Eat to live or live to eat. Often those are the two categories people fall into. Frankly, both sound less than ideal. Eating to live disregards the wonderful foods and flavors you can experience. Living to eat places too much emphasis on food at the cost of other valuable experiences.

 

We just had a friend from France visit with us and she had a couple very interesting observations that got me thinking about this topic. These are my rethinking of her simple observations (so don't blame her for the conclusions that I've drawn). 

 

Typically in France you don't eat in front of the TV, at the movies, or have TVs throughout a restaurant. Eating with distraction (or mindless eating) is one of the culprits of over eating. We are paying attention to something else. There's food in front of us. Before we know it, we've eaten it all. I'm always reminded of a client of mine that had, prior to training with me, lost a great deal of weight. When I asked her how did it, she said that she ate what she wanted, but when she ate, she did nothing else. She wouldn't read, watch TV, or anything else. She would give full attention to her food. This made her very mindful of how much she was eating and this resulted in her weight loss.

 

There are no "doggie bags" in France. The whole idea of having excess food from your order at a restaurant is unusual. Portions are smaller than in America (and more in line with what it should be). But, with these larger portions, a "doggie bag" is a better option than cleaning your plate just because it's there. Be aware of servings that are larger than they should be.

 

Americans often put greater value on quantity vs. quality. Back to the question of eat to live or live to eat. Why not eat smaller portions of really flavorful food and give it our full attention so that we can enjoy the experience of eating?

 

i.e. Chocolate Meditation... Saw this on a couple of shows a few years back (Oprah being one of them). With no distractions, take a piece of really good chocolate, spend a moment smelling the chocolate. Enjoy the smell. Place the piece in your mouth. Don't chew it. Let it melt in your mouth, breathe, relax, and focus on the flavor. This is very similar to how you might enjoy a fine wine.

 

You can experience other foods in the same manner. Slow down and taste all of the flavors.

 

Best wishes, Mark