How Do You Learn to Enjoy All Foods Without Overeating? Practice, Practice, Practice.

Marci called Thursday morning. “Can I bring a fear food tonight and practice eating it mindfully?” She’d been learning--to eat when hungry, choose exactly the food she wanted, stop eating when satiated. And, she was becoming more aware of which foods were triggers and which were simply foods she was afraid to eat. Occasionally she’d experimented with eating a food from her “bad” list on her own. She ate it quickly, didn’t let herself enjoy it, and before she even swallowed the last bite, she heard--OMG! I’m bad. Still, the desire for these “fear foods” persisted.

She arrived at my office at 6 PM with a flat white box. Inside: 2 slices of thin crust pizza. The aroma was amazing.

Why is pizza a bad food? I asked her before we started eating.

High fat, cheese, probably cholesterol. Stuff that’ll make you fat.

Even just one slice?

Marci leaned back in her chair. Maybe not one. But if you ate the whole thing.

I opened the box on the desk. We each closed our eyes, took a breath and then a bite. What does it taste like?

Fantastic. I want to gobble it up.

Take another bite. Notice the different tastes, textures, the sensations on different parts of your mouth, your teeth, your tongue. Try to make each bite last as long as possible.

But my whole body is tightening up. My mind is already upset. I shouldn’t be eating this.

That’s okay. Just label those thoughts, thinking, and keep chewing.

S-L-O-W-L-Y. Chewingchewingchewing. As you chew, imagine where this food came from. Can you picture the fields that grew the wheat? The sun, the rain, the farmer, the baker, the cheese-maker and the cow? The energy of a whole planet that went into each bite of this little piece of pizza. See if with each bite you can open more, let go more and appreciate the gift of this food. In letting go of judgment----bad---good---and giving your attention to gratitude, you enter into the present moment and experience all food with all your senses, your body, and not your mind.

Marci laughed. As I say thank you in my mind, I see a cow chewing grass on a steep, sunny slope. He’s smiling! Marci’s shoulders dropped. She let herself enjoy eat bite a little bit longer. OMG! This is amazing. I’m really tasting. I don’t want to rush. It doesn’t feel scary.

GIVE THANKS.

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