Tag Archives: mindfulness

A Summer Recap

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While I’ve committed yet another long blog absence, the past two weeks had little to do with my qualms about having a food blog. They really had more to do with a lack of a computer as I traveled throughout Rhode Island, Maine, and Canada. But that doesn’t mean I didn’t have any experiences to share with you.

Here’s a photographic recap of how I spent my time.

First, there was the Newport Folk and Jazz Festival. I saw Alabama Shakes, My Morning Jacket, The Head and the Heart, Iron and Wine, First Aid Kit, and Of Monsters and Men… to name a few.

Then Camden, Maine, to see my good friend Gordon. You probably remember him from my adventures in Paris. I had a wonderful time with him and his mother (and his cats). There were cocktails a plenty, and even a schooner cruise in the Penobscot bay!

Then Stratford, Ontario (origin of the Bieb’), for the annual Stratford Shakespeare (and theatre) Festival. I saw Cymbeline, Much Ado About Nothing, Elektra, You’re A Good Man Charlie Brown, and A Word or Two, with Christopher Plummer (aka Captain Von Trapp sorryI’mnotsorry). But… I didn’t take any pictures. So if you’re that curious, google it!

Needless to say, it was a a great past few weeks. It wasn’t always easy to maintain my mindfulness practice though, especially when I ate out every meal. But I enjoyed myself, and that’s the most important part. I did make more of an effort to eat better upon arriving in Canada, since my pants were starting to get tight!

Now, I’m back at home and I plan on enjoying the last two weeks of summer. I just accidentally typed “days”… I’m obviously excited to get back to school! Summer has been wonderful, and I’ve accomplished more of what I wanted to do than I thought. But I’m ready to get back to school and see friends, some of whom I haven’t seen in almost a year and a half! And learn stuff, too…

Towards the end of this past week (probably around the same time I noticed my pants were tighter) I tried to really focus on how my body felt while eating certain foods. I’d been eating so much sugar and refined foods during my travels, and I could tell my mood swings, fatigue, and breakouts were the direct results of my diet. I’ve discussed my past relationship with veganism and my current banishment of food labels, but that doesn’t mean I can’t adhere to a vegan diet– especially when I realize I feel 90% better when I’m not eating dairy and meat. I’m still into eggs, but not for every meal. Going into the summer, I wanted to eat 90% vegan and 10%, well, not vegan. After taking a closer look at what I was putting in my body, I realized I was eating 10% vegan; the rest of the time I was filling my body with things that were depleting my energy.

Upon returning home, I’ve tried to remind myself of the mind-body connection and to cultivate mindfulness so that I’m filling my body with things that truly nourish it. This doesn’t mean denying myself of anything, it just means being sure to eat things that my body, not my mind, craves. Brown rice, beans, kale, etc. Simple foods. And yes, I did make a batch of peanut butter chocolate chip blondies yesterday. And they were vegan. And had no processed sugar. And were (and are! There’s still some left! Baking miracle!) delicious. Ultimately, however, my body just functions better with whole foods packed with nutrition. I’m going to try to improve focus on this kind of mindful eating for the next two weeks, so I can go back to school happy and healthy.

Also, I got new sneakers. And a necklace. And a fleece. Bonus points if you can tell me what’s on my necklace!

Tell me about some of things you’ve done this summer, and what you’re looking forward to this fall– or just tell me something!

And don’t forget to eat your veggies.

Practicing Mindfulness

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By now, you all must be relatively familiar with some of my food frustrations in France. Well, here’s another rant for ‘ya. But it’s not all negative, I promise! In fact, I’d like to talk about some positive changes I’m instating in order to avoid some negative choices I’ve been making. How’s that for a great song lyric?

Working in a bakery definitely has its perks, and it definitely has its downsides. And coincidentally, the negative and the positive are often both baked into the same 3-layer, frosted cake. As an intern, I don’t get paid. I don’t really need the money right now, and I’m just happy to be doing work that I enjoy. Using the espresso machine gives me a sense of purpose! And, the cherry on the cake: I can eat as much cake as I want. Actually, I can eat as much of anything as I want: scones, muffins, cupcakes, rice krispies, hello dollies, caramel bars… the list goes on. As does my extending waistline.

I was fed a constant diet of sugar while in the womb (thanks, mom), so I’ve got a pretty nasty sweet tooth. It runs in the family. I do my best to keep my cravings under control and make healthy substitutes, but I also make sure to get some sugar in me every now and then. (ok, like once a day.) But what do you do when you’re working for 8 hours and there are no customers for 2 hours and you’re stuck behind the counter twiddling your thumbs? Um, really, you had to ask? You eat some effing cake. (or other baked good items: see above)

I’ve been doing better now with controlling some of these impulses to mindlessly eat everything in front of me. It doesn’t always work, but I do my best– and considering I’m spending 8 hours in front of a literal sugar shmorgasbord, I’d say I’m doing a pretty respectable job. I find that restricting myself immediately leads the opposite result, so I try to only eat one dessert a day, and mindfully.

I really felt like I’d been doing a great job with this “one dessert a day” thing. Sometimes I didn’t even want dessert! And because I’d recently realized how many little things I’d been eating each day, I went about writing down everything I ate for 1 week. I didn’t do measurements or count calories– ew– I just wanted to make sure I was aware of every little thing I was eating, as all those little things can really add up.

Well, here’s where the frustration kicks in. I’m the kind of person that expects immediate results, and I have a hard time realizing that my goals won’t happen in a week. But it wasn’t even that I was expecting my pants to fit a little better, it was that I was just expecting to feel better. Lighter. Calmer. But I felt completely the opposite. And after running 13.1 miles on Sunday (more on that later), I felt like I was completely the opposite of what I was feeling… and how I should be looking. I didn’t feel like a runner, I felt like a blob. And I realize a lot of that has to do with how much stress and fatigue that I had to deal with from a huge workload. But something had to give. I felt that for all the effort I was putting into leading a healthier life, the equation wasn’t adding up. And as frustrated as I can get about not having a lot of food choices here because my host mother feeds me 13 meals a week and it’s hard to find really clean, whole foods for a quick student lunch, I knew also that a lot of the frustration was coming from me. From how I was dealing with everything.

They say (who does?) that your body is the first thing youshould take care of in life, because if you don’t do that, you won’t have a life. And while I’m lucky and have no real health problems, the amount of stress I was putting myself through wasn’t good for me. And because of the stress, I was tired, and because I was tired, I made poor food choices.

But the problem wasn’t what I was eating. Like I said, I had been a lot more aware of what I was putting into my body. The problem was how I was eating. I was just eating whatever was in front of me without thinking about the actual process of nourishing my body.

I wasn’t being mindful.

I would wake up in the morning, exhausted, and stumble to kitchen where I would half-consciously eat breakfast. Then at lunch I’d wolf down a sandwich and try to deny my dessert craving, which I’d end up satisfying anyways. Dinner, well… that’s a different story, because my host mother eats SO FAST and even though I eat much more slowly, I still have to eat more quickly than I would like.

So I needed to make some changes. I needed to be mindful. But you can’t just wake up in the morning and say, “hm. I think I’ll be mindful today.” Sure, that might work for breakfast, but by lunch you’ve already forgotten what your intention was for the day. Like many other things, one must practice mindfulness. While it may come naturally to many people, there are many more– like me– who have a really hard time with this concept. But the more you try to implement mindful practices into your daily life, the better choices you make with regards to food and your body, At least, that’s been my experience.

It’s surprising how much effort it takes to be mindful, even about the smallest things. But I’m trying to make some small adjustments, and I already feel like they’re helping me:

  • Wake up, drink tea/hot water with lemon. This helps me wake up slowly, and I can check my emails in the process so I’m not distracted later.
  • Do anywhere from 15-20 minutes of yoga practice. I find that even when I just do a short yoga routine, I help bring my attention to my body, which continues for the rest of the day.
  • Eat with all 5 senses. Ok, I probably don’t use all 5. But instead of just using taste (because let’s be honest, my eyes are barely open in the morning), I try to incorporate sight and smell. I’ll really look at the food in front of me, and I’ll take a smell of whatever I’m about to eat. This way, I make my meals more of an experience, and I’m more likely to appreciate the moment– and slow down– more.
  • Find gentle ways to get moving. I got so burned out during half-marathon training. I wanted to go for a long walk without feeling guilty that I should be running! Now that the half-marathon is over, however, I’m letting myself do whatever I want. It’s not that I don’t want to move, it’s that I don’t always want to feel like I have to run. I lovelovelove to run, but every now and then you have to take a break, or else you won’t remember why you love something so much. Plus, I don’t want to get the same knee injury I did last time I ran a half-marathon when I pushed myself too hard after the race. An hour-long power walk will burn the same amount of calories as a 3-4 mile run (depending on how fast you go), and it lets you appreciate your surroundings in a different way than you would while running. Trust me on this one, I used to wear a pedometer every day.
  • Asking myself, “does my body want this?” Because my mind definitely does. But sometimes just internalizing the question, and directing it towards your body, will help you realize that no, in fact, your body really has little interest in eating that chocolate eclair. While it might look really good to our brains, the food isn’t going there– it’s going to our stomachs. And if our body doesn’t want it, then we’ll only end up regretting our food choice later.
  • Stretching before bed. Nothing too serious, just bringing awareness back into the body at the end of the day. I also try to take a few full deep breaths before going to sleep, just so I can practice breathing.

So there you have it. I only started this practice earlier this week, so I’m nowhere near perfect yet. And to be honest, it’s impossible to be perfect at “being mindful.” It’s not a competition– it’s only the best you can do. There will be days when you slip up and you will get angry and frustrated at yourself, but just look ahead to the next moment. Because what matters is how you move forwardd, how you forgive yourself and strive to make a better choice in the next moment.