It's all White out there!

23^rd March 2013

When something bad happens, you have 3 choices – you can either let it define you, destroy you or strengthen you!

 

Well aren’t we lucky the snow had all gone from our roads by about 3pm yesterday so the universe has sent us some more, easily another couple of inches and its still falling – YAY!  Can you read the sarcasm? 

 

But I’m going to enjoy looking at it through the window as luckily I don’t have to go anywhere if I don’t want to, and because I’m listening to my mom singing in the bathroom, she's made the song up herself apparently, all I heard was, “If you cry you’ll be sad, if you’re happy you’ll be glad.”  She has a point!  I’ll take from that this morning I think.

 

Had a lovely day yesterday, spend the morning with my bestie, we went for a wander round Waitrose and a coffee, then we went to do some undercover investigating (I can’t tell you or I’d have to kill you), the we had a spot of lunch before saying our goodbyes – Fridays are NEVER long enough!

 

I had my massage on the afternoon, I thought it was today but luckily I checked, my memory sucks, I really need to put reminders in my phone not just my diary!

 

Today’s all about the doing what I fancy for me, so I’m off to make another cuppa in my new mug my bestie made for me, rather than waffling on I’m going to share with you  an exercise I did in this weeks meeting called ‘tasting and appreciating’ as I realise not everyone reading this blog attends my meetings so as it wasn’t a Weight Watcher exercise as such, I thought you may wanna have a go,

 

SIT DOWN, PUT IT ON A PLATE AND FOCUS

 

Get yourself a chunk of chocolate, a salted crisp & a grape (It’s good to do steps 1-22 with each of those three things one at a time of course)

 

1) Take a look at the chocolate

2) How do you feel about chocolates? Do you like it, dislike it, neither?

3) Just keep looking at it. What thoughts come into your head?

4) Now put the chocolate into your mouth without biting on it just yet… and Close your eyes

5) Just hold it on your tongue with your mouth closed.

6) Don’t bite it or chew it, just hold it on your tongue with your mouth and eyes closed. Tune in…

7) What does it feel like against your tongue?

8) Is it cool?

9) Can you taste its sweetness?

10) How does it feel against your teeth?

11) How does it feel against your palate?

12) Do you sense the salivary glands at the back of your throat starting to secrete?

13) Tune in to any physical sensations as you hold the chocolate in your mouth.

14) Notice any thoughts… any emotions

15) Slowly, slowly now bite into the chocolate.

16) Whatever you do don’t swallow it !

17) Keep it in your mouth for as long as you can.

18) Experience the subtle changes of flavour as you chew it.

19) How does it feel to do this? Tune in. What are you thinking?

20) Now slowly swallow the chocolate and see how far you can follow it down your into your throat.

21) Actually travel with it as it makes its way down and enters your oesophagus.

22) How does this feel?

How did that feel for you all?

 

Why did I ask you to do it?  Because it’s important to pay attention to your food.

 

Putting food on a plate helps us to… make it official! To acknowledge that we are eating… so often we graze and pick, and the food stays in the packet or we take it straight from the fridge… and that’s more often than not the way we overeat… Would you be willing to have one day when you experiment with putting everything you eat on a plate… and be aware of how it impacts your eating? Eating on a plate can be done anywhere – even at the office, could you have paper plates in your desk drawer?

 

Eating more slowly (you don’t need to eat quite as slowly as we have just

done here!) means we actually TASTE the food. When we really taste it we can become aware of what we like and don’t like, we can choose to STOP eating food we are not enjoying, we can make a point of having more of the things we DO enjoy. Often during meals, after a few spoonfuls we no longer even taste what we are eating. Eating slowly gives our brain a chance to pick up of the satiety signals which our body sends out when we’ve had enough food – but this can take up to 15 minutes so when we eat too fast we don’t notice how full we are till it’s too late. Aim to slow down just a little. Putting down your knife and fork between mouthfuls can really help. Tune in from time to time during a meal to gauge how hungry or satisfied you feel.

 

Taking a moment to transition from whatever activity you were doing before you were eating can help you to remember to eat more slowly –  you could use this moment to tune in.

 

Focusing means turning off the telly, the PC, the radio, putting away the

book or newspaper, taking a moment to tune in during a lively social meal…

 

For many people, eating without the TV, radio, newspaper is unthinkable.

Consider doing it if only to experiment.

 

If this sounds too difficult, or challenging, you can start VERY small.  Would you be willing to eat the first mouthful of a meal or any food really

consciously without distractions?

 

Or the first 2 minutes of a meal? – SMALL steps are fine.

 

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Have a super duper Saturday, Eat Gorgeous and always BeYouTiful xx