This week, I’ve really been on a kick of conscious eating. I’ve been using MyFitnessPal to track the calories I ingest and my exercise. I was shocked at how many calories I have been eating unconsciously. Tracking them forces me to consider: do I really want to use up a third of my daily allotment of calories on this bowl of sugary cereal or a cup of soda? I’m eating much better and I feel like I have more agency over how my body feels.
I think the biggest thing I’ve learned so far is that it’s okay to feel hungry – I don’t always have to address it immediately. I can wait until the next meal and I will be fine! Snacking a little bit is okay, and I’ve been trying to direct it towards healthier stuff like apples or (unsweetened) dried mango or peanuts. I’ve also been drinking a lot of tea, and that feels really good in my body.
I wonder what it is about our culture (as Americans and more broadly as humans) that teaches us that the feeling of hunger is dangerous and bad. Obviously we are heavily consumerist and self-rewarding, but it seems to run deeper – almost an adaptive evolutionary sense that if we don’t eat right now we may not eat again. I try to be compassionate to that part of my brain and remind it that it’s okay, there will be food the next place I go so I don’t have to eat until I’m totally full or feel sick right now. That’s a part of the conscious eating process that I’ve really been trying to focus on.
What are your eating practices? Please comment! For mine, I try to limit distractions and eat slowly, even if I feel rushed. Measuring out portions beforehand when I’m snacking is also good. If I’m having a conversation while I eat, I have to be extra careful that I’m not just shoveling food down. I try to check in with my body to see if it’s full yet from time to time.
To be honest, often when I’m snacking I’m also looking at a screen – watching something or doing homework or listening to music. Then it’s even harder to pay attention to my eating. It’s easy to go into the phone-zone while I eat and before I know it I’ve finished a bag of popcorn.
Apparently it’s important to eat away from the desk or the bed or wherever it is that you do work and relax so you don’t conflate the processes and create a connection that makes you feel hungry and distracted while you’re there. I watched a whole documentary about conscious eating that really made me think about distracted eating – it’s like distracted driving: unhealthy, potentially dangerous for your body, and all too common.
As for herbalism, my project has really refocused from medicinal herbalism to eating herbs and thus healing one’s body. I’ve been eating a lot of fennel recently, which is good for heart health and contains a lot of fiber. Pumpkin seeds are now my favorite snack. They’re high in magnesium, which is a nutrient I tend to be naturally deficient in. My favorite ones are CB’s harissa flavored pumpkin seeds. It’s a local company based in Washington state – you can visit their roasters and try fresh peanut butter. I highly recommend it.
This post makes your mother very happy. 😉