Bite Me

Bite Me

Bitter, sour, salty, sweet, and savory. What are your favorite flavors? What are your favorite foods? How do you like to nourish yourself?

We have come to a sad place in our culture, a place where food is thought of as fuel, or entertainment, or distraction, or mood-altering substances.

I had an eye-opening moment some years back. A friend and I decided to try a type of food neither of us had ever eaten; Indian. The place we went to didn’t serve food that was very delicious, in fact, it was kind of disappointing, but something weird happened to me. After we ate, I felt good. I mean, really good, like my body had been nourished. It was an extremely unusual feeling; I don’t know that I’d ever had it before.

It was the beginning of my relationship with food changing.

I had seen food as an adversary. It wasn’t as violent as bulimia, or as angry as anorexia, but it was still adversarial. I was put on my first diet when I was a normal sized 9 year old. I was fed a lot of spaghetti sauce on iceberg lettuce. As I approached my “goal weight,” I was fed a lot of candy. Sigh. I was told that food would make me fat.

I also learned that food could change how I felt. It could numb me out. That was nice; I wanted out.

As I healed my life, my desire to numb out disappeared. And then, I had that epiphany with my friend at the Indian restaurant.

I liked feeling nourished. I wanted to feel nourished. I started paying attention to my body, and to what it wanted. I worked with a healer who helped me learn how to tell what I wanted to eat. I learned when to respect a craving, and when to ignore it.

I tend to eat mindfully, you know, actually slowing down enough to savor that delicious bite, to attend to the texture and blending flavors. I tend to eat whatever I want, but not always whenever I want it. If I want cake, for example, I find that I enjoy it a bit more when I anticipate enjoying it for a while. Who knew? (Well, I know some of you knew. You could have said something.)

I thought I didn’t like veggies, but it turned out I didn’t like some veggies. It turned out I like “weird” veggies. So I keep seaweed snacks on hand, order steaming plates of water convolvulus in garlic sauce, a bag of fruity cacao in my desk drawer. I also keep a bowl of fruit at my desk, pink lady apples, bananas, and a box of berries in the fridge. I snack on goji berries, and walnuts at home.

I have a delicious nutrition shake for breakfast every day. It’s another thing that after I’ve had it, I feel nourished. I wake up and look forward to it.

By making time for wonderful food, by making time for preparing, or selecting wonderful food, and serving it to me nicely, by taking the time to pay attention to it (which doesn’t mean I always eat more slowly, it just means I notice that I am eating.) meal times are enjoyable. It’s not a fuel stop, it’s a moment to connect with me, with you. It’s a time to pay respect to my physical presence.

How have I changed from disrespecting my nutritional process to treating my body with delicious, nourishing foods?

(c) Pam Guthrie 2013 all rights reserved 07/19/2013