23rd
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
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