How to Practice Mindful Eating

In a world of fast food and multi-tasking during meals, try mindful eating to break this busy cycle and achieve some inner peace.

Step 1: Remove distractions Remove distractions. Turn off the TV or computer and put away reading materials or paperwork.
TIP: If practicing mindful eating with others, enhance the experience by sitting together in silence.
Step 2: Sit Sit in a comfortable position.
Step 3: Examine the orange Examine the orange you are about to eat. Notice how it feels in your hand. Study the curves and notches on its skin.
TIP: These steps can be applied to any meal by attentively considering each bite of food.
Step 4: Consider the orange Consider how the orange connects you to the world around you – the place it was grown, the person who picked it, the sun and water that helped it grow.
Step 5: Peel the orange Peel the orange slowly, paying attention to the sound the peel makes as you tear it and to the smell of citrus released.
Step 6: Taste the orange Place a piece of orange in your mouth and chew it deliberately. Notice the flavor that bursts forth as you bite down.
Step 7: Pay attention to how you feel Pay attention to your feelings as you eat the orange. Happy, sad, tired, or otherwise – don’t judge these emotions as good or bad, just as what exist at the moment.
Step 8: Repeat these steps Continue to give the full attention of your mind and your senses to each piece of orange you eat.
FACT: It requires 100 times the amount of water to produce a pound of meat as it does a pound of wheat.