tired and starving. You grab leftovers out of the fridge, pop on the tv (yes, I know… tv!) and your fork hits an empty plate a few mindless minutes later? You have no recollection of actually shoving the food into your mouth, save the empty plate with streaks of what once was your dinner as proof it was really there. Half an hour later, the fullness kicks in, but you don’t feel satiated.

Also known as…

Mindless Eating

It is the state of eating without thinking about eating. Studies have found that such mindless eating leads to ingesting more than needed, feelings of guilt, non-satisfaction, and a lack of a positive connection to food and our bodies.

Conscious Eating

This is is the state of being aware as we eat, being in the moment. Beyond the diet tricks of eating on smaller plates and choosing colorful food, there is more to eating than our waistlines. Conscious eating entails focusing on your food – its preparation, presentation, proportion, power, and ingestion. Also called intuitive eating or awareness eating, it is not a diet, but a way of connecting with your food.

Tomorrow we delve into the 4 P’s and I (preparation, presentation, proportion, power, and ingestion)

Home Play

Until then, take a moment at dinner today and really look at wt you are eating. Take in its color, smell, temperature, texture as if it is something new to experience. Think about its travels to your plate beyond the fridge or freezer (or delivery guy). Where in the world did it originate, how did it travel to you, who was part of its preparation? Take a look at how you presented your food to yourself. How full is your plate? After, how did the food make you feel while eating, an hour after, the next day? There are no right or wrong answers here, just observations.

Conscious Eating Week – ITL Consious Living Workshop

1 Comment Posted in: Conscious Eating, ITL Conscious Living Workshop | April 18, 2011

Image via Wikipedia

So Many Ways.

We eat to survive. We eat to connect. We eat to console. We eat to protest. We eat to entertain. We eat to love.

There are so many reasons why we eat, what we eat, how we eat. It is a complex ritualized obsession of ours performed on a daily basis. We shop, organize, prepare, present, serve, portion, chew, digest, and on and on.

The Basics

At its very basic, food is fuel. Eating is a way to ensure our cells receive the nutrients they need to perform their functions efficiently, or at least adequately. We need protein, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins, minerals, and water everyday of our lives.

The Conscious Part

So, why do we place so much passion behind the food we eat? Why does it matter if it tastes good, feels good, looks good? While there is an evolutionary and biological component to the equation of the answer, the mind-body connection of the equation is just as powerful. And I argue that perhaps it is even more powerful in the end than the physical piece.

There is a part of each one of us that connects to food on a level above what your body needs to survive. This part, this conscious part of us needs something wholly different from the molecular make-up of essential nutrients.

Conscious eating is our focus this week. We will delve into the what, the how, and the when of conscious eating.

Come back tomorrow for what conscious eating really means.

Enjoy.

Amie