Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Mindful eating

Many of us have gotten stuck on auto pilot, just eating without being present with our food. We've lost our basic connection with food. Some of us may not even really know what real food tastes like or where it actually comes from. Our sense of taste has been lost in the process of processing food. It's been replaced by extreme sweet, salty and sour tastes that are mostly chemically created in laboratories not farms. This is how things like emotional eating, binge eating and eating junk foods can take hold of us.
Drinking your food and eating your water can be helpful in creating mindful and conscious eating. If your food is in a liquid state it tastes different, you become aware of what you're eating and how nutrient dense it is. Liquefied food also goes down fast and absorbs into your body better.
Also knowing what your intentions are before you eat helps. Slowing down and being totally present during a meal, not distracting ourselves with TV, talking, eating standing up or eating really fast. Being fully present and fully connected with our food with the intention of giving us the most nutrient value is a good start.
Neurobotics is the study of how the brain takes on new meaningful tasks, which leads to new pathways and neural change. This can be used as a doorway and tool to open up new pathways in our brain. We can do this with food at mealtimes, but it has to be a meaningful event. Try being creative in the way you eat, like eating with the opposite hand, eating with chopsticks, eating blindfolded, buying different food, eating by candlelight or eating with your hands. By doing these things, you can actually lay down more neuron connections, which can keep you're brain more youthful.
The key is to be in touch with yourself when you're eating by paying attention to how food feels in your mouth when you're eating it. Slow down and taste your food.
When we open the door to creativity, happiness and fulfillment lie ahead.

Monday, February 15, 2010

Drink your food and eat your drinks

Drink your food and eat your drinks.
When we're eating on the run, standing up, watching TV or talking to someone during mealtime this can seriously inhibit digestion and cause all kinds of problems. One of them being inhibiting proper enzyme production which aids digestion.
If you're not producing these enzymes, you're not breaking your food and nutrients down to be absorbed and utilized in the body.
This means being totally present with your meal when you're eating it. Make every meal a sacred event. Chew you're food until it is liquefied and when drinking hold liquid in your mouth for a few seconds without gulping it down.
This enables your body to produce enzymes which aid digestion.