Monday, May 24, 2010

What's Healthy? You Know the Difference!

To relieve your mind ~ there is no arrival point where you've mastered mindful eating ~ anymore than a person who practices yoga can one day say they've achieved all they can and they're done.

The practice arrives at every meal, every time you open a bag of snack food, and every time you open a kitchen cabinet or refrigerator.

Like the other night. Foolishly, my husband and I were way too busy on Saturday, working away until well past 8 p.m. We rolled right past that point where a healthier choice would have been to disengage with the day's activities and transfer into a ritual mode of preparing something to eat.

My growling stomach and an impulse to fix something fast ruled over the saner approach, which would have been to grab a handful of almonds and raisins, have a glass of water, and then decide.

Earlier that day I had fixed a stir fry of shredded sweet potatoes, minced ginger and purple onion, with a bit of lime juice and nutmeg. (It was delicious!)

Sadly, though, I drove to the store and bought a box of vegetable rolls to microwave. I had picked them up at the store because I love those oriental appetizers. (I should note here that for many years we haven't owned a microwave, but my husband recently picked up a small one for popcorn. Yes, I caved to an impulse ~ but mindfully!)

They came packaged in plastic, and as I pulled out the steaming, limp rolls after they had "cooked," my appetite was gone. I remembered the aroma and the taste of my sweet potato combination earlier that day ~ the colors so vibrant and the taste so satisfying.

Looking closely at that processed batch of vegetables rolls was a good litmus test.

I tossed them in the trash ~ mindfully!

1 comment:

Sheri said...

It's easy to succumb to "easy," isn't it?

The sweet potato, minced garlic and purple onions DOES sound much better (in SO many ways) than the limp vegetable rolls.

I loved this "mindfully" prepared post. :)