Mindful Eating for the New Year

I imagine many of you have eaten a raisin.  But how many of you have eaten a raisin mindfully?  A growing body of research shows that eating mindfully could help to make healthy food decisions and to lose weight.  Eating mindfully means eating slowly, without distractions, and focusing on the food with all of your senses.  So many of us, myself included, scarf down dinner while texting a friend, watching tv, and checking email all at the same time.  When doing so, we certainly don't concentrate on the taste or texture of our food.  We do this at the expense of really tasting our food and likely end up over-indulging.

The next time you sit down to a meal, I challenge you to taste at least one food mindfully and engage all of your senses. Turn off the tv, put the phone on vibrate, and try the following exercise, with a raisin or any other food:

Pick up a raisin and hold it in the palm of your hand. Look at it. Examine it. Describe the raisin. What does it look like? What color is it? How would you describe the texture? Now, feel the raisin in the palm of your hand. What does it feel like against your skin? Pick it up with your other hand. What does it feel like in your fingers? Is it slimy? Rough? Smooth? Soft? Hard? Squeeze it softly. What do you feel? Smell the raisin. Describe how it smells. Rub the raisin between your fingers next to your ear.  What does the raisin sound like?  Put the raisin in your mouth, but do not eat it. What does it feel like on your tongue? What does the texture feel like now? How does it taste? How does the taste compare to the way it smelled? Move it around in your mouth and notice every aspect of the raisin. Bite the raisin once and notice what you taste. Now how does the raisin feel in your mouth? Slowly finish chewing the raisin and notice its texture and how it tastes.  Does it taste like other raisins you have eaten? Or does it taste differently?  Before you swallow, see if you can become aware of the urge to swallow.  Then swallow.  Notice that you are now exactly one raisin heavier than you were before.

For further reading on mindful eating, check out the following:

NY Times Article on Mindful Eating
Harvard Health Newsletter Article