It's Not
About
the Scale

By Karen Preston

Karen lives, plays, and works
in Portland. A member of TOPS (Take Off Pounds Sensibly), she also founded Pounders, a weight-loss support group focusing on being fit through exercise and healthly lifestyle changes. Her story
was recently featured in Self magazine (September 2003).

I still find each
day too short for
all the thoughts
I want to think,
all the walks I want
to take, all the books
I want to read and
all the friends
I want to see. 

— John Burroughs

Mindfulness

Those of you who meditate know that mindfulness is the practice of being fully present without judgment. It’s about slowing down and appreciating the richness and joy available in the moments of your life.

What a foreign idea for most of us in the U.S.! We’re constantly on the go: working, cleaning, running the kids to soccer practice, and cramming every extra minute with activities. Busy and distracted, we’re often little whirling dervishes spinning through our lives.

Even when we have that spare moment to reflect, we often use it to either ruminate about the past or worry about the future. Seldom do we concentrate on the blessings of this particular moment in time.

Have you ever driven a car on autopilot? You climb in your car intent on getting from point A to point B and realize at your final destination that you were so deeply in thought that you can’t remember the actual drive. I know that I’ve done this and, more important, I’ve done much the same thing with my eating!

I’m the first one to tell you that one of the keys of losing weight is to concentrate on eating healthy foods in the correct portions. However that isn’t the whole picture. You see it isn’t just about what you eat, but about how you eat.

How many of us have been guilty of inhaling your food on the run? Eating in the car, while we’re on the phone, working, or watching TV and completely oblivious to the sweetness of the plump golden peach we’re consuming. Instead of mindless eating, I challenge you to concentrate on eating with awareness.

How much more satisfied we feel when we eat mindfully. I can tell you this from my own personal experience; I’ve been guilty of shoveling my food in instead of being completely present and enjoying the tastes and textures of the food. Sometimes I’ve been so disconnected I’ve actually forgotten that I already ate whatever I’m busy searching for!

So how do you eat with awareness? You begin by making eating itself the center of attention. No phone, TV, computer, or other activities to distract you. However, soft music and good conversations with family or friends are wonderful companions to mindful eating.

Start by preparing a place to eat. Clean and clear any distractions from your table. Spread your prettiest placemat and light a candle. Use that favorite china; forget about saving it for special occasions. You are, after all, the most important person in your life, so I urge you to treat yourself like you would a special guest. After all, you wouldn’t ask a guest to stand at the fridge and graze, would you?

When sitting down at the table take a moment to reflect on the food before you. Some people do this by saying grace, others by looking at the beauty of the food before them and appreciating the joy of having such bounty in their lives. When I’m a guest in someone’s home, I always make a point of thanking my host for choosing and preparing the food set before me.

Take a bite and savor the smell, taste, and texture of the food. Here’s the most important tip I’ll give you: put down the utensil you’re using and concentrate on fully chewing each bite, pause before you pick up the fork again to take another bite. If you’re like most of us, you’ll find this difficult to do, but once you do you’ll feel more satisfied with less food than you normally eat. You’ll be better attuned to your body and hunger signals and that’s what it’s all about.

Finally let me leave you with another of my favorite quotes. As Frank Lloyd Wright once said, “Dining is and always was a great artistic opportunity.”