Mindfulness is a Buddhist concept of meditation to help an individual recognize and cope with emotions and physical sensations. This paying attention on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgmentally brings one's complete focus to the present experience on a moment-to-moment basis. With eating, this lets us fully enjoy the moment of eating, and recognize when we are full. During this 30-day period, I will try to focus each meal on eating with intention and direct focus and see how this changes eating habits and other life areas.
Day 13:
I was able to come home during my break today and enjoy my lunch on the front porch. It was a wonderful and much needed short respite from the work being done at the training I attended in the morning, and it set me up well for the rest of the day.
In the evening we went to the zoo, and I did my best to slowly eat the food that we ordered in spite of the fact that I was really hungry. Even though I was splitting this meal with my husband, by the end, I was satisfied with what we had and was able to let this carry me through the rest of the night.
Day 14:
It's been two weeks since I started this adventure. I do feel more aware of what I'm eating (even if I choose to ignore that awareness). I was distinctly aware of the fact that I overate during lunch, but the small ice cream was so worth the pain. I talk often about the bad food that's been eaten, like fast food or pastas, but in spite of this I have also managed to lose around 5 pounds since I started. I think my overall mental health is better, but maybe that's just because I'm taking the rest of my life as slow and easy as the times I've been eating.
Day 15:
One of the hardest parts of keeping this practice of mindful eating is that other people don't have any idea what you are doing and, for the most part, don't really care. This was a problem last year because my superiors didn't pay mind to the lunches that my partner and I wouldn't take. At my school, incidents happen throughout the entire day, and sometime my partner and I go from one issue to the next. Unless there is someone to cover our positions, we aren't able to leave the building to take our lunches, and often there was nobody to cover our positions. As months went by without taking a break between 7:15 AM and 5:00 PM, several health issues and problems began to develop.
This year I am committed to ALWAYS taking a break throughout the day, and I have started this year following through on this commitment. Unfortunately, today I had my first push back on this as my team was supposed to deliver a presentation at 11:45 AM and lunch was between 11:00 and 11:45. I had been working all morning doing several tasks (one of them assigned between 9:00 AM and 11:00), so at 11:00 I took my lunch and sat with a friend under a tree at the entrance to the school. At 11:38, I got a call from my principal, and debated about trying to answer (in the end I did, but the call failed). I made it inside and upstairs to the presentation room that the Principal and originally assigned at 11:40, and the room was being painted. The other teachers had begun to gather and my principal was standing there, looking at the scene, and said, "I'm going to wait and see how this turns out." Luckily, I had been scoping rooms since the morning because I thought something like this may happen.
The presentation went very well, and teachers were quite satisfied with the information they were given. I checked my e-mail and saw a message from the Principal which said she was disappointed at the team's lack of professionalism and not showing up earlier than "3 minutes" before needing to present. I have since responded and clarified my disappointment at not receiving clear expectations and the inappropriate nature of simply standing and waiting for a team to flounder and fail. My attempts to take and keep my lunch hours may continue to be a struggle throughout the year, but it's one I feel is worth it. The only person you can be responsible for is yourself.
Day 16:
I woke up this morning and went about my regular routine of sitting on the porch and slowly, with intention, eating my cereal, when a fog crawled into the neighborhood. It was strange and beautifully spooky to see the sky go from an aqua to stormy blue, the morning fog rolling over the tops of the houses. Quickly the world got a little darker and was painted in gray tones. The sinking clouds of moisture blanketed the scene and the houses across the street were vailed from sight. A soft combination of water and wind graced my skin, and the smell of soft dew changed the feeling of the world around me. A refreshing vibe was now in front of me and the full expression of the mindfulness practice let the world outside renew the person inside. I was ready to embrace the day.
Day 17/18:
The weekend was solidly focused on the Hot Yoga Teacher Training test out. While I did maintain the practice of mindful eating, my mind was focused mainly on learning the forms and calling out the postures and cues. It was in the mornings that I found the most time to spend solidly focusing on what I was eating and trying to ignore the rest of the world. This gets to be such a challenge when your attention is pulled in so many directions, all of them away from the moment itself. I do notice that when my attention is placed only on the task of eating what's in front of me, I eat far less, but sometime I don't have enough space in my brain or time to devote to only concentrating on completing the task of eating. One of the most challenging parts about this practice is that I, often, have something else (reading, watching television, surfing social networks, etc.) that I want to do at the same time that I'm eating. This may be because I want to be efficient about my time, or it could be a lack of regard for the healing nature of holding intention to the world around us in the moment we exist. In the end, I did well and passed my Teacher Training with flying colors.
One Dish Carrot, Onion, and Potato Pork Tenderloin (serves 4)
2 (36 ounces) Pork tenderloin
1 lb. baby purple potatoes diced into quarters
3 medium carrots peeled and thinly sliced into bite-sized rounds (you can to make sure that your carrots and potatoes are chopped small enough so that they become tender by the time the pork is done cooking)
1 bunch of green onion coarsely chopped
3 teaspoons minced garlic
Salt and pepper to taste
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablesoons italian seasonings.
How to cook it up:
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
- Spray a large baking dish with cooking spray.
- In a large zip-top bag, toss together potatoes, carrots, onion, garlic, salt and pepper, and olive oil until everything is completely coated.
- Arrange vegetables in the bottom of the prepared dish. Place marinated pork on top and mix in with veggies.
- Put dish in the oven (uncovered) and roast for 35-40 minutes, or until pork is cooked through (and thermometer reads 145 degrees F). Check the pork at the 25 or 30-minute mark.
- Remove pork from dish. Allow it to rest for 5-10 minutes before slicing and serving. - Garnish with herbs as desired.