Before you eat take a very clear moment to be present. Notice the gift of the community. Be grateful for the people you are with. Look at where you are. Notice the room, the table, the place settings, and the sounds. Be grateful for this place, for these people, for this moment.
Take a moment and look at your food. Take in the colors, the textures and the beauty of the food on your plate. Consider the history of your food. How did it arrive at your plate. Consider how many people do you have to thank for this meal, starting with farmers and ending with the cooks and servers. Be grateful for the amazing intricacy of our webs of connection that make possible this meal.
Smell your food, then take a bite and really savor it. Taste it and feel it and enjoy it. Allow yourself the sensuous pleasure of eating. Indulge in the experience. Eat part of what is on your plate and then pause. Drink some water. Take in the conversation and wait for a moment. Then with a clear head, ask yourself if you are still hungry. Do you want to eat more of this food or have you had enough. If you are still hungry, continue eating. Eat slowly, enjoying every bite. After you’ve eaten more of your meal, pause again. Repeat the process. When you have eaten enough, set your utensils down and enjoy the company at your table. Enjoy the community of your feast.
Eat your desert in the same fashion. Taking time with it, appreciating the food, the cooks, the work that was put into the desert on your plate. Really savor the miracle of the food. Take each bite slowly and in turn, pausing frequently, and stopping when you have had enough.
In this fashion your meal is a meditation and an experience of the divine wonder of life. Your meal is infused with gratitude and will serve you and the world well. Enjoy.
11/24/10
11/5/10
Permitter or Restrictor? Or both?
Geneen Roth divides us compulsive eaters into two groups: restrictors and permitters. Restrictors restrict their calorie intake. Restrictors watch, measure, and count every bite. Restrictors limit their calorie intake. Restrictors over-exercise. Restrictors like diets because diets give us an illusive sense of control. Restrictors like rules to follow. If I eat by ‘this program,’ (whatever the diet of the day is) then everything will be okay.
Permitters on the other hand throw in the towel before they begin. Permitters are suspect of foods lists, diets, programs and rules. Permitters tend to live in denial about their weight: “I don’t understand how I could have gained 10 pounds, I haven’t done anything different.” Permitters deserve their daily chocolate.
And I think most of us oscillate between these two groups. I can easily envision a permitter/restrictor teeter-totter with me rolling back and forth between the ends. Some days falling to the restrictor side and some days I topple to the permitter side.
Lately I think I’ve been falling on the restrictor side. I started using the application ‘MyNetDiary’ that runs on my iPad. It is designed for restrictors and pushed me right over to that end of the teeter-totter. I pat myself on the back any day my calorie intake is less than the program says I need. Aha, I’ll loose weight, even faster than it says I should. I start feeling like a good girl, a success… until…..
Until I notice that I have become depleted. Until I notice that I am struggling to do my usual exercise. Until I notice that I have no sense of humor left. Until I notice that I short-tempered and arguing with my sons over every little thing. Until I have a persistent headache and feel like my synapses are not firing correctly.
All of these are signs that I have not had enough calories in my diet. Last night I took my sons out to eat. I ate a regular dinner. I wrote it into ‘MyNetDiary.” Oh, dear, I’ve eaten my full allotment of calories today. That creates anxiety. Then, after dinner I had an uncomfortable discussion with my son. My next pass through the kitchen I ate the last bit of a lemon cream cookie I had purchased for the boys earlier in the week. I’d been able to ignore it until that moment. And suddenly I could no longer resist. The cookie put me 100 calories over my caloric allotment. Oh no, I fear tumbling to the permitter side of the teeter-totter.
And today, with those few extra calories in my system, I feel physically good. I have more energy than I had the last few days and my headache is gone. I went for a run and I felt great. In retrospect I don’t think I fell onto the permitter side of the teeter totter. Perhaps I just came back to center, where I want to reside. My body has needed more calories than I have been allowing myself. I don’t feel indulged and I don’t feel deprived. I want to stay here, balanced in the middle of the teeter totter.
And for someone who oscillates, it is an interesting place to reside. It takes willingness to live in the moment. It takes willingness to be present. It is almost like walking a tight rope, to stay balanced between the two ends of the permitter/restrictor teeter-totter.
Permitters on the other hand throw in the towel before they begin. Permitters are suspect of foods lists, diets, programs and rules. Permitters tend to live in denial about their weight: “I don’t understand how I could have gained 10 pounds, I haven’t done anything different.” Permitters deserve their daily chocolate.
And I think most of us oscillate between these two groups. I can easily envision a permitter/restrictor teeter-totter with me rolling back and forth between the ends. Some days falling to the restrictor side and some days I topple to the permitter side.
Lately I think I’ve been falling on the restrictor side. I started using the application ‘MyNetDiary’ that runs on my iPad. It is designed for restrictors and pushed me right over to that end of the teeter-totter. I pat myself on the back any day my calorie intake is less than the program says I need. Aha, I’ll loose weight, even faster than it says I should. I start feeling like a good girl, a success… until…..
Until I notice that I have become depleted. Until I notice that I am struggling to do my usual exercise. Until I notice that I have no sense of humor left. Until I notice that I short-tempered and arguing with my sons over every little thing. Until I have a persistent headache and feel like my synapses are not firing correctly.
All of these are signs that I have not had enough calories in my diet. Last night I took my sons out to eat. I ate a regular dinner. I wrote it into ‘MyNetDiary.” Oh, dear, I’ve eaten my full allotment of calories today. That creates anxiety. Then, after dinner I had an uncomfortable discussion with my son. My next pass through the kitchen I ate the last bit of a lemon cream cookie I had purchased for the boys earlier in the week. I’d been able to ignore it until that moment. And suddenly I could no longer resist. The cookie put me 100 calories over my caloric allotment. Oh no, I fear tumbling to the permitter side of the teeter-totter.
And today, with those few extra calories in my system, I feel physically good. I have more energy than I had the last few days and my headache is gone. I went for a run and I felt great. In retrospect I don’t think I fell onto the permitter side of the teeter totter. Perhaps I just came back to center, where I want to reside. My body has needed more calories than I have been allowing myself. I don’t feel indulged and I don’t feel deprived. I want to stay here, balanced in the middle of the teeter totter.
And for someone who oscillates, it is an interesting place to reside. It takes willingness to live in the moment. It takes willingness to be present. It is almost like walking a tight rope, to stay balanced between the two ends of the permitter/restrictor teeter-totter.
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