Mindfulness while eating or cooking or anything regarding food can help you go a long and healthy way. This enhances your quality of life like nothing else.
Being mindful of someone’s surroundings mainly means being present about the ongoing in their surroundings. This practice of mindfulness is about acknowledging and accepting one’s thoughts, emotions and feelings. Although the ultimate or ideal mindful eating habit includes ingredients that are mainly Mediterranean-diet-based foods like vegetables, whole grains, fruits, nuts, and seeds, however, the technique can be applied to any kind of food eaten by someone. Mindful eating basically means being aware of the food taken throughout the day. It does not only include the part where you are actually consuming the food but it starts with the very first step of grocery shopping. Being aware of what products to get and how much food value they hold is also part of mindful eating. Savouring the food is not just the way, but, also cherishing the process of cooking the food is too. This blog is a mere guide to your journey of mindful eating so the first step of this journey is planning. The process of mindful eating generally includes
Eating without distractions
- Appreciating the efforts it took for the meal to appear on the plate.
- Acknowledging the physical cues of hunger or satiation.
- Knowing the difference between healthy, flavourful good and junk flavourful food.
- Maintaining overall health through food.
- Noticing the physical and mental changes associated with food.
Planning of a Meal
Planning of the meal that is supposed to be prepared does not have to be massive. It is not a war zone or battlefield so a massive and elaborate plan with complicated meals and too many ingredients is not necessary unless you want to show off your over-the-top cooking skills. A meal idea for a simple dish is enough to get you started. Over-committing mostly leads to undesired results. Either the timing does not go as planned or maybe the prep before cooking takes way too long than anticipated which results in one part of the dish getting cold while the others are still raw or the former part getting burnt while the others are not yet prepared to be thrown in the pan to get mixed. So keeping it simple is the key. And this helps to be more calm and mindful than juggling two main courses and six side dishes at the same time.
Look for Colours
A dish that is of the same shade of colour or monochromatic does not really appeal to anyone but a plate that is filled with a dash of red, a dollop of yellow or a pinch of green literally looks like a rainbow on the plate is much more appetizing to anyone. This addition of colours is a way to trigger your senses as the eyes see the colours and the thought of it being delicious springs up in mind almost immediately. This helps the eyes to engage and enjoy just like the mouth while eating. The colourful food contains many of the nutrients and phytonutrients that are required by the human body to survive in a thriving and healthy way as these vitamins and minerals help in preventing diseases. So eating a rainbow is another way to become mindful of the foods that are being consumed. So for the next time, adding a bit of luscious cherry red tomatoes and the creamy white feta into your spinach salad might pave the way for mindful eating.
Give it Some Time
While headed for cooking, it can be helpful to set aside some extra time for the preparation of the meal. As the sense of the human body influences the digestive process very much it is not a good idea to start cooking when you are ravishingly hungry. The sense of hunger will overpower the other sensations and you will not be able to concentrate on the food value you end up putting in your stomach. So setting some time aside and starting the preparation of the meal when you are not hungry helps to concentrate in the process of cooking. Take the time to see the colour of the spices change when they start to caramelize, wait for the aroma of the broth to fill your nostrils as these sensations trigger the digestive enzymes heavily. Without rushing from one meal to another give the first one a bit more attention and try to see the tiny yet wonderful changes that take place through the process of cooking.
Get in the Flow
According to Hungarian-American psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, flow is a state of enjoyment at its peak, where the focus on the subject at hand is highly energetic and creative concentration is at its best in nature. In layman’s point of view, getting in the flow simply means enjoying yourself while working so much that it does not seem like work anymore. It becomes like a game or a fun activity to do rather than a chore that you are bound to do. A study done in 2011 showed the effectiveness of getting in the flow in case of cognitive improvement in seniors. Some other studies have shown that flow helps in improved motivation, skill development and performance. So treating cooking like a game is much more mindful than treating it as an exhaustive chore. The process of cooking is probably something that needs to be done twice or thrice a day so, it is intelligent to make this process fun and enjoyable and not depressing and frustrating. Putting on some good music while cooking can easily help anyone to get in the flow.
Small is Mindful
Have you noticed the celebrity judges of the cooking shows on television take a tiny portion of the food for tasting? The reasons are, well, they are not trying to fill up their belly with just one dish and secondly, which is by far the most important reason is the taste. A mouth full of food merges the different kinds of flavour notes and piles them into a mush but a small portion when consumed gives room to the flavour to come out with their full potential while hitting different notes of flavour. Small portions can help you to concentrate on the colour, smell, texture and even the sounds each of the ingredients make while getting chewed.
Slow Down the Eating Process
Spend at least twenty minutes in the process of eating from start to finish. Chewing the food thoroughly is not just a part of being mindful while eating but it also helps the food to get absorbed in the body a lot more fast. Treating the consumption of food as a way of meditation will help in calming down the senses and the breathing process which eventually results in becoming more aware of the food that is being consumed as meals. Eating with any sort of distraction like eating while driving, reading, or scrolling through electronic devices can cause a lack of attention towards foods which is the exact opposite of what needs to be done to stay mindful while eating.
