Holiday Foods

Today I am going out for my first Christmas lunch of the season. I think the best thing about this time of year is reconnecting with people I haven’t seen in a while. There’s something about Christmas that brings people together, and usually these get-togethers involve food. Now I don’t know about you, but I love traditional Christmas foods…even the fruitcake!

One of the great things about changing how I thought about food is that I now get so much more enjoyment out of what I eat. The “old me” used to fret and worry over every calorie that went in my mouth, which completely distracted me from the enjoyment, and actually caused me to eat more. Now, I enjoy every mouthful, completely guilt-free. And because I am paying more attention to what I am eating, I am actually getting more out of the foods I eat, meaning I eat less food. No more internal conflict over “should I or shouldn’t I eat this?” No more internal conflict with “Am I a bad person because I want this cookie?” Just good old-fashioned, plain enjoyment of the food. My new thoughts are that if I am going to eat something, dammit I am going to enjoy it! I no longer let guilt steal the taste and pleasure, and instead I now eat mindfully, enjoying not only the tastes but the textures too! And I have to tell you, this is a much better way to live.

This entry was posted on Monday, December 8th, 2008 at 9:13 pm and is filed under The Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.