Mindful eating isn't just paying attention to the food. Mindful eaters pay close attention to themselves as well as they eat.
The activity below will give you experience in tuning in to yourself as an eater.
PRACTICE: How Many Chews?
This practice requires you to become aware of how many chews it takes for you to chew your food completely. You can use this CAMP activity with any food that must be chewed up.
- Take a normal bite of food. Begin counting chews as you chew it. If you can, make this bite a basic mindful bite. Be sure that the food is completely chewed up before you stop counting. Whatever number you came up with is your baseline number of chews. With any bite of food at any time, you can use this baseline number as your general goal for the number of chews to use.
- Next, take a bite of the same food, but make it smaller than the normal bite. Again, count the chews and make this a mindful bite. Did the smaller amount of food reduce the number of chews needed?
- Next, take a bite of the same food, but make it larger than the normal bite. Count the chews and make this a mindful bite. Did the larger amount of food increase the number of chews needed?
- Now, take a normal bite, but this time, chew it twice as fast as normal, counting the chews. Did the increased speed make any difference in how many chews are needed?
- Now, take a normal bite, but this time, chew it twice as slow as normal, counting the chews. Did the decreased speed make any difference in how many chews are needed?
Any time that you want to bring more mindfulness to your eating, you can use this technique to tune into yourself, bringing your mind fully on the act of eating.
