Intentional Eating

Are you living the vital, healthy and fulfilling life you want? Do you eat well and love the foods you eat? Do you sleep well, waking up each day refreshed and energetic, ready for whatever comes your way? Are you are dealing with weight issues, chronic pain or serious illness? Perhaps you are plagued with stress and fatigue. Maybe you just don’t feel good or have the energy you might like. Whatever your wellness level, this book can help. The path to wellness and a new more vital, healthy life may be easier than you think. My intent is to offer a different way of looking at food and how we eat; a mindful approach that will change your life. How would your life be different if you had a clear and simple path to a healthier life? Take a moment and imagine what it might be like if you could change. Why might you want it to be that way? The question “Why?” is the most important thing to ask yourself right now. Take a minute to think of the reasons why you might choose to change your health. Visualize your quality of life if you could. Why might you want to change your relationship with food? Make a list of these “whys” before you start the program for they will determine your willingness to change and give you the support you need when old ways try to creep back in. Keep your list of “whys” (perhaps in the “Notes” section in this book) and read and add to them often. This will be the source of motivation you will need to make these concepts work for you. Maybe you want to feel better about yourself and do things that you cannot now do. Maybe you would change for your kids or grandkids. Think of what matters most to you to find your “whys”. (If you cannot identify any “whys” right away, keep reading and keep your health in mind.) Mindful eating is a practice used daily by many Buddhist mindfulness teachers, including Thich Nhat Hanh. This wise and famous Buddhist monk tells a lovely story about being a child and having his mother bring home a single cookie for him in the afternoon. He would take it outside and make that cookie last for hours, eating one bit at a time, relishing the goodness and treasuring the flavor of every bite. This is a perfect example of mindful or “intentional eating”. In Hanh’s book Peace Is Every Step, he talks of making every meal a meditation of enjoyment, a ceremony of delight. With the joy in this way of eating comes the added benefit of good health and wellness, especially once you break your food addictions and learn the basics of a good balanced diet that gives your body what you need without all of the bad stuff -- like the sugar, salt and unhealthy fats, or excess quantities. “You are what you eat,” is a quote we hear a lot. It cannot be taken literally to mean, “If you eat a shrimp, you are a shrimp,” but looking to the quote’s real roots reveals some great wisdom. This shortened version of the quote probably came from the French gastronome, Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin in his statement, “Tell me what you eat and I shall tell you what you are.” This quote actually makes more sense. So what, exactly, are you eating? Fruits and vegetables? Fast food? Gourmet? Exotic? Ethnic? Do you eat real foods prepared naturally? Whether you are a gourmet chef or don’t know how to cook, this book can show you ways to eat and feel better. The type of food you choose to consume is a direct reflection of the kind of person you are, as well as a reflection of your life experiences and choices. These foods are also a reflection of your state of health, the vitality you have, and how good you feel. What you choose to put into your mouth today will determine who, and how healthy you are tomorrow. Do you want to wake up every day well rested, feeling great, with the energy you need to really enjoy your life? It is all in what you eat and how you eat it. Did you know french fries and iceberg lettuce are the two most widely consumed vegetables in America? Is it any wonder that over two-thirds of Americans are overweight, with the average American carrying 23 pounds more than their target weight? Of these, more than 30% are clinically obese. This extra weight we carry has now been linked to increases in most chronic diseases including diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and Alzheimers. Diabetes doubles the risk of getting Alzheimers Disease! According to the United States Healthful Food Council, “Many experts believe that improved nutrition and lifestyle can reduce illnesses and deaths from cancer by as much as 40%, death from cardiovascular disease by up to 30%, and cases of diabetes by at least 50%. Unfortunately, America is moving in the wrong direction. Since 1990, diabetes has increased 61%, obesity 75%. Heart disease is now the number one killer of adults and second leading cause of death for children under 15!” Over the past 25 years, the number of overweight adults has doubled. The number of overweight children has more than tripled. Life expectancies are dramatically decreasing in one of the most “advanced” countries in the world. There are many healthy lifestyle approaches being promoted now. These include eating organic whole foods, eating a Paleo diet, eating vegetarian or vegan, eating low-glycemic, Mediterranean, “clean eating”, etc. These movements are getting away from the older idea of calorie counting “diets”. The shift away from calorie counting reflects our understanding that dieting with limited portions and calorie counting has been shown to fail over 95% of the time. Traditional diets just don’t work for most people as they are based on what you can’t have and that is a proven recipe for rebound binge and post-diet overeating. Food should be a pleasurable experience, not one of denial. Many of the new approaches listed above are vast improvements from the calorie counting diets, but they often miss changing your relationship to food through how you eat. This critical missing element is what I call “intentional eating”.