Food Lessons from the Movie Eat Pray Love

In the movie Eat Pray Love, (based on Elizabeth Gilbert's autobiographical book of the same name) Julia Roberts plays the title character who after a broken marriage goes on a year-long sabbatical to Italy, India, and Bali to find herself and reignite her passion and appetite for life.  During the first part of her travels in Italy, she rediscovers the pleasure of eating for nourishment and enjoyment, relishing plates of pasta and slices of pizza, calling it her "no carb left behind experience."  The power of that scene stems from the fact that she lets go of the guilt associated with eating so-called 'bad" foods and is fully present in the moment, focused soley on the joy of eating. 

The movie is so inviting to watch because the main character has the luxury of getting away from it all (in gorgeous locations) while learning how to slow down and tune in to life.  Okay, so maybe we all can't quit our jobs and go on a year-long sabbatical, but we can still take small steps everyday to take time to actually appreciate, taste, and savor our food. 

In today's hectic lifestyle, we're so busy with our family, our jobs, and our activities, that we often give very little thought to the food we eat.  We approach food mindlessly, and we eat it mindlessly.  We eat meal after meal, barely aware of what we're eating and how much we're consuming.  Years of unconscious decisions add up to the point where we gain weight and wonder why.  We didn't choose to gain weight, did we?  Other times we think too much and try to be so restrictive in what we eat that when we overindulge, our internal judgement police march in to harshly scold us for our missteps.
 
So what's the key to creating our own Eat Pray Love experience without having to travel the world?

Mindfulness. 

Mindfulness is is simply the moment-by-moment awareness of what's going on. 

When we learn to eat mindfully, we gain power over food bite by bite.

As I've mentioned in a previous post, simple is not the same as easy.  Being mindful on a consistent basis is very difficult for most people but with practice it can became as natural as breathing. 

Here are 3 steps to practice:

1.  Tune In Before Eating

Take a moment to become aware of the food you're about to eat before scarfing it down.  You can do this by pausing to appreciate the color of the food on your plate and paying attention to the smell of the food - anything that slows you down and brings you into the moment.

2.  Tune In During Eating

The 2nd step involves paying attention while we're actually eating the food.  You can practice this by chewing your food slowly, paying attention to each bite.  Aim to think about how the food tastes, including its texture, temperature, and mixture of flavors.  Now here's the challenge - don't start loading up your fork and putting more food in your mouth until you've completely chewed and swallowed what's already in there. 

3.  Tune In After Eating

Now that you've eaten, how do you feel?  Are you comfortably full or stuffed beyond the gills?  Is your body happy with the food choices you've made or are you ready to put your head down and go to sleep? 

Tuning in and paying attention before, during, and after eating lets you learn how to listen to your body without judgement and learn how to balance your eating and maintain a healthy body weight.  While it takes practice, we can all relearn how to slow down and take time to smell, taste, and enjoy our food.

Need help working on mindful eating?  Contact me for an appointment today.