We are sitting at the table to eat, already feeling exhausted. We subconsciously think food is our enemy, and so shoveling food into our mouths is just one more thing we have to do. There are people who prefer to turn the TV on to eat; with a mechanically rotating motion, they stick the spoonful of cereal into their mouth, then back to the bowl to scoop some more, and repeat. Or maybe the one that we see most often in our current environments, people who eat while staring at a monitor, talking on a cell phone at the same time. Or perhaps you snack at every time you see food, and stuff your mouth with candy bars, feeling hungry even though you ate only 15 minutes ago. Whether you are numbing yourself to eat because you don’t like food, are afraid to eat, can’t stop eating, or are too busy to set aside twenty minutes to take in your meal, these actions are not something you are doing to food, these are behaviors that are express through food the relationship you have with yourself.
Not taking the time to eat while you work is as if to say that your work is more important than you, or you are not important enough in your own life to dedicate twenty minutes of lunch to yourself. It’s ironic, because what happens down the line is that when you get sick you can’t show up for work, and you can’t show up for yourself. In this case, sickness is necessary to ground you and to hopefully open your eyes to your responsibility for your own health.
Eating is as connected to nourishing yourself as it is to selecting quality ingredients. Your job of nourishing your body doesn’t stop at having a healthy meal prep service drop the food off at your doorstep.
Food that comes into your mouth becomes part of you. Tell me what you eat, and I’ll tell you what you are made of, right? But for the food to address its purpose, it needs to be received by you.
Digestion doesn’t start in the stomach. The digestive process starts once you’ve decided to eat and sit down at the table. It’s what is known as the Cephalic Digestive Phase. Think of an example from yoga practice: when you arrive on your mat and the class is about to begin, you don’t just jump right into ekam pose, the teacher actually leads a quick breathing exercise, or salutes with an OM or meditation practice to get you ready for your postures. You need to prepare your mind, get rid of the traffic jam-stress, the thoughts about the papers you have to sign at work, and simply surrender yourself to the practice. The meditation before the practice is what the Cephalic Phase is to eating. It’s an invitation to the mind to land here. It’s the preparation stage, the flirting before dating. Then yoga; the practice of stretching your body and working with your body is what nourishment it’s all about, it’s that relationship between you and your [eating] practice.
The Cephalic phase is turned on by the smells coming from the kitchen, by the beautiful plate of food served by your loved one, by the view out the window, by the music and the ambience, even by the good company sharing the meal with you. Enter your favorite bakery, and as soon you walk past the door, your mind has already started imagining the different flavors and textures you are about to enjoy. You have already begun to salivate.
Cephalic means “of the head”, so indeed, it is waking up the head brain in order to alert the other organs and second brain about your date with your plate. In his book The Slow Down Diet, Marc David states how digestive power and caloric burning capacity is turned up to 80% when we respect this head-phase. That means your ability to break down food, to absorb nutrients, and to know when to stop eating is related to paying attention when you start eating.
An exercise I like to do with my daughter is to give thanks for our food before we eat. Sometimes she’s into what I serve, other times I have to grab her attention to make her eat. Whatever the case, in order to focus her into our eating experience, we recite, “Gracias Madre por la Comida tan Rica,” which translates, “Thank you Mother for the delicious food.” We both hold our plate up as if we are about to cheer and set the start of our eating practice. When I’m alone, I recite in my head, “Thank you Mother Earth for nourishing me with your love and wisdom.” Also, when I’m about to cook for my clients or for myself, I look at my note board in my kitchen and read, “Thank you Plant Mother for nourishing these foods,” as a way of blessing the food and offering my best intentions for the meal. Giving thanks for your food or saying a prayer before you eat aligns your body and soul into the moment; it prepares your mind and your entire digestive system to receive what you are feeding it. A simple “Thanks” will always do, or try thanking the person that cooked for you. Alternatively, sharing the common “Bon Appetit!” with your co-workers or friends can start you and your friends on your way to proper digestion.
Full digestive power also has to do with our great friend breathing! It’s actually our panacea. There is nothing in this life you can do without breathing, and every single thing you do can improve when you improve the quality of your breathing. Some studies have shown that when you breathe four repetitive counts inand then four repetitive counts out, you can put your body in detoxification mode. Or if you practice a 1-minute meditation called “Ujjayi” taught by Ayurveda medicine, which consists on breathing deeply in and out through your nose for 30 seconds and then sitting still for 30 more seconds, you can bring your body into a state of relaxation. In contrast, shallow breathing actually turns on the stress response*. If you think about a situation when you experienced panic, you can recall how quick and short your breaths were. Shallow breathing is associated with anxiety and nervousness. When you exercise, if you have no control of your breathing you can deplete your body to the point of exhaustion, and can actually gain weight. However, if you keep a deep in/out nose breathing rhythm, magical things can happen, like burning more calories. Slow deep breathing from my abdomen is what I held onto when I gave birth – it was my natural anesthetic. Controlling your breath calms your body and emotions and can also help you deepen your sleep, reduce insomnia, help develop your intuition and assist you with making better choices**.
If before eating you take three to five deep breaths, you are automatically turning up that calorie-burning fire within, and I can assure you, as you make this practice a nourishing habit, your digestion will improve dramatically.
I find it very interesting that the norm is to ask about how many calories are in a food without any knowledge whatsoever of what a calorie is. A calorie is a measurement unit that determines how much heat is released from an object when burned. That object can either be edible, or made of plastic, wood, chemicals, etc. Anything can have calories! The number of calories listed on the back of the package of the foods is completely irrelevant to the masses, because all of our capacity to burn calories is individual and is determined by how much oxygen there is in each of our stomachs, which is pumped down there by slow deep abdominal breathing. You already know that for fire to exist it needs oxygen. The same concept applies here. If there’s oxygen in the stomach, if I’m breathing deeply and I’m relaxed when eating, then my calorie-burning capacity is fired up.
The amount of oxygen in my stomach is completely different from yours. It could be true to say that I can digest an apple much quickly than you, but also that I can digest an apple today effortlessly because I’m happy and relaxed; but tomorrow if I’m stressed and tense, I would probably get a stomach ache afterwards and wouldn’t be able to tolerate the fruit at all. So those 95 calories from an apple can turn into 950 on a bad day.
We cannot measure our success with numbers any more, not in any realm. The amount of money you have means nothing if you are depressed and sad. The quality of life comes from the emotions, the ability to accept joy, the embodiment of our own stories, and the ability to be present here, today, celebrating the now.
Looking back at our nutrition timeline since the 1950s, when we first became collectively conscious about our weight, the message sold to us through the media about our bodies was to “lose weight to achieve happiness;” then it transitioned to “eat that because it’s healthy,” which then will make you skinny and then happy. I suggest we call off the hunt and call living by its name; be happy! Which means you are already healthy, because you make the right conscious decisions for you and your loved ones, which also translates to loving yourself!
Some people stick to numbers because they want to control and measure progress and because they like logics and straightforward answers. That’s left brain thinking, that’s our masculine side talking for us. That’s okay sometimes, but just as science is not the absolute truth, to limit ourselves only to what we can see vs. what we can feel is to live in disharmony with our own nature.
When you ask about calories, you are in fear of those toxic nutritional beliefs I have so passionately raved about: “food is the enemy,” “food makes me fat,” “fat is bad.” In truth you just need to see yourself with different eyes, the eyes of love, and demand real quality food. Food that grows in the darkness and sprouts in silence from the dirt. Food that we pull from the body of Mother Earth. Food that is nourished with her love and wisdom.
Who cares how much you weigh?! You are simply some number of pounds of beating-heart, sensual-pure organic matter called Nature.
Make the right question about food: where does it come from? Take deep breaths before you grab your fork, give thanks for your meal, and fall in love with the practice of eating!
* The 3-Season Diet, John Douillard, pg. 5
** Deepak Chopra – Sleep Meditation, YouTube Video, min. 00:45 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixscQ3t1oJY