You might be reading this thinking what do mindful eating and Umami have in common?
Hear me out. Turns out the top New Year’s resolution of 2024 was prioritising mental wellbeing. I think that’s pretty special given how often prioritising our physical health comes high on that list year after year.
So I thought it might be time to re-introduce the practice of mindfulness to my community and one of my favourite ways to engage in the practice is through mindful eating. Food is so wonderful, it has so many flavours (hello Umami), textures, colours and sounds – by utilising ALL of our senses through the practice of mindful eating it can help us enjoy food more, reduce digestive discomfort, understand our bodies better, and improve positive feelings about ourselves.
In order to begin exploring mindful eating I think it’s first good to understand what mindfulness is all about. The practice of mindfulness is actually about paying attention, on purpose in the present moment and non-judgementally! So, mindful eating is simply doing just this with food!
But where do I even start? You might ask. I’ve got you, don’t worry! I’ve pulled together a little mindful eating exercise below to help you start practicing!
In my opinion, the perfect snack to practice mindful eating with, and especially to highlight umami as a flavour, is our chocolate range! So if you’ve got a block of Alg Rainbow Seaweed chocolate, grab it, sit in a seat with your feet flat on the ground and follow along to these prompts:
- Tune into your hunger & fullness before you even think about eating the food- ask yourself, how hungry do you feel and consider the amount and type of food you’re eating according to these cues.
- Now put the chocolate in the palm of your hand, look at it like you’ve never seen it before! Be curious, notice the shape, the colour, wrinkles, shiny, smooth, strange or interesting textures.
- Notice how heavy it feels in your hand, feel of the outside against your finger, its texture and temperature.
- Raise it to your nose and smell it, notice the aroma.
- Raise it to your mouth and pause. Bring your attention to what is happening inside your mouth, notice if your salivating and your urge to eat.
- Now slowly bite it in half and chew very slowly before swallowing completely. Notice the sensations and sounds, is it sweet, bitter, sour, salty, UMAMI???
- You can now swallow. Notice the movement in your throat and the sound that makes. Is there an urge to eat the remaining half? If so, then do it!
- Tune into hunger again at the end.
Have you ever eaten like this before? Did you really appreciate the food? This is a bit exaggerated but imagine if we applied just some of these principles to the way we eat each day!
